How to Have Fun and Earn Extra MoneyHow to Have Fun and Earn Extra Money

It can be really handy at times to have a bit of extra money. There could be all sorts of reasons why you might want a bit more and most people will not turn down an opportunity to have some more unless it is really difficult. There are some things that you can do which are great fun and can be an opportunity to make a bit of extra money at the same time. 

Free Lotteries

These are fun websites that give you the opportunity to win some money, which is usually paid by Paypal. All you will need to do is to register with them and visit the site daily. This may either be to check if you have won or to grab a ticket for a weekly draw. Each works slightly differently but they are all funded by advertising. This means that you will not need to pay to take part and therefore it is like the normal lottery but free. The prizes will be smaller as they are a proportion of the advertising revenue collected by the website. This means that you will not win a fortune, but it can still be a fun way to try to get some extra money. 

Surveys

If you like answering surveys, then why not get paid for them? There are a lot of websites where you can get paid for answering questions and these will be on a variety of different topics. The hourly rate is very low and you may need to give away details about yourself such as the area you live, you age, income and things like this, so you will need to decide if this is something that you are willing to do. For anyone that likes giving their opinions on things and giving information about themselves then it can be a good way to do this and get paid for doing so. 

Sell Things

A lot of us own things that we no longer use and could potentially sell. Of course, once we sell things, we will not be able to make money from them again so this is not a way to earn an income but it could help you to raise a lump sum of money. It could be possible to sell all sorts of things this way, even perhaps things that you do not think will be useful such as cables, boxes and things like that. It is a good idea to get searching online to see what sorts of things people will buy as you could be surprised and you may find that you are sitting on quite a bit of money. The best place to sell tends to be eBay, although they will take a fee, as will Paypal when you get paid. You will also have to post the item out and so you will have to check that you charge enough for postage. There are specialist sites you can sell certain things on as well, which might be easier to do. You may also consider selling on local Facebook groups which are free to sell on but you may find it harder to sell things. 

Rent Out Items

Renting out a room is something that you may have already considered, but you could also rent out storage space or even your driveway. You will need to check with your insurer and your landlord or mortgage lender to make sure that you can do this but it is likely that you will be able to and this should help you to be able to make some money pretty easily. It is good to look into it first, to make sure that you are happy with making the commitment though. 

Why Avoiding Sales Could Save you MoneyWhy Avoiding Sales Could Save you Money

It might seem odd that avoiding sales could save us money. You may hold on to buy things until sale time or try to grab all those bargains on Black Friday or in January or whatever. However, it can be a good idea to think about whether this is actually a good idea and whether it is saving you money. 

You Still Pay too Much

If we visit a shop with a sale on then we can get rather in a shopping frenzy. We see that prices are reduced and buy things without properly noting how much they actually cost. So, if we see that an item has 10% off, we might immediately think that this is a bargain and buy it. However, it could be the case that the item is still cheaper than this in another shop. It is also important to compare brands as you may find that there are cheaper brands that you could buy which you will pay less for even at full price compared with the brand you are looking at that is on sale. You may also find that the item may be reduced further in the future and so if you wait you could end up paying even less than you do in this sale. That is risky of course, as the item may sell out but think about what value for money you feel you will get form it and whether you really think that it is worth what you are paying. 

You are Tempted to Buy Extras

If you are buying form a place where there are lots of items on sale then it could be a good idea to be very careful. It could be tempting to look at all of the other items that are on sale and think about whether these are good to get too. You could think that because they are cheaper, they have to be a bargain and you therefore need to buy them. You could end up filling your basket with all sorts of things and before you know it, you have bought them without much thought as to whether you can afford them all or whether they are things that you really like that much. 

You do not Buy What you Want

You may even be tempted to buy items that you do not even want. Juts because something is really cheap, it does not mean that you need it. It might seem silly not to buy an item if it is massively reduced, but actually you need to think about whether it is something that will actually be of any use to you at all. It is a good idea to consider this carefully before you buy. It is worth also thinking about the fact that even if an item has 90% off, you are not saving money when you buy it. You are still spending money, you are just spending less. So unless it is an item that you already had planned on buying, then think about whether you really want it and whether it is actually worth buying at all. 

You Buy Extra

When you have bought some things at reduced prices, it can make you think that you can then buy lots of additional things because you have spare money to spend. It is good to actually think about whether you really want to spend that money you have saved. Might it be better to keep it in case you really need something or just hold onto it until there is something you really want to buy. We do not always have to spend every bit of money we have. 

Ways to Spend Less with Very Little EffortWays to Spend Less with Very Little Effort

There are many of us that find that we often spend more money than we want to. Perhaps we would like to have extra money to buy some more fun things for ourselves, we might want to use it to repay a debt or to put into a savings account. It can feel almost impossible though as the money may just seem to disappear. There are things that we can do though which will help us to be able to spend less and it can be very easy. 

Keep a Track of What you are Spending

It can be a good idea to keep track of what you a spending a bit more closely. Take a look at your bank statements and credit card statements etc and have a look at what sorts of things you are buying. Identify what each product is and think about whether you feel that these are things that you really do want. It can be possible that we are paying subscriptions for things, perhaps online services that we did not even realise we were paying for or had forgotten about. So, take stock of where your money is going. It can also be a good opportunity to start thinking about whether you really want to buy everything that you have been buying. This might seem hard but once you find a way to do it, perhaps a spreadsheet or notebook, then it is easy to keep up with it.

