How to make money on maternity leave

Since being on maternity, I’ve been trying to make some extra cash online during Leo’s nap times. I’ve spent a lot of time on the sofa either feeding him or contact napping! After completing Call the Midwife and Superstore on Netflix (recommend!), I decided to pull my find out and do something productive with my dead time while I’m trapped on the sofa. So I looked into how to make money on maternity leave, or save money where I can.

Of course, this post isn’t just for those wanting to make some extra money on maternity leave or while off work pregnant. Anyone with some spare time can do them!

But during paid maternity leave, your wage starts to erode and after 9 months it disappears! As I’m taking 12 months off work, this means it won’t be long until my income is ZERO! I have been working hard to earn extra cash on my blog, but I’ve also been doing some other things to earn a bit of cash here and there.

It’s not just about making money, but also about saving money and making the most of discounts.

I’ll probably update this post regularly with any updates if I find more ways to make money online while I’m off work!

Here’s how to make money on maternity leave!

Numbrs

*Edit* Numbers is no longer offering Payday.

Numbrs is a smart wallet to help you manage your bank cards and loyalty cards all in one place. But I don’t actually use it for that.

Numbrs has a great referral scheme where if someone signs up using your referral link, you will both get a ticket to the Payday prize draw. This draw happens every Friday and there are LOAD of cash prizes to be won. The top prize is 10,000 euros and there are 50,000 euros up for grabs altogether!

I signed up and won 10 euros with my ticket! I’ve seen people on social media win some really big prizes. The winning money goes into your bank account the next day. So it’s not bad to say you don’t have to put any of your own money up! Just sign up for the free trial. But remember to cancel so you don’t get charged!

Sign up here using my referral link we both get a ticket! (Links removed as PayDay has now stopped)

I’ve got two so far for this week! You’ve got to be in it to win it. This is literally the chance for free money for just signing up that takes about 5 minutes.

Edit: I’ve just won an extra 60 euros on my second time entering the free raffle!

Edit again:

The following week I won 100 euros! So my total is 170 in 3 weeks!

Ziglu

They have a £5 referral scheme when you sign up using an invite and invest £1. It takes 5 minutes and you get the cash straight away!

Download Ziglu using this link: https://invite.ziglu.io/4ed69851

Register your account with your ID and get verified (takes a few mins to get approved)

Then top up your account with £1. Use this £1 to buy £1 worth of bitcoin. The money will then be in your account instantly and you can withdraw it into your bank account immediately.

You can get then get your friends to do the same with your link and you’ll both get £5.

I’ve made £30 with this!

Matched Betting

Matched Betting is probably the biggest earner. There is so much potential if you put the time in.

I started doing some Matched Betting while I was pregnant, I made about £200 in two weeks and stopped when I was getting close to my due date. I started doing it again in March and made about £350 in two weeks! I have currently stopped Matched Betting for the moment because I don’t get much free time and I want to use that time on my blog, but it’s something I will start doing again in the future if I need a bit of extra money on top of my blog income!

Matched Betting takes a bit to get your head around to start with. The Profit Accumulator website gives you a step-by-step guide on how to do it and how to do each sign-up offer.

You need to be able to concentrate and check you are doing it properly and don’t make any mistakes. Then when you get in the swing of it, it gets easier. I know people who are able to very quickly find offers, use the calculators and place bets without thinking about it too much because they are experienced.

I’m not there yet, which is why I’ve taken a break for now! I’m not going to lie to you and easy it’s simple because at first it doesn’t seem simple and you have to trust the process. Which is easier said than done when you are putting your money into something. But I promise, as long as you follow the instructions and check your bets, you won’t make mistakes so it will be risk-free.

So, how does Matched Betting work?

Matched Betting is a way to take advantage of offers on betting sites.

For example- William Hill may have an offer to give a free £10 bet to a new customer after they bet £20. So you sign up, place the £20 bet on William Hill, then you make a lay bet on an exchange site. This means you come out even, then you have a free £10. You place that on William Hill and then make another lay bet on an exchange site and then you make a profit. Depending on the odds, you should be making around 80% of the free bet – so from that offer, you should make around £8.

There are lots of signup offers, then you can move onto other offers. Such as reloads, accumulators and more.

The only thing I didn’t like about Matched Betting is that you do have to put your own money in to start with – but you get it back! Like there was one where I needed to bet £100 to get a £100 free bet! Also, the liability on your lay bets can get quite high as well. If you are not feeling confident, start with the lower offers and when you are more comfortable, you can do the higher ones.

How much money you make depends on how many offers you do at once. I would do two at a time. You have to wait for your qualifying bet to settle, then for your free bet to go into your account and then for your free bet to settle so it can take a few days to benefit from an offer.

I only did two at a time because I wanted to take it slow. I tracked all my bets on a spreadsheet so I knew where I was. It can get confusing if you don’t track what bets you’ve placed and your winnings.

If this is something you want to do, then check out Neesha’s post on No Risk Matched Betting. That post has everything you need to know to get started and she runs a Facebook group about it where she or other members will answer any questions you have. There is also a spreadsheet in the Facebook group which I use to keep track of my bets.

