Although inflation has slowed, the cost of every day products continues to rise. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of 11 legitimate ways to bring in extra income to ease the impact of bills costing more.
Below is our list of the best ways we’ve found to either make or save thousands of pounds a year.
Follow all these tips below, and you could be a whopping £11,413.10 better off this time next year!
Skip to A Tip To Bring In Extra Income
1. Child Benefit – Even if you earn over £60,000 (£1354.60)
2. Claim Your Funded Hours – Even if you earn over £100k (£6840)
3. Use Tax Free Childcare – Even if you earn over £100k AND have a child who’s school age(£1692)
4. Use Supermarket Loyalty Schemes (£520)
5. Sign Up to TopCashback (£246.50+)
6. Find A Discount Card for Your Profession (£120)
7. Move Your Savings to A High Interest Savings Account (£135)
8. Sign Up to Complete Surveys (£120)
9. Switch To A Sim Only Deal (£90)
10. Switch To A Bank Account That Pays An Incentive (£175)
11. Do An Audit of Your Recurring Payments & Create A Proper Budget (£120+)
Child Benefit
Amount Over A Year: £1354.60
How To: Sign Up To Receive Child Benefit – Even If You Earn Over £60k
This is by far the easiest way to inject monthly income into your bank account!
For your first child you’ll receive £26.05 per week, and £17.25 per week for younger children (paid every 4 weeks).
That’s £1354.60 per year if you have one child and £2251.60 a year if you have two children – completely tax free (2025/26 tax year).
Some people who earn over £60,000 choose not to receive Child Benefit as they’ll have to pay a small proportion back (staggered up to £80,000 where the amount of Child Benefit you receive is £0).
However, you can still have a salary of more than £60k and claim the full amount by paying more into your pension.
Your eligibility is based on your gross income after pension, so by paying more into your pension using Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs), you could remain under the £60,000 bracket and have more saved by retirement.
By claiming Child Benefit, you’ll also earn National Insurance credits for as long as you claim it, which will be needed to claim the full state pension when you retire.
You can speak to your employer about paying more into your pension.
The Maths: £26.05 x 52 weeks = £1354.60 per year.
Claim child benefit by clicking here.
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Funded Childcare
Amount Over A Year: £6840
How To: Claim Your 30 Funded Childcare Hours – Even If You Earn Over £100k
From September, working parents will be able to claim 30 funded hours of childcare for children aged 9 months or older. This can be used with any childcare provider who has registered to accept funding (including childminders, nurseries, and pre-schools).
This comes into effect the term after they turn 9 months.
So, if your baby will be 9 months on the 31st August, you can start claiming from 1st September. If they turn 9 months on the 1st September, you’ll have to wait until January.
The funding only covers 30 hours for 38 weeks a year, but providers may choose to stretch your entitlement over how many weeks a year they are open e.g. 22.8 hours a week if they’re open 50 weeks.
Childcare providers may charge additional voluntary contributions on top of the funded hours.
To be eligible, you and your partner (if you have one) must be working 16+ hours per week and earn less than £100,00 per year each.
As with above, if you’re earning over £100,000, it may be worth paying more into your pension using Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) to bring your gross income after pension below the £100,000 threshold, meaning that you’ll qualify.
Furthermore, paying into your pension is tax-free, so you could be better off financially for retirement if you pay more into your pension pot now.
You will need to apply for your funding code before 31st August and give your code to your childcare provider.
The Maths: 1140 maximum funded hours per year x (estimate of) £6 an hour childcare fees = £6840.
Sign up for funded hours here.
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Funded Childcare
Amount Over A Year: £1692
How To: Use Tax-Free Childcare for Non-Funded Hours AND After School Club
Even if you claim for funded hours, you can still use Tax Free Childcare to pay for your remaining hours or additional childcare fees.
If your child has a full-time, year-round place, this could amount to an additional £1692 (or more!) saving per year.
You can continue to use tax-free childcare for before and after school club if your provider has opted in to using it – meaning it doesn’t stop when your child starts school. In fact, you can continue to use it until they turn 12.
As with above, you and your partner (if you have one) need to be working 16+ hours a week and earning £100,000 gross after pension contributions.
So, if you pay more into your pension using Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) then you could be eligible for Tax Free Childcare and have more in your pension pot for retirement. You can speak to your employer about setting up AVCs.
