Today it is exactly nine weeks until Christmas. That fact may give you butterflies in your belly- perhaps from excitement or instead from the worry over how you will afford Christmas this year. I’d love to say that I save money all year around and put it away for Christmas but I have to confess that I don’t (although there’s always next year, right?). I usually just “make do” by working a bit harder and bringing more money in during the weeks running up to the big day.
This year I’ve decided to take part in the Make £1000 For Christmas Challenge organised by Emma Drew, you can join the challenge for daily tasks to get you closer to your goal. I’ve decided to write a weekly blog to record how much I make each week. If you didn’t join in from the start, there’s still time to catch up. If you start the challenge from today you just need to aim for £125 a week (£18 per day) from today to make £1000 by 18th December. Read on to find out how I made £118.32 extra (on top of my wages) this week and you can too. There’s also a tip on how to get at least £5.50 FREE today:
Earn £125+ Using Zilch this week (December 2021)
Make £1000 Before Christmas: Week 1
| Weekly | Circle | Prolific | Music Magpie | Quidco | Market Force | Ebay | Facebook Selling | Wine fund | Receipt Hog | Shoppix | Swagbucks | Make Money | Total: | |
| 17/10/17 | £125 | £17.92 | £32.40 | £5.92 | £11.08 | £0 | £25 | £25 | £6 | 197/1500 c | 590/3200 t | 146/800 SB | 1443/6500 | £118.32 |
| 23/10/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 30/10/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 06/11/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 13/11/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 20/11/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 27/11/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 04/12/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| 11/12/17 | £125 | |||||||||||||
| Total: | £1,125 | £118.32 |
1. Make £5.50 + With Circle
I made my first £5 very easily by joining Circle, a free money sending site. Sign up with my referral link:
https://www.circle.com/invite/SSZC2K
Register and send £25 and you will make £5 (full disclosure, I will make £5 too but you will then get a referral link to invite your friends so you and your friend can make an extra £5 too, so it’s a win win situation).
I then “won” an extra £1 from Circle by entering their free competition:
https://www.circle.com/en-gb/edunation/SSZC2K
Enter and you could win any amount from 50p to £50 – good luck!
Altogether I made £17.92 using Circle this week (my friend sent my £25 back so it didn’t cost me anything!).
Top tip: Add your bank account so money can be cashed out to your Bank Account within one hour (it takes longer to send money through your card).
2. Earn Money Through Surveys on Prolific
I’ve joined survey sites in the past and never made enough money to cash out so I was dubious when giving Prolific a go. I joined last Monday and it took me ages to get verified. I needed to verify both my email and my phone number (click “Trust” to fully verify your account). I then needed to take a few rounds of “pre screening” questions. Each time I logged in no quizzes were available but there were yet more pre -screening questions to answer.
Then on Tuesday the surveys started coming and I managed to make £32.40 during Week One. This includes day one of pre-screening questions only and two days of illness where I was unable to check for any surveys. Others have told me that they earn just £40 a month on Prolific so I may have just been lucky this week but I’m looking forward to seeing how much I make next week and will be happy with £10 a week as that would be £80 towards Christmas anyway.
Prolific recently decided to stop the Participant Referral Scheme in the interests of diversity and data quality but ti’s still a money-making site I would recommend.
Sign up to Prolific here: https://www.prolific.ac/p?ref=NBQ3MHID
Top tip: Add the Prolific button to your Chrome Toolbar for notifications when new studies are available. Take the studies immediately as there are limited spaces and they soon fill up.
3. Make £5 Immediately on Quidco
I joined Quidco and received free chocolate and made £11.08 cashback. I will be checking the site before making purchases in the future too. I also have a special referral offer where if you sign up through this link you can make £10 (once you’ve made your first £5 cashback).
Join Quidco here: https://www.quidco.com/raf/7892209/
Top tip: Check Quidco before making any purchases (sadly cashback is not available on Amazon purchases).
Once you’re signed up and have made your £5 cashback, you can also take advantage of their Seasonal Boost Bonanza and make an extra £60. You could also earn £30 for referring a friend (they will make money too).