YouGov Survey

YouGov surveys are a great way to get paid to fill out surveys. It’s pretty easy to do and you get points every time you fill out a survey. Once you get 5000 points, you get £50 transferred into your bank account.

I’ve currently got 1500 points, which is basically £15! When I get to £50 I’ll probably use it to treat myself to some new clothes or even get some new baby clothes for Leo!

It’s pretty easy to do, so sign up here and get earning points today!

I wish there were more surveys, but I have my notifications switched on so know when I have been selected for a paid one. I started this at the start of April.

Free Share from Freetrade.

Freetrade is a mobile trading app. The good news is, you do not need to know anything about stocks and shares to benefit from this offer!

All you need to do is use my link to sign up to Freetrade here.

After signing up, deposit £1 (you withdraw it later!) and then complete the W-8BEN form to confirm you do not need to pay Tax in America.

Then you will get a free share worth £3-£200 in the next week or two (it took about 3 weeks for mine). This usually happens on a Wednesday. Then you can sell your share and withdraw that and your £1. I got £5 for my first free share – again, something for nothing!

You will also be able to refer other people for further free shares.

Quidco

Quidco is a cashback app. If you shop online a lot, then you can earn cash back on almost everything you buy.

Car insurance and other insurance is always a good one. For example, you can get £35 back on your car insurance if you use Quidco Compare Care Insurance.

I’ve just used an offer where I’ve just got £90 cashback on my car insurance policy!

They have loads of retailers, ones I use all the time such as:

• Amazon
• New Look
• ASOS
• Moonpig
• Etsy

I’m quite mad at myself for not doing this sooner as I’ve bought so much online in the last year! As you can see, it can take a while for the money to clear, but when it does – get that money withdrawn! I think £90 will be a nice boost just before Christmas!

Anyway, use my referral code to get £5 cashback.

Topcashback

Topcashback is the other best cashback site. It’s worth signing up to both Topcashback and Quidco and comparing the cashback preward before you make a big purchase as their rates can change.

Sign-up here.

Remember to withdraw the cash as soon as it’s in your account! You don’t want to lose it if the company goes bust.

AttaPoll.

AttaPoll is another paid survey app.

The surveys are not worth as much as YouGov, but the beauty of AttaPoll is you can withdraw as soon as you earn just £3. It’s not a massive earner but I’m aiming to complete enough surveys to earn about £3-£4 each week, then will withdraw at Christmas which will pay for our Christmas food shop as that should be about £120 by then. I think this is quite decent, especially if you’re often stuck nap trapped like me on the sofa!

It’s the last app I come to when making a bit of cash online as the surveys can be quite long for the amount you get back. But it’s still free money at the end of the day.

Download the app here.

Discount:

I’ve been looking for more ways to get a discount on things I buy already. I always search for a discount code before buying, but here are some great ones I’ve seen lately.

Google Discount Codes

I’ve done this for years – every time I buy something online, I’ll shop a discount code.

You can often get 5-20% off things or free delivery.

All you need to is Google the name of the website and then discount code. Example ‘ASOS discount code’. You’ll get lots of discount codes returned to you in search. Some aren’t active anymore but they are usually dated, so you can do the most recent ones.

New Look

New Look currently has an offer on where you can get 25% off if you sign up for their newsletter.

Simply sign up for their newsletter (a popup will appear on the home page) and they’ll send you a discount code for 25% off!

They have some lovely summer dresses this season two. Check out these 4 beautiful dresses I bought at 3 am when Leo was keeping me awake.

• Blue floral frill dress
• Black lemon dress
• Black zebra dress
• Black square neck dress

All these dresses are breastfeeding friendly too! The top one is a bit tight to get your boobs out but the others are easy to breastfeed in!

The best thing is, I got 25% off!

Tesco Clubcard

Tesco Clubcard offers are fantastic. You can often trade in £0.50 vouchers for £1.50 of vouchers for days out and other things.

But one thing I do is exchange them for money off my mobile phone bill. If you are with Tesco Mobile, you can change £0.50 for £1 for your phone. I’ve just exchanged £80 of vouchers for £160 off my bill so I’ve got a few months free. I used to save my vouchers for Christmas and spend them then, but now I just swap them for money off my phone bill so I get double the amount.

I then put the money I would have spent on my phone bill into savings. When my contract runs out, I plan to go to SIM-only for £12.50 a month, I’ll get loads of money off then!

B&M Competitions

B&M Have a lot of competitions on their website here. All you need to do is enter by the form and you can win products and money off vouchers!

B&M is a great shop and sells loads! I’ve just entered a competition to win £100 of vouches. You can buy lots of everyday items here to save money off your shopping!

I keep my survey and money apps all in one folder on my phone to remind myself about them. It’s easy to forget to check if something is on Topcashback, or forget to do some surveys for a few days.

I am trying out a few other things at the moment, Qmee (surveys, cashback and deals) and Prolific (surveys). I’ll update you all when I’ve tried them out!

• Want to improve your monthly finances? Download my free monthly budget planner here.

Let me know some ways that you make money online – whether you are on maternity leave or not!

You can read some tips about money mindset here.