5 Ways You Could Bring In Extra Money This Year

We all like to talk about saving money and being frugal but also we all know that the best way to gain a control over the finances is to actually bring more money in, right?! So asides from working the the 9 to 5 job and winning big on lottery games, how else can we bring in a few more pennies? Here are some of my ideas..

1. Using a talent or a hobby to earn extra cash

 If you have a talent -  have you ever considered whether or not it could make you a little money? I'm not sure I have any special talents myself, but I do have a hobby that I'm passionate about that sometimes allows me to make a little extra cash and that is blogging. Lots of people have talents or hobbies that they've never even considered making money from, but that could bring in a few extra pounds. Do you have a hobby or talent that you could use?

2. Enter competitions

If you're lucky enough to find yourself with a little spare or extra time every now and again (please do send some my way!) - then it may just be worth you considering entering yourself into online competitions.  There are tons of sites you can use to find current giveaways and competitions like theprizefinder.com (as an example). You can even use twitter hashtags like #giveaway #win #competition etc etc to find competitions to enter yourself in to. Many companies will even hold giveaways through twitter and all they require from you as way of entering into them is a simple follow and more than likely - a retweet. So do watch out for them! If you're a blog reader you may or may not know that many bloggers also run regular giveaways (including myself), so again this is something to keep an eye out for. The prize may not always be in the form of money or a gift card, but if you wanted to - you could always sell your prize on. After all if you win something - it's yours to do what you please with.

3. Invest in shares

To be totally honest I used to never really understand the whole shares thing. But I'm a little bit more knowledgeable nowadays as my Hubby started paying in to shares via his work a few years back and we now suddenly have quite a bit more than just what he put in -- which means that attic conversion we're hoping for may just well be on the very close horizon. Sites like nutmeg.com offer things like investments, shares and ISA's.. In a nutshell.. they'll learn about you, they'll then choose investments for you and then with your contributions they can build the portfolio on your behalf, showing you the results in a straightforward manner. They'll even diversify your investments to avoid putting all your eggs in to one basket!

4. Rent out your driveway/parking space

If you live anywhere near an airport, train station or a big city, chances are that your driveway or private parking space could make you a nice extra little bit of cash (if you're not already using the parking space yourself that is). There are online parking marketplaces that let you rent out car parking spaces, with some earning car parking spaces earning £200 a month or more! Sites like justpark.com allow you to list your space so that potential customers can find you or alternatively you could just be a bit more DIY and use a website like gumtree.com.

5. Claim tax back

Lots of people wrongly assume that if they’re owed a tax rebate it’ll automatically be sorted out for them. Well, if you take this approach you could end up waiting a very long time, as HMRC are generally NOT obliged to inform you of what you are owed. Typical eh? So it's always worth looking in to, even if you haven't recently changed jobs. If you wear a uniform at work, and have to wash, repair or replace it yourself, you may be able to reclaim £100s of tax from the past four years. This applies whether it's just a branded t-shirt or a full uniform. You can find out more about claiming this money back over at gov.uk.

So there you have it - just 5 ways you could be bringing in an extra little bit of cash this year. Do you make money outside of your ordinary job? Can you share any tips?