Want to earn extra cash? Use your imagination...
From testing drugs to mystery shopping, there are lots of ways to boost your income.
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News of redundancies making you nervous? Fancy building up a cash buffer in case of financial disaster, or need to boost your savings? Forget bar jobs and stacking shelves, there are more fun and imaginative ways to generate a second income.
Surveys
Companies that provide products and services need to know that they're appealing to current and future customers, so pay agencies to collect plenty of data from all sorts of people. As an incentive, those agencies will offer you cash, vouchers or the opportunity to win prizes in return for your thoughts. You have to be over 18 and a UK resident to take part. Sign up at www.sarosresearch.com, for example, and you could earn from £30 to £100 for two hours' work.
Tour guide
If you know enough about your local area and it attracts enough tourists, you could sell your knowledge as a tour guide. You'll need plenty of time, some comfy shoes and be confidence with public speaking. It helps if you know a few words of a range of foreign languages to ingratiate yourself with your target audience. A basic walking tour can bring in as much as £5 per person.
Competitions
There are scores of online competitions that don't require a stamp or a phone call to enter. You can win anything from CDs to large sums of cash and holidays. Plenty of websites have lists of free-to-enter competitions, including www.born toloaf.co.uk, which also offers tips on how to make the most of your entry. Watch out for competitions that demand a payment to enter or register on the site.
Virtual office
Old-fashioned envelope-stuffing ads tend to be a scam, taking your money to set up in the first place then disappearing. But becoming a virtual secretary, giving support to small businesses that can't afford their own full-time staff, can earn you between £10 and £20 an hour. You'll need good word-processing and computer skills, a phone and an internet connection for your home computer. See www.ebs-digital.co.uk.
Rent your kids
If you, your children or even your pets are particularly pleasing to the eye, or even if you're not, modelling could bring in £200 for a five-hour session, minus an agency commissioning fee. Avoid agencies that charge an up-front fee as the reputable ones will take a 20 to 25 per cent cut of earnings. One of the largest agencies in Europe is www.modelsdirect.com.
Auction sites
Trawl car-boot sales for a bargain, polish it and sell it for a huge mark-up on online auction sites such as eBay. Alternatively, listings online which are wrongly labelled can be snapped up for a song and resold. As well as eBay, try www.esources.co.uk.
Tutoring
From music to maths lessons, there's no end of things people want to learn. You'll have to be good though, and have heavyweight credentials, especially with the academic subjects. The more qualified you are the more you'll earn, but expect upwards of £20 an hour. Self-employed and individual workers can't apply for a Criminal Records Bureau check, but if you work via an agency this may be necessary. For more information, visit www.crb.gov.uk.
Rent space
Clear the junk out of your spare bedroom and rent it out, or, if you live in the centre of a city, even your parking space could be worth a few pounds a month. The rent should be based on local market rates, and the Government's "Rent a Room" scheme means that you can earn up to £4,250 a year tax-free (£2,125 if letting jointly). Go to the "Rent a Room Scheme" page at www.direct.gov.uk.
Babysitting/childminding
For anyone taking on a job with children, you'll need to know what to do if any dramas unfold and be able to take control of the situation. Having contact details to hand for parents, close relatives and local emergency services should be a must. You can earn upwards of £5 an hour.
Street performing
If you're not shy of an audience and have a decent visual talent, even if it's
just standing still, this could be an option. You'll need to be able to cope
with banter from the audience, a bit of rain and a variable income. Get in
touch with your local council to find out about any restrictions or rules.
House and petsitting
Housesitters are paid to live in someone else's house while the owners are away. Many people will pay around £20 a day for you just to be there and may even stock the fridge for you. In return, you'll need to look after the house and its contents, including arranging any emergency work, care for any pets and water the plants. Advertise locally or through an agency such as www. homesitters.com, or www. g-angels.co.uk.
Film or TV extra
Fancy brushing shoulders with the stars? Then sign up as an extra. The BBC pays around £60 a day, and you'll get free meals. However, you'll need to be prepared to travel at short notice and stand around in the rain and cold for long periods of time. Agencies provide producers with databases of extras and may charge you a membership fee. Visit www.universalextra.co.uk or www.extra.co.uk.
Mystery shopping
This is another dream job for many people, a huge number of large retail companies use mystery shoppers to check their service levels. That means you can get paid to eat, drink, shop, and even watch movies. Assignments pay between £5 and £15 each, plus being reimbursed for purchases. Avoid agencies which charge a sign-up fee. Try www.retaileyes.co.uk .
Drugs testing
Not for the squeamish, taking part in drugs trials can earn you money for taking a tablet or injection then sitting around drinking tea. You may also get a few free nights' accommodation. Volunteers are paid anything from £50 to a few thousand pounds, depending on the level of risk or pain involved and the duration of the test. Enquire with your local hospital first before searching for clinical and medical trials online from sites such as www.testwiththebest.com.
