You literally need money for every thing: to eat, to drink, to live, to study… Basically anything that is needed to keep you comfortable.
Moving to the United Kingdom can expand opportunities but also brings increased costs. As an immigrant still establishing myself, I’ve needed to get creative finding ways to supplement my income to afford necessities and achieve financial goals.
Whether you’re a student, spouse, refugee or here on a work visa, earning some extra easy money can relieve stress and open possibilities. Considering that the UK is an internationally recognised hub, it is not difficult at all to earn some easy money here by finding the right ways.
In this post, instead of focusing on how to find a proper job, I’m just going to tell you some ways I discovered that are useful to make easy money outside of a full-time job or education. I’ll share strategies I’ve discovered for legally making easy money in the UK through side gigs, apps, bank account switching bonuses and more. If you are also interested in saving money, you can read this to learn more about it.
Table of Contents
1. Monetising Your Expertise
Obviously, if you have an expertise, make good use of it!
If you have a bachelor degree in anything, it will be invaluable to find a side job.
Freelance Work
Some skills are particularly more lucrative, such as programming, designing, language and marketing. Most gigs in the Internet typically focus on these areas and you can earn some easy money based on that if you have relevant experience.
Some famous sites for gig jobs are Fiverr, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour. I have accounts in all these platforms, however, as my only “lucrative” ability is multi-language, I find it really hard to find a job and never succeed in securing an offer!
The gig market seems quite saturated at the moment, especially for simpler jobs. I would only advise you to spend time on these if you have more unique skills (such as advanced programming ability).
If you don’t have any of these skills, don’t worry!
As I failed to find a job in the gig market, I continued to search for part-time flex jobs that are even more stable.
After a few months of sending CV to companies through Indeed.com, I finally secured my first offer to a casual job for exam invigilation! It literally does not require any skill nor a bachelor degree, and the only downside of it is that I can only apply for jobs during exam seasons.
If I can do this without any special skills, I’m sure you can do the same too!
Tutoring
This is probably the most lucrative job for easy money as you can imagine. The only requirement is that you should know fairly well about the subject you teach.
As I did not do GCSE nor A-levels in the UK, I decided to teach English to students in my home country instead via Zoom. Staying in the UK doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to teaching in the UK!
If you are confident in teaching locals, there is also high demand for maths, science and many other GCSE or A-level subjects here via websites like MyTutor and Superprof. I have never used these service but they seem to be quite famous.
The wage of tutoring is typically much higher than working any part-time job without expertise requirement. I’m currently teaching at £15/hr, and you can always charge more if you think you worth the price, as long as your student accepts. I’ve heard people setting their rates to £40/hr, which is much better than any full-time job!
Ridesharing or Delivery Services
If you know how to cycle or drive, this is the perfect opportunity for you!
Uber is a known international company, and many people call a Uber when they need to head to somewhere else. Joining as a driver to drive a Uber is quite a flexible job to earn easy money. All you need is a valid UK driving license, be above 21 years of age and own a vehicle that meets Uber’s standards.
As from its website, it promises a minimum national wage when you are driving, and also gives a bonus holiday rate when you drive during holidays.
If you are not that interested in carrying another human, or if you don’t own a car, maybe you will be more interested towards providing a delivery service instead.
Food delivery in the UK is commonly carried out by UberEats, Deliveroo and JustEat. All of them offer flexible earning opportunities when you provide courier service for them.
2. Retail Work Opportunities
If you are interested in having a steady income on the side, traditional jobs like retail work may be a good option for you.
Despite its relatively low income (retail jobs usually pay you the minimum wage), it is quite easy to find one, much easier than finding a gig job if you don’t have any special skills.
High Street Chains
These retail jobs can entail a very large variety, such as high street chains like Boots, Tesco, Primark, Next which are all frontline jobs with flexible shifts.
However, bear in mind that these jobs are not as flexible as the casual jobs we mentioned above, as you often have set hours and fixed days to work every week. For example, a person I know have to work in Marks and Spencers every Monday for an entire day.
The major perk of working in these chains is that you often get a discount card for you and your family. If you have a place that you shop very often, consider working there as a part-time staff!
Bars and Restaurants
If high street chains don’t interest you, you can also consider working in a bar or restaurants, as they are always actively recruiting new staff.
I have a friend that works in Greggs. Though it is a steady source of income, he frequently complains to me that the pay is low and he has to do everything – from serving at the counter, baking food in the oven, to cleaning the washroom.
Part-time roles that pay weekly or cash same-day are great for short term income boosts when needed to earn easy money. At the same time, these are marvellous opportunities to practise communication skills and problem-solving skills when dealing with difficult customers.
