I make £1,500 a year from filling in surveys and mystery shopping in my spare time
DAD-OF-THREE Peter Chatfield makes £1,500 a year from filling in surveys and mystery shopping in his spare time.
The 39-year-old from Deal, Dover, is a Civil servant, was inspired to make extra money from home after getting into £7,000 worth of debt a few years ago.
Peter, who lives with wife Sharon, 38, and three children Cara, 10, George, 8 and Amy, 6. now runs a householdmoneysaving.com blog where he writes about the various ways he makes money from home.
He makes up to £40 an hour filling in surveys online an even gets paid to eat out in restaurants.
“A few years back we moved to a new house in Deale at the top of our budget and six months in my wife fell pregnant”, Peter told The Sun.
“It meant she couldn’t take on so many children as she’s a childminder and this cut down her earnings”.
“We relied on credit cards and loans to get by and two years later I realised we’d built up quite a bit of debt.”
“So we wanted a way to make a bit of extra money.”
The family used he extra cash to clear their debts after moving from a three-bed house to a four-bed detached in 2011.
Peter spends half an hour a day on average and up to five hours a week filling in surveys and mystery shopping.
Sites like Swagbucks, YouGov, Valued Opinions and MySurvey are popular.
The amount of money he can make varies when filling in surveys but he usually makes at least £8 to £9 an hour - and sometimes as much as £40 an hour.
The surveys usually take between 10 to 15 minutes each.
Peter’s top tips for making money from home using survey sites
SAVVY saver Peter shares his tips for using survey sites.
- Before you join a site check reviews to make sure they are genuine.
- I would recommend joining as many as you can because some are easier than others.
- Don’t use sites that ask you to pay - you’re losing money before you’ve started.
Peter adds: “It can be very good money. Normally you can get a few a day but you have to be on the ball to get them”.
“I set up notifications on email so I’m one of the first to reply.”.
“It’s great because you can do it in your spare time in front of the TV and they are quite quick to do.”
He also does mystery shopping at retailers and restaurants.
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Peter adds: “It depends on what you’re willing to do. I had a smart meter fitted last year and was paid £60.
“It only took 20 minutes of my time and I wanted one anyway so it was a double whammy”.
And Peter’s extra cash is put to good use.
“At the moment, we’re trying to overpay the mortgage and saving up Florida. That was our first holiday as a family,” he adds.
Earlier this year we revealed how to make money from home and earn up to £1,000 without leaving the sofa.
We also rounded up 50 ways to save money including the best and apps and tips from experts.
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