How I went from financial novice to budgeting king
Working in the MoneyAware team and learning all our favourite money-saving ideas...
4 apps to make you money
Debt advisor Sean works at our Leeds office and is an expert when it comes to budgeting. But he doesn’t just dish out the advice, he also follows it himself! Being a bit of a techie, he loves using his phone to scout out the best deals around. Here are four of his favourite money-making apps. Over to you, Sean!
If you’ve got a smartphone, it might feel a bit like your life revolves around it. They’re more than just a way of staying in touch with people. They keep us occupied in times of boredom and remind us of things we’d completely forgotten about.
Mobile phones cost us money each month, but why not use them to make some money each month as well?
If you can’t bear to be without your phone, then now is the time to make the most of its ability to change your spending habits.
1. Receipt Hog
Available on Android and iOS, free
Receipt Hog is an app designed to turn receipts into actual cash. I was in the habit of throwing away my receipts away once I no longer needed them, but since downloading this app, I’m constantly opening it, taking a quick snap of the receipt and uploading it.
It asks for a brief summary of your shopping experience and awards you with a certain amount of ‘coins’, depending on how big the purchase was. Once you have enough ‘coins’ built up, you can cash them out as a PayPal cash redemption or Amazon voucher. 1,500 coins awards you with a £5 voucher, while 1,2000 coins gets you a £50 voucher.
If you spend enough time using the app you’ll find that yourself quickly progressing through the ‘Hog Levels’ – the higher the level you reach, the more coins you’ll be rewarded.
It takes time, but if you stick with it for long enough you’ll be rewarded for your efforts!
2. Shopitize
Available on Android and iOS, free
Shopitize is a new way of saving money on your favourite brands across the UK’s biggest supermarkets.
The concept is simple: check what items are available for cashback on the app, buy the items at the supermarket of your choice, scan the barcode of the product once you’ve taken it home and take a photo of the receipt with the item listed on it. You’ll get cashback on items you’re actually likely to buy!
As well as staple items such as bread, milk, eggs, butter and cheese, you can also get cashback on a couple of treats too. For example, I could pop to my local supermarket and buy a bag of popcorn for 50p cashback and a scented candle for 90p cashback. Perfect for a home movie night!
When I used this app recently, I managed to get £5 cashback in the space of a month without even really trying. I reckon if I’d put a bit more effort in I could’ve got double that. £120 back over the course of a year for buying things I needed anyway? I wouldn’t say no to that!
If you want consistent cashback on items in your weekly food shop, I’d definitely recommend looking into Shopitize.
3. O2 Priority
Available on Android and iOS, free (but limited to O2 customers)
Ok, so this is more of a way to save money, but it still makes it onto my list! If you’re an O2 customer, O2 Priority is a must have exclusive. Not only does it give you offers and discounts from various high street brands, but you can also win tickets to many different sporting or music events.
Just the other day I was able to pick up a free chocolate bar, snack box and cuppa because of an offer through the app. While feeding my face with freebies, I entered a couple of competitions on the app which gave me the chance to win 1 of 20 tickets to see Coldplay in London, as well as 2 tickets to watch England vs Wales at Twickenham in March, just to name a few. Thanks O2!
Of course, this app is limited only to O2 customers and does come with certain terms and conditions, but it’s available on Android and iOS and is a great app to be in with a chance of picking up freebies.
4. Roamler
Available on Android and iOS, free
I’ve heard lots of good things about Roamler. Again, the idea is pretty straightforward – you complete tasks to get experience points (‘XP’) or cash rewards.
When you first sign up, you’ve got to answer a few questionnaires to start building up your XP pot. Once you’re earning points, you can start progressing through the levels. The more XP points you collect, the more chance you stand to get larger sums of money, which are paid via PayPal.
Some tasks require you to visit stores in your area and take photos of certain items. Although there might be a long list of stores that you can visit, unfortunately you can’t visit all of them and collect cash! You must choose one store in your area and go with that one.
One main drawback with this app is that you’ve got to keep your location settings on to find out if there are any tasks available to you. This is one of the fastest ways to drain your phone’s battery and data allowance – something that definitely doesn’t save or make you money!
Given the chance to use this app for an extended period of time, I feel that it be a great opportunity to undertake different tasks and earn a little bit of money at the same time.
Are there any apps you use to earn money? Let us know in the comments!
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