Compare Prices

It can really help to compare the prices of everything that you are buying so that you are sure that you are not overpaying. This is something that can be quite simple to do online using comparison websites. You will be able to find out whether you are paying a lot more than necessary for the things that you buy and therefore you can consider whether you want to swap to cheaper ones. This isn’t that difficult either as switching bank accounts, insurance, electricity, broadband, phones etc should all be dealt with by the suppliers for you and you will just need to make a phone call or complete an online form to get it sorted out. It will take less than an hour and you could save a significant amount of money, far more than you would earn in an hour of you were at work. If you do it with everything that you buy then those savings could really add up as well and you will find that you will soon be spending less money really easily. 

Consider if you Need the Items

When you are buying things, it is a good idea to think about whether you really need the items. Sometimes we buy things out of habit or because we think that they are useful to us but we might actually be fine without having them. It is a good idea to think about everything that you are buying and consider whether you really need them. This might feel like you will be denying yourself of treats, but actually you might just be able to reduce buying things that you do not like or enjoy that much. It is also good to think about what the alternative is to buying those things and to consider why do you want the money and would you rather have the money for that purpose rather than buying these items. This is not about making yourself feel guilty for what you buy but just to think about whether you get that much pleasure from what you are buying and whether it might be better to use that money for other purposes. 

Tips for Getting High Interest on Your SavingsTips for Getting High Interest on Your Savings

Many of us have some savings, but it can be difficult to know where to put them to make much money. There are different places that you can put the money and it is good to have an idea of your options so that you can decide which you think will be the best option for you to try out. This is a not a complete list but should give you some ideas as to what some of your options are. 

Current Account

Many current accounts pay no interest at all and so it is not wise to keep too much money in them. Of course, you do not want to go overdrawn, so you will need to leave some money in a current account even if it earns no interest as a buffer, but not much. There are some current accounts that do pay interest though and so it is worth thinking about whether you do want to use one of these. They may have a charge and they are only likely to pay interest on a limited amount of money, but do have a look and see what you think.

Instant Access Savings Account

There are savings accounts where you will be able to access your money right away. You will find that you will be able to easily take money out and put it in and there are unlikely to be limits on the amounts. However, you will find that the interest rate will be low compared to some other types of accounts. It is wise to have some money in an instant access account though because if you need money, you will be able to get it easily. The accounts will vary in the interest they offer so it is worth checking them out to see what is available and which you think will be the best. 

Income Bond

An income bond is an account which will pay you an income from the interest. You will get the interest paid monthly into your current account which you will be able to use for whatever you want. This can be great if you have a low income, perhaps if you are retired and you want to be able to have some money each month available to live off. These may not pay a huge amount of interest but they may be instant access. It is worth checking them out as they will differ depending on who you get it from. 

Premium Bonds

Premium bons are offered by National Savings and Insurance and are a unique way of saving money. You use your money to buy the bonds and they will be entered in a draw each month and you could win a prize. There is a chance that you will get nothing at all and the more bonds you buy, the higher your odds are of winning a prize. However, it is better than buying a lottery ticket as you can get your money back. However, the return can be lower than other savings accounts and this will depend on how many bonds you have and how ‘lucky’ you are. 

Fixed Rate Bond

A fixed rate bond has an interest rate that is fixed for the term of the bond. This means that you will know exactly how much interest you will be getting on your money. It makes it easy to compare it with other similar products. You will normally have to tie your money up though, for a least a year, sometimes up to five depending on the specific bond. This means that you will need to think about putting your money into this sort of product as you could find that you will need the money and not be able to get to it. They may be some bonds where you will be able to make a withdrawal though, so you may want to look out for those but there will be a penalty.

A Guide to Repaying Your Credit CardA Guide to Repaying Your Credit Card

Many of us have a credit card and although most people will repay the full balance each month, there are some people that will leave some of the card unpaid. This is something which the card holder allows, but it does mean that you will be paying interest on the balance until it is repaid. It is therefore a good idea, to try to repay it if you can and there are some tips below on how to get started with this. 

Stop Using the Card

It is a good idea to stop using the credit card until it is all paid off. This could be difficult if it is something that you rely on using, but if it is already maxed out then you may not be using it anyway. Try to find alternative ways to pay so that you are not adding to the problem that you have. 

Make Sure Your Pay the Minimum

The next thing to ensure is that you are covering the minimum payment. You will be expected to repay a certain amount each month and you have additional charges and problems if you do not. If you have not already done so, set up a direct debit to pay this so that you never forget to do it. Hopefully this will be an amount that is small enough for you to be able to manage to pay. 

Pay a Little Extra Each Month

If you can, try to pay a little more each month than you have to. Even if you just increase what you are paying by a few pounds to start with, it will mean that you are repaying a little bit more than the minimum and starting to repay some of what you owe. It might seem small, but it will make a difference and hopefully you will be able to increase this eventually anyway. 

Paying a little extra each month can quickly clear your debts.

Consider Using a Loan

It can be worth considering whether it might be a good idea to take out a loan to repay the card. This may seem odd but a personal loan will often have a lower interest rate than a credit card and will therefore be cheaper than a credit card. However, you should only do this if you are confident that it will work for you. Firstly, you will need to check what the monthly repayments on the loan will be so that you can calculate whether you can afford it.  Secondly, you will need to be sure that you will not start building up a debt on the credit card again, once it has been paid off. If you do, then you could end up with a card to pay off and a loan to pay off even with no guarantor and you do not want this to happen. 

Spend Less so you can Repay More

You might also be able to find some ways that you can spend less money so that you will have more available to repay the card. For example, look at the things that you pay for and see whether you can get them cheaper. Items like insurance, electricity, broadband and mobiles can cost a lot of money and it could be possible to switch to a different supplier and save money or negotiate with your current one to save. It is worth having a go to see whether you can switch and save money. These are great ways to save money and they can save so much that you might be able to start paying significant chunks off the credit card as a result. If you switch to other cheaper things too you can spend even less and pay the card off even quicker.