How to save for Eurovision || How to go on holiday for free! || Free Eurovision!
I’ve mentioned in other posts that paying to go to Eurovision is cost neutral for me. By that I mean I’ve been able to generate income in creative ways which has meant I’ve not had to find money from my already maxed out wage. Please read on for my…
Hustle Eurovision for free…
Stage shot of Spanish entry from Tel Aviv 2020
Hustle guide!
Calculate what you think you need
I think the first step is to figure out how much you think you need. This will help identifying a short fall and then where you could then source that shortfall from.
Here’s my run down
Airbnb £100 a night (x4) = £400
Flight £150
Spends £100 a day (x5) = £500
Show tickets £150
Airport parking £40
Travel insurance £50
TIP: include everything! Parking or travel to/from the airport and insurance alone could come to £100, which is a lot of money to just be able to produce, so include it from the start.
So I want £1,290
Here’s how to find it…
Outside the Euro Village, Clore Park in Tel Aviv 2019
Join Chip!
I’ve already written an article on this, but it is the biggest and easiest source of the income. This is an app based saving scheme and you link the app to your bank account and it sets up a direct debit and uses artificial intelligence to calculate how much you can save each week. It's so fabulous! It looks at the direct debits and standing orders you already have scheduled, then analyses how you spend the rest of your money, and calculates how much it thinks you can save without "feeling it". So if you splurge on pay day and have less money at the end of the month, your saves will be higher nearer pay day and less at the end. Mine have been as little as a £1!
But I have a big night out planned…
I hear you! Chip notifies you of how much it thinks you can save, but if you know you have a big night out planned, you can cancel the save. You can cancel all of the saves if you want! You're not penalised in any way. You can also set the strength of saves. I have mine on the Goldilocks save - yep, honestly! They're just right for the amount of money you have in your account.
You can also set a goal and it calculates when it thinks you can meet this goal and also have multiple goals active at the same time and set how much of each save goes in to each pot.
I've been using chip for a few years now and never had any issues. When I've wanted my money, I’ve requested how much I want to withdraw and it's been in my account the next day.
If you're interested, you can find out more here. I'd be grateful if you could use my sign up code B3IN5L.
Rotterdam 2020 projection £500. Money to go: £790
YouGov
Do you watch the BBC news and hear 40% of people love carrots more than peas?!
Oh you do! Ever wondered where that data comes from…wonder no more!
YouGov is a global public opinion and data company where you complete surveys on a range of subjects in exchange for points. When you have 5,000 points, you can convert this into a £50 BACS payment.
You have to fill in a few demographic details first as the surveys are tailored to your demographic. At the moment I'm getting a lot on women's football and my political thoughts, I must be in the 30 something women's bracket for voting. They are totally anonymous and easy to do, you're just answering what you think!
They can take anything from 5-15 minutes and usually reward with 50 points. So based on this, you need to be completing about 2 a week to get enough points in a year to put towards an annual holiday. I don't think you would get emailed about more than 2 a week anyway, unless there's an election! That's always a good time! Tee hee!
You might see this as a lot of hassle, but I find it a productive use of my time on my commute. Better than scrolling and scrolling….unless you spend that time catching up on fabulous blogs like this! Tee hee!
Rotterdam 2020 projection £50. Money to go: £740
Delay Repay
Following on from the above, I commute on the great Northern Rail line #NorthernFail. So if you're a commuter, you know the pain and frequency of the delays. I'm forever getting kicked out half way through my journey so it can catch up time to arrive at its destination on time. Anywhosy, you should definitely submit a delay repay every time you're late. I use Delay Repay Genie to help me identify which of my trains have been delayed and by how long. I will usually batch submit multiple claims every couple of weeks. I'm delayed so frequently I can never remember which days and how long I've been delayed for. If you have a season ticket, you can add this to the Northern Delay Repay account to save time keep entering the same details and it's set up with my bank account details so the money goes straight in to my account. You do get more value for money if you ask for compensation in free tickets, but if you have a season ticket, it might be a while until you get to use those, plus you can't save the money towards something fabulous then!
HUSTLE! If you have a season ticket, you're not bound to a specific train time and so you aren't as restricted with which trains you claim for
TIP! If you have a bank account like Starling you can set up ring fenced pots to put your money so you don’t spend what you’re saving.
Mystery shopping
Now this isn’t your average mystery shopping here. I’m not talking about the ones where you buy a Greggs pasty, have to submit pages and pages of report details for £2, I’m talking proper mystery shopping. I'm signed up to Red Wig Wam and Grassroots which are higher paying mystery shopping agencies.
Red Wig Wam acts like an agency, so when you sign up you need to provide a lot of detail. They pay tax on your behalf so you will need P60’s and proof of identity. It’s worth the extra barrier to entry as the mystery shops are quite good and usually around the £10 point plus expenses. I’ve done things like buying new slushes from Burger King to buying out a certain batch code of Aunt Bessie croquettes. I’d definitely recommend, even if you only find time to do one a month.