4. Sell Old DVDS/Games on Music Magpie
I think that you’ll always make more money selling your old games and DVDs through Ebay or a car boot sale but if you want to sell a bulk of low value old DVDs without leaving your home then Music Magpie is for you. I don’t usually use it but it was one of the challenges so I thought I’d give it a go.
I installed the app on my phone, got an empty box ready, then scanned a pile of old kids DVDs, DVD doubles and old games until I got to over £5 (£5.92 in fact). I booked the free courier, printed the postage label and my box was collected the following day. The money was paid to me as soon as Music Magpie received my goods so it was a lot quicker than waiting for all my items to sell on Ebay. Scanning the items using my phone was fun too! You can also save money by buying pre-owned Games and DVDs at low prices.
Sign up to Music Magpie here: http://tidd.ly/7eae2360
5. Mystery Shop with Market Force
Due to illness, I didn’t make any money with MarketForce this week but there were two easy local jobs that would have made me £15 so I’m hoping to give it a go this week instead. I’ve always wanted to Mystery Shop and I expect there are a lot more jobs available if you live in larger towns and cities.
http://uk.marketforce.com/register
Top tip: Look out for jobs that pay and reimburse you enough to make it worth your while. Some shops are more “freebies” than paid mystery shops.
6. Sell on Ebay (and Save the Money)
Like many people I regularly sell on eBay, the difference in this challenge is I am saving my Ebay profits instead of just letting them drift out of my Paypal account as soon as they’ve been paid in. Ebay is great for having a clear out of old clothes and toys before Christmas.
Join Ebay and get selling here: Join Ebay.
7. Sell on Facebook
Again I often sell through Facebook selling groups but during this challenge this money will be saved as part of my Make £1000 For Christmas challenge. If you find you’re not reaching your target each week upping your “local selling” can really help you reach your aim.
Top tip: Sell bulky or heavy items through Facebook to avoid high postage costs.
8. Give Up and Save
I decided to take part in Stoptober (give up drinking alcohol during October) for health reasons. However, I’m now combining this with my Make £1000 For Christmas Challenge and putting aside £6 (for a bottle of wine) every week into my savings pot and will now extend this until Christmas.
Top tip: Give up a treat and put the money aside.
9. Turn Receipts into Cash
I’m saving receipts for two reasons- one to keep track of my spending (and cut it down) and two to earn points (points mean prizes) from my receipts. I’ve signed up to two companies, Receipt Hog (now closed) and Shoppix. Each time I go shopping I snap and upload my receipts. I don’t think these sites will make me big money but I think I should make at least a £5 Paypal voucher from each site by Christmas and it all helps.
Top tip: Sign up to Shoppix and enter this code: 1U26YVNH and we could both get a bonus 200 tokens.
(Offer only open to the first 8 people to sign up. You must complete your profile and snap a receipt to get your bonus tokens).
10. Join Swagbucks
I’ve also installed Swagbucks as my Search Engine to make Swagbucks that can be converted into pounds (currently £5 paypal = 700 SB). There are extra ways to make money from tasks and surveys but I’ve made my current points from signing up and using their search engine.
Top tip: We can both get a 300 SB Bonus when you earn 300 SB within your first .
Add the Swagbutton to your desktop here.
Click http://www.swagbucks.com/p/register and you’ll be well on your way to your first £5!
Bonus £125
Make £125 by joining Zilch are referring 5 friends.
So overall in Week 1 I’ve made £118.32 extra on top of my wages in one week. If I made the same every week I could make £1064.88 for Christmas. I was below my target (£125) due to illness so I’ll work harder this week. If you start today and make £125 per week you can make £1000 for Christmas too!
Let me know if you join in and tell me how you get on! Good luck!
This post contains referral and affiliate links
Gosh Definately will be following your progress -really need to learn selling techniquesEBay -never used itI'll be reading through all your tips in depth One site I was offered 10p for a relatively new book !!
Wow lots of very good ideas. Thanks
If only I had surplus stuff to sell 🙁