3. Online Surveys and Tasks
If you are not bothered to find a part-time nor casual job, either due to lack of time or other reasons, you may want to earn some easy money (not easy at all actually!) by doing online surveys and tasks.
Qmee and Swagbucks
As I often have some spare time in the evening or during the weekends, I try to earn a little bit more by completing surveys during these periods. Among all survey sites I’ve tried, two of them appear to be the best: Qmee and Swagbucks.
When considering a survey site, I only several factors: the screen-out rate (how likely it is to accept you after you fill out all you demographics), the variety and amount of tasks available, the minimum payout, and payout methods.
Both Qmee and Swagbucks have a relatively low screen-out rate, that means you are more likely to successfully complete a questionnaire if you click into it and therefore earn money.
They have a wide variety of tasks available, you can fill out surveys, shop with them to earn cashback and play games to earn some easy money.
Qmee has no minimum payout at all, and Swagbucks have a fairly reasonable payout which I succeeded within weeks of joining.
Both of them payout by PayPal, by far the best payout option in my opinion.
However, I don’t recommend these platforms unless you are really eager to earn extra money but have not secured a part-time or casual job.
That’s because their hourly rate is really too low, and there is no satisfaction at all when completing the tasks.
In general, you would only earn 50p or less for every 10 minutes you spend on a boring and repetitive questionnaire. And if you unfortunately get rejected by surveys due to mismatched demographics, you will get even less.
Think about it, you can easily earn more than £10/hr if you get a casual work, why bother doing that?
PeopleforResearch and Take Part In Research
Have you ever thought of earning £50/hr?
I have never thought of that being possible until I registered with PeopleforResearch.
Most tasks in this site involves a video interview that lasts for an hour. All you have to do is to apply for those that you think you meet their criteria, and if they decided to pick you, you will soon receive a phone call to book a video call timeslot.
I’ve been registered to this platform for half a year now and has earned over £200 despite rarely being selected. This is truly the best easy money you can get!
Another similar website is called TakePartInResearch. They rates are slightly lower but still very lucrative if you get chosen.
I’ve only got chosen for 1 task in this platform so far and it has been giving me constant income! I opted into a TV show study which my device gets monitored under a VPN, and they give me £15/month each month and an additional £30 every 3 months in return.
If you are still using filling out surveys to earn, quit it NOW. Join PeopleforResearch and TakePartInResearch to earn real easy money.
Telus and Appen
Do you know how to read?
Do you know how to type?
Good, that’s basically all you need to apply jobs in Telus and Appen.
These two sites partner with search engines and recruit a lot of remote analysts that look into the quality of search results.
Every now and then, they openly recruit a very large number of random people online from different localities to do the routine work that require no degree nor special knowledge.
The only thing you need to do is to pass a seemingly difficult qualification test after reading a set of guidelines provided by them. Once you pass the test, the doors to easy money open!
I’ve just started my journey to work for Telus as a Search Analyst and I get paid handsomely just for filling out simple multiple-choice questions after evaluating the search responses according to guidelines. I briefly calculated that I was paid £12/hr for doing simple tasks.
Though not sufficient to replace a full-time job, it is certainly FANTASTIC if you want to make easy money without committing to a stressful job.
However, it can be quite unstable as there may be no jobs at some time, and your account can be suspended if they detect that your job quality is low or if you are speeding.
Content Creation
Content is KING. Creating Content is the easiest way to earn passive money over time and to scale it up into a big business.
Are you good at writing? Consider starting a blog! You can easily earn by ad revenues, affiliate programmes and sponsorship once you build a steady stream of audience.
Are you good at speaking and editing videos? Consider opening a Youtube or Tiktok channel! Focus on a niche that you are most interested in.
All these take time and it’s usually 6 months to 1 year before you can see real results. If you want to go down this route, make sure that you have sufficient patience to wait till that time and don’t expect immediate things to happen.
But once you scale up and build an audience, you can earn easy money without doing much. Huge potential!
Look around your living space for potential quick monetization opportunities through assets you already own.
Ready to Start Earning Easy Money?
Supplementing income during challenging times can provide peace of mind and open up options.
When thinking of how to earn easy money, it is important that you bear these in mind:
- Will you be interested in doing that?
- Does it match your skills?
- Are you setting an unrealistic expectation for yourself?
- Can that be a scam?
- Do you need to pay tax for your side income?
Hopefully these strategies offer ideas to exploit your skills and resources to begin making money in the UK. Let me know if any proved fruitful for you or if you have any other creative recommendations!
