How I Saved £250+ In January | Envirofone Money Challenge
January is always a slow month because everyone tends to overspend during the festive holidays. I am one of those obnoxious fools that did overspend…well beyond my limits. Did you see my vlog on my 24hr trip to London? You will get what I mean!! Toast and beans it was for me last month ha!
Anyway, let’s get on to the exciting part! I received an interesting email from Envirofone eagerly challenging me to try to earn a little extra money in January as well as saving a little on the side. They are working in collaboration with money blogger Emma Drew, and of course, I am not one to back down from a challenge so I for sure had to give it a go!
What was the challenge?
To shave £100 off one month’s outgoings, or to make £100 in one month, using a combination of Emma Drew’s money tips!
I was sent a fab list of Emma’s top tips to make/save money. As I recently went self-employed with my social media marketing business and blogging full-time, I picked a few tips that I thought would best fit my hectic schedule at the moment!
Here are a few ways I made/saved £250+ last month…
I made £80 selling unwanted clothes, makeup, accessories on Mercari!
You’ve probably heard me raving about this new platform. I have used Depop, eBay, Shpock to sell my stuff in the past, but I stopped doing it altogether last year because I wasn’t really selling things that were THAT expensive, so by the time I paid for packaging and posting alongside petrol to drive to and from the post office then Paypal and then platform I used took their fee, I was always left with very little in return. So I just stopped selling my things and turned into an absolute hoarder, I honestly had black bags of stuff I wanted to sell but didn’t want to put the effort in for a little return. I ended up giving a lot of it to charity but what was left I have been selling on the new Mercari app. The reason that I am totally committed to using this one platform now is that it is completely FREE to use and there are no hidden charges which is ideal!
You can sign up here!
I made £50 from doing online surveys
I signed up to Populus Live a while back but I didn’t actually do any of the surveys on a regular basis. However, as I was doing the challenge surveys were one of the tips that Emma recommended, so I decided to make an effort to do every survey that came through into my inbox. I just did them when sitting watching Netflix, it really didn’t take much effort. It’s not going to make you rich, but it will pay for the occasional treat. I’m currently waiting for my £50 cheque to come through in the post! There are lot’s of options for surveys, some include Prolific Academic One Poll and Mint Vine. I personally prefer Populus Live because they tell you the exact amount you earn, and the more you earn the more time the survey will take which makes sense. For example, a £2 survey will take you 10 minutes whereas a £4 survey may take 20 mins. Then when you reach the £50 threshold they will automatically send you a cheque in the post, it’s as easy as pie!
Register for Populus Live here.
I saved £56.66 automatically with the Chip app
This is honestly my favourite little tool for saving. The Chip app is an automated savings app that uses an algorithm to calculate the exact amount you can afford to save. So, after it calculates how much you can afford and confirms everything with you, it will deduct that amount from your bank through a direct debit. It’s super easy, I know sometimes people are a bit weird about connecting their bank account to a 3rd party app – but I’ve been using it since October and it’s really helped me save that little extra every month. Also, if you use my code ‘KUMBEAR’ you’ll get an extra 2% interest added on to your account.
You can read my full blog post about Chip here!
I made £50 Mystery Shopping
If you love to shop, you may as well get paid to do it. Mystery shopping is basically when you visit a store or restaurant and observe and review particular elements of their service e.g staff interaction or cleanliness. It works by either you being reimbursed for a purchase or being offered a fee for completing a shop. Emma recommended I try Market Force and Red Wigwam, I signed up for both but I ended up being recommended by a Facebook friend to do a mystery shop with Ragdoll Research who were paying £50-100 to complete a shop. I can’t disclose the exact details as I signed an NDA but I basically went ahead and did everything they told me to which took around an hour of my time and I was paid £50 which was great!
I could have made £100 by trading in my old iPhone 6
You can also trade in your old mobile phone handset to Envirofone. I just bought a new iPhone X and I was looking to trade-in my old iPhone 6 and I could have made £100 for trading it in which was pretty good. I then decided I wanted to use my old phone as a work phone, so I didn’t end up trading it in, but you’ll be amazed at what Envirofone lets you sell. You can even use the money you make to shop on Envirofone for a refurbished phone which starts as little as £60.
I made £23.87 in cashback
This is one thing that I wish I started doing years ago!! I shop SO much online, possibly 90% of my purchases are made online. Top Cashback is the UK’s highest paying cashback site that lets you actually earn cashback from hundreds of different websites online, some of which I use on a regular basis such as Boots, Look Fantastic and eBay. Find out here for more information on how cashback works. From one month of my usual shopping, I made £23.87 I just wish I knew about this sooner as I could have earned so much money!
A few other tips from money expert, Emma Drew:
There were a good few tips from Emma’s list that I wasn’t able to try. Here is the rest of the list just in case you want to try them out too!
- Assess your regular payments and cancel any that you don’t use can help you save lots of money
- Get free food with your phone. These days you don’t have to cut coupons to save money on your groceries. Use apps like Shopmium and Checkout Smart to get Cashback on certain food items – and you can often get them for free!
- Switch suppliers. Do you ever shop around for a deal on your utilities? Switching utilities is something that we should all get into the habit of doing on a regular basis because the savings can be massive, often into the hundreds. Use price comparison websites like Uswitch or Moneysupermarket to see how much you can save.
- Switch your phone to SIM only. You can easily save money on your phone bill by purchasing a handset outright and getting a SIM only deal. Envirofone have a great selection of handsets to choose from.
- Meal planning. Meal planning doesn’t have to be boring and rigid – simply start by taking an inventory of what you have in your kitchen and use it to form your meals for the next week. Once you have your list of meals you can make a shopping list based on exactly what you want. This helps you to spend less at the supermarket and to reduce your food waste.
- Phone apps. There are plenty of smartphone apps that allow you to earn extra money. Apps like Receipt Hog and Shoppix will pay you for snapping photos of your receipts, and Be My Eye will pay you for completing location-based tasks, such as seeing if a store near you have an item in stock.
- Free daily draws. Did you know that you can win money for free just by checking a free daily draw website daily? These websites are funded by adverts, and in order to keep you coming back every day, they offer a cash prize pot. I recommend Badger the Button and Free Postcode Lottery.
How much can YOU save this month? Let me know your favourite money-saving tips! ?
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* This post was sponsored by Envirofone however as always all my opinions are my own.
