It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post about money and let’s be honest… money is a sore topic for most people these days. Inflation, cost of living, energy prices, endless tax – we just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment when it comes to the government and businesses trying to take all our hard earned money from us. You don’t even want to know the words coming out of my mouth when my last tax bill came through. Every pound counts these days, which is why I was keen to show you these money making apps that I use to make a little bit of extra cash throughout the year.
So I think any additional methods of making some extra money throughout the year is going to come in handy for a lot of people. Even if it’s just a couple of hundred extra £££ to keep aside for special occasions or to save money for Christmas. Every little helps… as Tesco always say.
My problem with apps that claim to allow you to earn money through your phone is knowing which ones are legit and which ones are a complete waste of time.
I’ve downloaded PLENTY of so-called money making apps in the past which have turned out to be absolute rubbish, not worth the time or the effort or actually require you to pay for something in order to receive any sort of reward.
So I really wanted to compile a list of money making apps that I genuinely use which help me earn a bit of extra cash throughout the year, along with screenshots so you can see the evidence.
They’re not going to make you rich – another claim I hate seeing – but if you’re consistent with them, they will allow you to maybe treat yourself at the end of the year or put money aside for something you need.
8 money making apps I use to make money from my phone:
Vinted
I know the first of these money making apps is a fairly obvious one that most of you will have heard of already but I had a bit of success with Vinted from around October last year and ended the year making just under £200 in a couple of months from selling everything from old toys, clothes, shoes, ornaments and accessories.
It’s a great option if you’re doing a de-clutter which, with Spring approaching, is the perfect time to de-clutter your home and sell unwanted items on Vinted!
I found a few things that helped with getting sales on Vinted quickly (literally I had some items sold within 30 seconds of putting the listing up!) were:
- Timing: Selling toys, jumpers and sparkly clothes in the months before Christmas or selling Horror related things closer to Halloween is always a good way to ensure your items are being searched for. Many less people are searching to purchase a woolly jumper in the middle of Summer!
- Photos: Taking clear and concise photos in really good lighting was key, as was making sure you take photos from all angles, showing any small imperfections as well as you can so people can make an informed choice about the item.
- Description: I found writing more chattier descriptions quite helpful and including things like, “would make the perfect Christmas party dress!” and making the sale a bit more informal and personal really worked well. Also explaining why you’re selling the item, “loved it but didn’t quite fit properly!”
- Going in with offers: I was going in with offers to people who favourited my item quite early and also putting it at a higher sale price so my offer looked like the “better deal”. For example, if the item was £20 and someone favourited it, I’d quickly send an offer of £18 through. Always give wiggle room for a price drop.
Vinted has a referral program where you can get £5 to shop on there if a friend signs up and lists 3 items within 7 days. You can also get an extra £10 if they sell an item within the first 30 days of using your sign up link. Sign up to Vinted here – this is my referral link but once you have an account, you’ll have your own too!
Sell Your Books
If you’re a big reader and have a lot of books like me – this one is for you! It’s a super easy app to use, all you have to do is scan the barcode of you book, it’ll tell you whether they are accepting it and for how much and that’s it!
They also have a tab for in demand books, so if you have any of those that you’re looking to get rid of, chances are you’ll get a slightly higher price for these because they’re currently popular and in demand.
You can also arrange for a delivery service to come and pick your parcel up or drop in off at a local Post Office / Parcel Shop.
You need a minimum of 10 items or items worth £5 to complete a trade but you don’t have to stop there – you can add more into your trade if you have more.
I’ve made a total of £69.58 selling books I no longer want! And payments go straight into my PayPal account.
You can either use the Sell Your Books website here or download the app (which is much easier because you just scan the barcode, rather than having to type the barcode number in) and you’ll also get 10% extra on your first trade when you sign up to the newsletter!
This is the newest of the money making apps I use and I’ve only just started using Social Tip but I’ve already earned £25 from it and I think it’s a great option for those who spend a lot of time on Instagram.
Social Tip is all about getting paid for promoting the products you ALREADY love and use!
There are so many popular brands on there including HelloFresh, Iceland, B&M, Onken, M&S, Hamley’s, George at ASDA, Wild, Quorn, Moon Pig and you can either post about them on your stories, in a grid post or feature them in a reel. You then upload that content onto Social Tip and they calculate your reward for it and boom – the money is in your account a day later!
They pay out more for reels and grid posts and less for stories and some brands pay out more than others.
But the thing I love about Social Tip is that if I’m already going to be buying products from this brand, then I might as well get paid for featuring them on my Instagram!
Social Tip also has it’s own referral program, where you can earn £5 for every friend you refer and they’ll earn £1 when they sign up. You can sign up via my referral link to Social Tip here to claim your £1 starting bonus.