Cashback
If you're careful, not to mention disciplined, there could be money to be made from banks and retails themselves. Cashback from credit cards and bank accounts, as well as discount shopping sites, is often offered as an almost free way to entice new customers because the vast majority of us will spend it elsewhere rather than use it to pay off our debts. The amount you get back can be anything from a few per cent of the value of smaller items to several hundred pounds for taking out a mortgage, but it's more of a discount on your living costs than a second income. Alliance & Leicester is offering £100 if you sign up to their current account before Thursday.
Domestic breeding
The rat-like creatures celebrities cart about in Louis Vuitton bags are worth a fortune themselves. Pure-breed dogs, cats and even rabbits can sell for hundreds of pounds each, so breeding them seems like a real money-spinner. But there is significant cost, time and effort involved before you earn anything. You'll have to buy a pure-breed female then stud it. There are also ongoing veterinary bills and proper care, exercise and accommodation to consider. Domestic breeding schemes take up to 20 years to become profitable, so it's not an option for short-term cash.
Nude modelling
Comfortable with your body? Artists often need life models and it's not as smutty as it sounds. Nude modelling involves taking your clothes off and staying still for up to 45 minutes per pose. Experienced life models earn around £10 an hour, so enquire with local colleges or universities or consider membership of the Register of Artists' models at www.modelreg.co.uk .
Phone operative
This is where it all gets morally challenging. If you've got a phone line and a good imagination, you can fit in adult calls around your everyday commitments. It's a competitive market, but you could earn in excess of £10 an hour. Go to www.adultwork.com and www.fone-me.com/action/operator for ways to list your services.
Sperm/egg donor
Did I mention morals? Those happy to donate their baby-making material could be "reimbursed" for expenses and lost earnings for up to around £250. It's illegal to be paid for sperm or egg donation in the UK, but fertility clinics in the US offer up to $8,000 (£5,500) for egg donation. That can involve surgery under general anaesthetic, so it's one for the strong, and open- minded (www.ngdt.co.uk ).
Surrogate mother
Upping the ante, if you can cope with the emotional and physical roller-coaster, becoming a surrogate mother could offer hope to childless couples and earn you some cash at the same time. Again, it's illegal to be paid for this service in the UK, but in the US and South Africa for example, surrogacy can earn you as much as $20,000 (£13,700) per baby. Take a look at www.surrogateweb.com .
For lots more inventive ways to boost your income, '101 Ways to Make Extra Cash in a Recession', by Gavin Griffiths is available from Microvar Limited or www.101guides.co.uk
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Comments
An animal is a being, like a human, not a source of extra cash.
Also, a totally rubbish article. Nude modelling? It's a recession, not a heroin habit ffs....
a point not being driven home enough here is the economic fact being ignored by the writer, who probably meant this all to be a bit of a laugh in the face of the recession, is the logic that people can't afford purebred animals because they too are cutting back on 'frivolous' purchases. aside from the cost of upkeep of a pet member of the family, etc.
Please inform the journalist who wrote this article that an average of 21 dogs are destroyed in the UK, PER DAY. In 2007, over 105,000 dogs were recorded to have been collected by local authorities. 7,892 dogs were DESTROYED unnecessarily, according to a survey conducted on behalf of the charity Dogs Trust. This journalist clearly hasn't done any research on the appalling stray dogs situation in the UK. May I make a suggestion? Give the job to someone else, preferably someone who cares. I administrate a website listing the seemingly never ending number of unfortunate dogs in UK pounds, and on behalf of the people who spend their lives trying to save these poor creatures and educate the public to NEUTER, SPEY, ADOPT RATHER THAN BUY and ultimately STOP BREEDING DOGS, I think this article should be swiftly removed, replaced with an apology and a useful article put in its place - perhaps the article should be about all the dogs that are put to sleep every day because money seems to mean more to people than animals do.
how irresponsible to promote breeding giving more of these animals a death penalty.
Please do not breed or buy while Homeless Animals die
So many homeless animals in shelters that are struggling to survive money wise, but rescue out of the kindness of their hearts.. animals being killed due to lack of space and funding.
Have a Heart - Adopt Don't Shop
I thought the Independant was supposed to be an educated paper but obviously I was wrong.... you clearly employ morons who know nothing about the real world.
Ziggy&co
There are already many thousands of dogs, cats and other pets in need of loving, warm and suitable homes. In addition to this there are many more who are euthanised, abused, starved, mistreated and bred irresponsibly.
Encouraging anybody to breed their pets or worse still to buy a pet with the sole intent of breeding it is disgraceful.
Dog breeding should not be taken on lightly and is an exhausting, stressful and expensive thing to enter into.
Obviously Kate hasn't got pets, and hasn't done her research, pedigree pups are being given away as people can't afford to buy them, rescue centres are inundated, healthy animals are being put to sleep, some are given away free to good homes and some end up as bait for dog fighting. The average vet bill is a weeks wage, is her OH a vet by any chance?