The Maths: 2550 hours of childcare per year – 1140 funded hours = 1410 hours.
1410 hours x (estimate of) £6 per hour childcare fees = £8460 per year.
20% of £8460 = £1692 saving per year.
Sign up for Tax Free Childcare here.
Back To Top.Supermarket Loyalty Schemes
Amount Over A Year: £520
How To: Sign Up For Supermarket Points & Discounts
A lot of the biggest supermarkets use loyalty schemes to reward their customers for shopping with them. Some offer discounts on your frequently bought products, whilst others will offer exclusive prices for those using their loyalty card.
The most generous and tailored we’ve found is Nectar Points (which can be used at Sainsbury’s and other retailers), but there is also;
It’s worth checking if the supermarket you use has their own scheme. Also check if you can use it for discounts or points at the petrol station.
Some you have to pay to become a member of, so make sure you check the small print.
If you combine this with a Cashback scheme (below) you could save even more and even get some money back into your bank account.
The Maths: £10 saving per week x 52 weeks of the year = £520.
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Cashback Websites
Amount Over A Year: £246.50+
How To: Use Top Cashback for Your Groceries And Annual Holiday
If you shop online for your groceries, not only could you save money on the shop itself by avoiding impulse purchases, but you could get £8.50 back from your first Tesco* order and 85p every time you shop there (or at Asda* and Sainsbury’s*) through TopCashback.
Morrisons* also offer 3% off their shops (that’s £3 every week on a £100 shop).
Furthermore, if you plan on going abroad at some point, you could get a whopping £75 Cashback with Jet2*.
TopCashback guarantee to give the best Cashback rate, so there’s no need to shop around for better deals. If you find a better Cashback offer elsewhere, let them know here and they’ll match it.
If you install the TopCashback extension onto your browser (like Chrome), you’ll get a pop up alerting you to track it through their website so you don’t miss out on money back through their hundreds of partners!
Sign up to TopCashback here* and get a bonus £10 back (until June 2, 2025).
The Maths: £3 per Morrisons shop x 51 weeks = £153
£153 + £8.50 first Tesco shop incentive + £75 Jet2 Cashback + £10 new member = £246.50.
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Discount Cards
Amount Over A Year: £120
How To: Check What Discount Cards There Are for Your Profession
A lot of professions or industries offer their own discount cards to reward people for being in that sector.
Below are some examples:
- Blue Light Card – Emergency Services, NHS, Teachers & Childcare Providers etc.
- Discounts for Teachers – All Education Staff e.g. Teachers, TAs, School Administrators
- UNiDAYS – Students (including mature students)
- Employee Discount Packages – Your employer may offer their own perks package, so it’s worth checking their discounts before making a purchase e.g. Perkbox, Pluxee, Vivup.
If you can’t access a discount card scheme, then it may be worth checking if you can get additional perks through your bank or mobile phone provider.
For instance, you may find that your current account offers free streaming services (such as Apple Music or Disney+).
If you switch to mobile phone provider Three*, you can access Three+ which offers discounts and exclusive deals on a range of high street stores.
The Maths: £10 saving per month x 12 = £120.
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High Interest Savings
Amount Over A Year: £135+
How To: Move Your Savings to A High Interest Regular Savings Accounts
Now that you’ve found, saved or made all of this additional income, it’s worth putting it into a Monthly Regular Saver.
These typically have the best rates of interest, and can amount to hundreds over the course of the year, just by storing your money with a particular provider.
Be aware, we each have a Personal Savings Allowance (PSA), and so we need to pay tax on any interest we earn over the PSA amount. Currently, you can earn £1,000 in interest if you are a Basic Rate Taxpayer, and £500 if you are a higher rate tax payer.
If you’re likely to earn more interest than this, you can earn interest in a Cash ISA tax-free (you can’t deposit more than £20,000 each tax year).
Also remember, if you’re married or in a couple it’s an individual Personal Savings Allowance, so by putting some savings in your name, and some in your partner’s name to get the best rates of interest- you could potentially earn an extra £2,000 a year tax-free.
Currently, the best monthly regular savings accounts offer around 7%. Over the course of the year, if you save the maximum the bank says you’re allowed each month (e.g. £300) you could earn £135 in interest alone.
Set up more than one regular saver, or in your partner’s name too, you could save hundreds.
See the best regular savings accounts found by Money Saving Expert here. It’s updated pretty frequently, so tends to show the best rates.