Freecash
This is one of those apps I really didn’t have much hope with when I downloaded it because I’ve tried them before, those apps that “pay you to play games” and they’ve been absolute rubbish but this one has allowed me to make over £10 so far, just from playing games on my phone!
None of the games REQUIRE you to pay in-app purchases however you might hit the “rewards” faster (and therefore, earning more money) if you do.
You can choose which games you want to download and play and each game gives you “offers” to complete, for example “complete level 4”. Each reward is only small but the more levels you complete the higher the reward and if you complete the offers in a certain amount of time then you can be rewarded a much higher payback (however these might sometimes require in-app purchases).
They also run a weekly lottery and you gain tickets from completing rewards and they offer a daily reward streak too.
They also have a referral program and you can receive £2 for each friend when they install a game and £8 when they cash out. You can sign up through my referral link to Freecash here.
This is NOT one that’s going to earn you lots of money fast but if you enjoy playing mobile phone games anyway, then it’s worth doing!
I’m currently playing Disney Solitaire and I’m absolutely addicted!
TopCashback
Another one that most people are probably familiar with by now but also annoying it’s the one I always forget to use! Even though it’s arguably the easiest app available to make extra money on purchases you’re ALREADY making.
TopCashback allows you to earn a small portion of retailer commission directly to you by making your purchases through their tracked links directly on the app. It’s free to use and free to join and if you do a lot of online shopping on your phone, you are seriously missing out on creating a nice little cash pot for the end of the year!
As you can see, I don’t have much in my TopCashback account right now (like I said, I always forget to use mine!) but I’ve amounted almost £100 in cashback altogether. Which is tiny compared to some people!
This app is particularly useful for big purchases like furniture or appliances!
You can sign up for TopCashback using my referral link here. You’ll receive a £10 sign up bonus when you join! Then once you have an account, you can start referring people yourself and earn rewards from doing so.
YouGov
YouGov is certainly a slow burner. But you can receive a £50 pay-out or gift card to selected retailers such as Tesco, Primark, TK Maxx, Nike, Nando’s, ASOS and more for doing market research surveys.
The good thing with YouGov is that every survey you get sent you will be eligible for – so there’s no messing around filling in a bunch of questions, only for them to turn around and say you’re not eligible.
You need 5,000 points for a pay-out and most surveys reward between 25-50 points. You can change your settings so that you receive the most amount of surveys possible as well but it does take a little while to accumulate those points.
They also have a connection hub, where you can connect things like Amazon, Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video, so they can track what you’re watching to use for market research and you will receive extra points for this. Obviously not everyone will want to do this but it’s another option.
You can easily download YouGov in the app store.
Shoppix
Disclaimer with this one – this app is NOT accepting any more sign ups at the moment. Which is such a shame because I’ve recommended this app to so many people but they must have had such a boost with people signing up that they had to cap it.
However, I wanted to add it here because the nature of the app is not unique and I’m sure there are other apps out there which do the same, if not a similar, thing. And it’s SUPER simple!
Some apps will simply reward you for scanning the receipts of your purchases. I’ve had so many withdrawals from Shoppix, so it’s well worth it to download Shoppix anyway and sign up to their waiting list.
NielsenIQ Panel
This is another receipt scanning app which I’d seen a lot of ads for on social media recently so I decided to give it a try.
However, for this particular app, you scan the receipt of your shop as well as the barcode for every product you’ve bought. So this one can be a little time consuming – especially if you’ve just done the “big shop”!
But if you have the time (and the patience) for it, I really do think this one is worth investing the time in.
I’ve only been using it for a week or so (at the time of writing) and I’ve already accumulated 1090 points. You only need 3550 points to unlock your first voucher of £30 and you seem to acquire quite a lot of points per purchase.
If you do a lot of shopping, then it shouldn’t take long for those points to add up at all and you don’t have to cash out at £30 either – you can bank your points all the way up to £500.
They also send you mandatory surveys to fill in every now and again which also reward you will extra points.
I hope this list of money making apps along with the proof that they do ACTUALLY work will be helpful for you if you’re looking to build up a bit more extra money over the course of the year. If you download these now and stay consistent, then you could have a little pot ready to go for Christmas which could take a bit of pressure off during the festive season.
If you have any of your own money making apps you’d recommend, please do leave them in the comments, as I would love to hear about them and I’m sure anyone else reading who’s looking to make some extra cash would too.
Thank you for sharing all of these money-making apps! I’m definitely going to check out the book one as I have books here I want to sell, but they’re incredibly hard to sell on Vinted!
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
If you have a lot of books it’s definitely worth it! Some will only scan for 50p or something like that but hardbacks scan for more as do newer releases. They also have a tab where they tell you their most wanted books, so if you have any on that list then those will get you a bit more too!