I'm appalled that The Independent should publish such an unprofessional and irresponsible money hungry guide on how to help increase the problem of unwanted shelter pets.
The Dog's Trust 2007 stray dog survey states that 7,982 dogs were destroyed in the UK that year.
Neuter and spay is the only solution, please do not force breed your pets, for every animal you breed or buy a shelter pet will die.
This is irresponsible beyond measure.
Its like them surporting puppy farmers and condoning which is what they are implying
this is so wrong
Breeding requires specialist knowledge and should be left to those who are passionate about their particular breed rather than someone thinking they can make a quick buck.
Take a reality check Independent.....You just lost my custom !!
The Independent should be ashamed of itself. This is total rubbish.
This is harmful on so many levels. There are millions of animals, dog in particular being horrendously killed around the world; poisoning in Turkey, being noosed and hung in Greece, having acid thrown at them, being skinned alive and eaten for food in Asia.
In right here in North America there are gas chambers killing thousands of dogs and more being slightly more humanely euthanized.
This is a direct result of human interference, breeding and and irresponsible dog (and cat) owners.
I am so appalled that will all the puppy mills finally being publicized for their horrible agenda's and all the information out there today on the abuse of dogs and other animals that any person would actually publicly admit this is such a large profitable venture.
And shame on all the selfish hollywood individuals who buy them!
The dogs would not be breed for health they would be breed for money and the people who buy the puppies are the ones who are going to suffer with vet bill, heart ache ect.
How can you as a leading news paper encourage this behaviour
Despite us being a nation of animal lovers a dog is put down every 2 minutes in England. One day the breeding from animals will be strictly controlled, spaying, neutering and micro chipping of animals will be compulsory and an animal will be for life not until the novelty wears off.
So soon after the airing of Pedigree Dogs Exposed the suggestion that the breeding of animals in any way would make a profit is disgusting. To correctly health check a mother and have it turn out good enough, finding a Father that will be health checked and good enough to improve the breed, maternity care and then puppy raising, health care and vet checks...you would be lucky to break even. To encourage people to do this for money, and therefore cut corners, rather than the love of the animals is morally deeply wrong
To advocate pedigree puppy breeding as a "quick fix" to earning cash is rediculous. One of my dogs was "rescued" from people who have these aemoebic problem solving abilities. She was extremely sick, lacked any medical care or attention and would have most certainly died had we not taken her. her siblings probably did perish although the RSPCA went to the location a day later to remove them.
To breed dogs purely for profit, with no skill or knowledge is scandalous. There are hundreds of puppy "mistakes" born every day. Hundreds more abandoned. And here we have the Independent advocating puppy breeding as a way through the recession.
Have a baby and "sell it", sell your body to drug testing, rent your kids...?!!! and risk messing them up for life but hey...you made a few bucks at the time because they were "visually pleasing"....BUT....the Independent begins to question morality....wait for it....by suggesting becoming a phone operative on an adult phone line?!!!
I am astonished at the ignorance, arrogance and complete lack of forethought by this so called respectable paper to have published such rediculous and closed thinking ideas.
Tell you what, why not just add dealing class A drugs to the list and be done with it? Prositution earns a decent buck too.....
There are already numerous breeders of good and poor quality stock producing too many puppies. These all have to be found homes for life. Every week dogs are destroyed in the pounds because no one gives them a home. Please retract this suggestion and advise people if they want a dog,or cat, to go to a reputable rescue.
I deplore you making a comodity out of Dogs, i really do. support the rescues they end up in if you really want a drum to bang.
Support the welfare organisations that cope with the inbreeding and over breeding and puppy farms and there horrible trade.
Now go bang a drum about a real cause to raise cash for.
Edith Mowatt
Aberdeenshire
Yours in Total Disgust
Jan Gilmour
What an irresponsible, stupid suggestion to make. Remove your head from the sand and take a look around Kate Hughes. Both you and your newspaper has lost much credibility.
I know you tried to put people off by the expences bit etc, but you have now planted the seed in the minds of those who want easy cash. Do you have no idea how many dogs and puppies are suffed to the rafters in rescue homes at the moment? and will be there for years never to find a home - shame on you!!!!!!!!!! It is the last time I, or mt family will buy this newspaper
Go to www.dogs-r-us.org/puppylove and see for yourself.
'You'll have to buy a pure-breed female then stud it' - that short sentence sums up the significant intellect gap from the person writing the article, and I am frankly disgusted, whoever wrote this knows nothing of responsible breeding of animals, whoever allowed it to be published should be fired.
You'll have to buy a pure-breed female then stud it.' - this short sentence shows the complete lack of comprehension and intellect from the writer; the fact that it was allowed to be published is criminal. Its this sort of flippant remark that prompts Joe Blogs down the road to breed from their animal without any real thought to the welfare of the animals involved.
R.McDonald (Glasgow)