The Maths: Save £300 a month in a 7% regular saver = £135 after 12 months.
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Switch Phones
Amount Over A Year: £75+
How To: Switch Your Mobile Phone Provider
If you’re someone who has a contract for their phone – once you’ve paid off your current handset then switch to a Sim Only Deal.
The current UK average for the price of a phone and service is £21.33 – which can be significantly more for the latest models.
By keeping the handset and switching to a SIM-only deal, you could save a significant amount of money over the course of a year and find you have extra data.
For instance, Three* are currently offering:
- £25 Cashback using this link*
- 120GB Data a month
- Access to 5G at no extra costs
- Unlimited calls & texts
- Access to their reward program – including discounts, competitions, and presale access to the biggest performances
For just £8/month for the first 6 months. It averages out to be £15.86 per month over the course of the contract.
If you do still want to upgrade your handset, however, Three are currently offering up to £40 cash back using this link*.
The Maths: Average phone contract at £21.33 for 12 months (£255.96) – Average monthly cost of new contract (£190.32) = £65.64
Savings + Cashback incentive = £90.64.
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Surveys
Amount Over A Year: £120
How To: Sign Up To Survey Websites
Completing surveys in your free time is a great way to earn some cash or exchange into vouchers at shops you already frequent.
The best sites we’ve found are Ipsos Isay and YouGov for frequency of surveys they put out and the quality of rewards you get in return.
Expect between 100-200 points per Ipsos survey and 50+ for YouGov, both equating to around 1point = 1p.
The Maths: Complete 10 surveys a month at 100points each = £10 in vouchers.
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Switch Bank Accounts
Amount Over A Year: £175+
How To: Switch Your Bank Account to One That Offers An Incentive
Banks are always looking to gain your custom and so there are frequently incentives to entice you to bank with them.
You can usually expect up to £175 per bank account per switch, and there’s no reason you can’t switch again once you’ve received your incentive into your bank account to get paid again.
If you have more than one bank account, or your partner has a bank account too, they can also gain £175 from switching.
Currently, the biggest payout is from First Direct (May 8,2025), but it’s best to check here for the current incentives banks are offering and the payout terms (e.g. minimum pay-in).
The Maths: One qualifying bank switch = £175.
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Direct Debit Audit
Amount Over A Year: £120+
How To: Complete A Direct Debit Audit & Create A Personal Budget In Less Than An Hour
Surprisingly, just by going through your current expenditure you could save yourself hundreds over the course of the year.
If you have mobile or online banking, it should be straightforward to look through your
- Direct Debits (recurring payments order by a company e.g. gym memberships, phone bill)
- Standing Orders (recurring payments you’ve set up yourself)
- Other subscriptions through Continuous Payment Authority (typically subscription services e.g. Netflix, Spotify)
Once you’ve checked what’s going out, you can cancel or delete any subscriptions you no longer need (or find a cheaper alternative). For instance, you could save £90 by switching mobile phone providers, or checking which subscriptions you could get for cheaper or free with discount cards through work.
Typical recurring payments you may find you’re paying unnecessarily:
- Unused gym memberships or club subscriptions e.g. golf
- Unwanted streaming subscriptions (could you get Disney+, Apple Music or similar free through your bank?)
- Magazine subscriptions
- Bank account fees where you don’t use the additional perks
- Insurance for products you no longer have or own
- Anything you don’t recognise and is just leaving your bank account each month!
Once you’ve done your audit, it’s important to set yourself a budget to stick to each month and to give every pound a purpose.
Even if it’s a separate fund for ‘days out with the kids’ or upcoming birthdays, if you assign it a job then you’ll find you have more money going into your savings and you can track where your spending is.
We’ve created a budget template that’s designed specifically for parents, and uses the tips in this article, to help you give your money a role. You may surprise yourself with how much money you’re able to save over the course of a year!
Get the Parenting Up North Budget Template for 50% off (£1.80) using code WEBSITE50 here*.
The Maths: 2 cancelled subscriptions at £4.99 each x 12 months = £119.76.
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This info does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research on top to ensure it’s right for your specific circumstances. Prices correct at time of publication. Calculations are based on estimates and may differ depending on your circumstances.
*Denotes an affiliate link where we may receive a commission if you choose to sign up.
Author: Michelle Livingstone
Founder and Director of Parenting Up North.
