A NEW YEAR AND NEW WAYS TO MAKE SOME EXTRA CASH...

With Christmas well and truly behind us now and all the credit card bills coming in, it's no wonder that this is the most popular month for people to seek out ways to make some extra cash to help pay off their bills.

To kick start the new year I thought I would give you some quick and easy ways to get some quick cash back.

Please tell me that most of you already use a cashback site as this is the quickest way to get some 'cash back'. Most of the transactions you will have bought through this site over Christmas will now have gone through so your total amount of cash back should show on your statement. One of the best cash back sites is Top Cash Back which is the UK's highest paying cashback site.

Another quick return is to sell any unwanted gifts online through Ebay, Craigslist or Gumtree, even Ebay offer free listings or nothing to pay until you sell for January.

Pop over to The Money Saving Expert's site and head to the 'Boost Your Income' forum boards which have lots of ideas on how to boost your income.

According to Save the Student site the best survey sites are - Toluna, Vivatic, MySurvey, Valued Opinions, IPSOS, Global Test Market, The Opinion Panel, You Gov, Pinecone, One Poll and more.

Changing your bank account or credit card can also give you instant cash and the best site for these deals is The Money Saving Expert.

Check out the site Task Rabbit which lists jobs such as picking up parcels, flat pack assembly or moving and packing jobs in your area.

Finally, watch TV and get paid for it. At this time of year the nights are long and we do tend to sit in front of the TV for longer so why not make some money while you are watching by joining The Viewers you can earn £40-£70 for a group discussion on specific programmes.

TOP TEN WAYS TO SAVE MONEY THIS WINTER...

In case you haven't already heard these I thought I would give you what they call, 'the top ten ways to save money this Winter.

Of course, this list has been adapted by Confused.com so some of the pointers may not surprise you.

1. 'Give yourself a quick financial review', ie check your direct debits and other payments in your account are up to date. With the renewal of some magazine subscriptions coming up around Christmas this is one worth reminding yourself of. They say 'move payments as close to payday as possible and it will be easier to work out how much money you have left for the rest of the month'.

2.  'Be disloyal' – to your cards and accounts that is. With apparently 106 of the 228 credit cards on the market being accessed only via the internet application, it pays to shop around for the best deals.

3. 'Balance transfers', and the best way to do this is to go to Confused.com who offers a free Card Matcher tool that shows you how likely you are to be accepted before you apply.

4. 'Savings Bonus' apparently savings top the list of 'Brits' financial woes', according to the survey by Unbiased, with 39 percent of those polled admitting this is their top concern. So, study, study and study some more by looking for the best savings.

5. 'Tax-Free Savings' which again I am sure we have all got ISA's but if you have any money in your current account at the end of the month, Confused.com say you should transfer it to an instant access cash ISA. 

6. ' Use it or lose it', by that they mean some packaged current accounts offer such as travel insurance, breakdown etc if not being used can be bought cheaper.

7. 'Switch Current Accounts'. They say that you can actually 'make money' by switching your current account. Some banks, for instance, are offering new customers cash to switch their main account, which can come in rather handy coming up to Christmas. There are some stipulations but just look on Confused.com website for details of this one and others that are available.

8. 'Earn as you spend'. They say that a cashback credit card means you can earn money every time you spend which can be as much as 5 percent in some cases. 

9. 'Spending abroad'. Chance would be a fine thing for me at the moment but plenty of you go on winter sun holidays so they are saying you should plan which cards to use abroad by looking on their site as some can charge a fortune to use abroad. 

10.  'Money Saving apps', apparently there are a number of clever smartphone apps that can help you budget from iXpenseit which allows you to set up a budget and record your daily outgoings to a category, which makes it good for tracking your spending. It's not for free though, so check out the free ones first.

More information on all of the above is available from www.confused.com

                    

                    

                    

                    

TOP FIVE UK WEBSITES ON "MAKING EXTRA #MONEY"...

These are my top five UK websites which have the best information on 'Making some extra money'online or from home.

The Money Saving Expert site is the UK's biggest consumer website, with about 15 million users a month. The founder and editor Martin Lewis created the site in February 2003 for just £100. The site's ethical stance and consumer revenge approach have made it the UK's official No 1 money site. It has won many awards and is now a constant port of call for consumer and policymakers alike.
It also has a great forum which covers lots of online making money boards.

Moneywise is another great site for information on making money and has a free guide on 50 ways to make money. Since its launch in 1990, Moneywise magazine has informed and educated millions of people about how to make the most of their hard earned money, by helping people to identify the right investment products.

Money Magpie written by Jasmine Birtles who is a journalist and TV presenter. She set it up in 2007 and is said to be the country's leading site for sale and legitimate money-making opportunities.

My Family Club has lots of information and making money from home and was set up to help families save, manage and make money. It was set up by Gemma Johnson six years ago when she was on maternity leave and found it a struggle to manage on a reduced budget due to the decreased income and increased outgoings that a new baby brings. Something which I am sure resonates with many a new Mum.

Finally, Survey Money Maker  is another great site which it says is the internet's best guide to making money online. It covers survey sites that you can make money from in great detail.