Grassroots tend to have the same assignments a lot, or maybe that’s just what’s in my area. Audits of Piccadilly train station are £10 and although there is quite a bit to them, are relatively easy if you’re already there anyway!
Rotterdam 2020 projection £100. Money to go: £590
TopCashBack
This is an amazing hustle! I TopCashback EVERYTHING! The small £2 eBay purchase to hotel bookings, all my household insurances, Christmas presents, amazon essentials, all of it! I wait until I've built up about £100 as payable until I withdraw and this doesn’t usually take a year to get to that.
Rotterdam 2020 projection £100. Money to go: £490
Let your friends employ you!
We all have a skill. Perhaps you’re a personal trainer, a nail technician, or you can crochet, build websites. Whatever it is, you’re a talented bunch!
For myself, I have a background of competitive ballroom dancing and my friend asked if I would model at their photography club. They have different themes each week and when there were some dance themed shoots coming up, they asked if I would model so they could practice their photography and editing skills. Not only was this superfun, they paid me for it!
Our friends are a support mechanism and definitely see our value so are willing to pay us if we have a service to offer.
So next time you do something for a friend, save the money towards your goal, you’ll get there quicker.
Rotterdam 2020 projection £160. Money to go: £330
Photo taken and edited by super talented Gerry Gentry, thanks! It’s FIRE!
So we’re getting to the smaller hustles now…
Submit an article for something you love!
Lots of companies pay for your stories of recommendation. So think about something you're always recommending, something you use that has changed how you approach something, something you love. It could be a write up of an app that's changed how you keep fit or a user story of a programme or course you've followed. Investigate whether those companies pay for user stories.
For myself, I used Chip for a few years and loved it! I follow them on social media, so I knew they paid for saver stories. I wrote an article and emailed it over to their content writer who liked it and wanted to publish it. Easy!
Rotterdam 2020 projection £25. Money to go: £305
Receipt Hog
This is an app where you get paid for photographing your receipts. Every receipt you photograph is rewarded in "coins". The amount of coins you receive is based on how frequent you upload receipts and the value of the receipt. There's no minimum amount, so I snap everything from the 50p milk I buy on my way in to the office, to receipts from eating out, to big house purchases. Once you reach 1,500 coins, you can withdraw this in to your PayPal as £5, although I prefer to wait longer until I have 5,300 and exchange this for £20 in my PayPal. This does take longer, but it’s not time consuming to keep on top of and I feel £20 makes more of a difference to my holiday fund than £5.
Rotterdam 2020 projection £20. Money to go: £285
Prolific Surveys
This is a research based survey website which I've used. It's different to the YouGov surveys as these are usually based on people and small businesses doing specific research to their target audience.
This is demographic based, a toy business launching a new product is likely to only contact parents. But they tend to be quite short so quick to do but they generally have a ceiling on how many responses are needed, so you need to get on them as soon as you get the notification.
Rotterdam 2020 projection £20. Money to go: £265
Don't be put off by these smaller amounts, as small amounts add up. These last three amount to £65 and for doing practically nothing.
£265 TO GO!...
So now I have about £265 to find, so I can look at the following.
Infographic w table and amounts
Extra things to consider
Switch bank accounts
Switching bank accounts is an easy process, especially as the banks take care of everything for you! A lot of banks offer cash incentives to switch too.
I have switched my main house bill account to HSBC and they had a £175 cash incentive, which was paid 2 weeks after opening. I have subsequently moved this to my main Starling account to put in a fenced pot!
Rotterdam 2020 projection £175. Money to go: £90
Round up payments
If I'm a little off target and there's a few weeks to go, I put my Starling Goal on Round-Up for the last push. You can select how strong of a round up you want, you can have the normal x1 which rounds up to the next pound, but there are stronger levels.
A lot of the high street banks (Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland) are also doing similar with a "Save the Change" scheme, where the rounds ups get moved to a savings account.
eBay clothes
If you have items that don't fit or still has tags on it, sell it! You could use eBay / Depop / Poshmark. But do your research first! You can check how much your item has sold for in the last 7 days so you can price your items accordingly.
Cancel unused gym memberships / unused subscriptions
Hands up who's guilty! I am! I haven't been to my gym since August 2019 and it took me 3 months to cancel my membership. Equally if you're not using Amazon prime, Audible, cancel those too.
£7.99 x 12 = £95.88 x 2 = £191.76
£15.99 x 12 = £191.88
Then transfer that money into wherever you're saving your money.
Check tax refunds
Ah isn't it a nice feeling when you get a tax refund?! It doesn't happen very often but last year I was due £140 which went straight to the Tel Aviv pot.
Small winnings
Maybe you pub quiz every week, or play the lottery. Any small winnings put in to the pot.
Car wrap advertising
I have considered this in the past, especially when I had an older car which I wasn't as bothered about how it looked. But you can get paid for advertising companies on your car. Here’s a website which offers this, but I never actually went through with it. All the other points paid up!
So that’s everything I do to create a free holiday for myself! Hope this has helped you. Please comment below which points you’re going to try! :)
xXx
