I'm beginning to get a little bit panicky about always being a smallholderwannabe. We just can't seem to find a place that we can afford that is vaguely in this area so that we can see our family and grandchildren. We have got to find somewhere either this year or next or we might not be able to afford a mortgage after that. Besides, if we leave it too long, we'll be too old to start over. So..... the idea is to maximise income and minimise expenditure while at the same time leaving enough on the planet for my grandchildren's grandchildren and hopefully theirs too etc.

I would like to write about some of the ways that I use to find extra pennies. Mr Tesco says that every little helps and I know that lots of pennies don't sound much by themselves but added up over a year, they come to a useful extra sum. I'm hoping that others will add their tried and tested ways of finding a bit extra too.

Quidco - For doing searches through Quidco, Kelkoo pay 1p a day and the highstreetweb pay 4p for each of two searches. That is 9p for me and 9p for my husband = 18p. Sometimes the second highstreetweb search doesn't register even though it might be hours between the two searches so I reckon on £1 a week here which is £50 a year. Two years out of the last three, we have found the cheapest quote for both car and home insurance through Quidco, which brought in anything from £40-70 a time. They pay straight into your bank account every month even if you have only earned 50p although it sometimes takes two or three months for Kelkoo etc to pay Quidco.
http://www.quidco.com/

Cashback rewards - not as rewarding as Quidco but the cashback opportunities vary. At the moment one can earn about 10p per day from searches but occasionally (like last autumn) it can be over £1 per day which was quite lucrative while it lasted. I admit that once I've done Quidco, I don't always have the patience to do searches here. They pay out quite quickly once you have £25 earnings "banked".
http://www.cashback-rewards.co.uk/

There are other sites but of all the ones that I've tried, these are the two that I've found to be the most reliable at paying up.

There are lots of sites that offer surveys but I get very frustrated with most of them. They send an email, then halfway or more through the survey, they suddenly decide that you don't fit the profile that they wanted and you have wasted your time.

yougov - If they send you an invitation to a survey, then you get to do the survey and get paid for it. The one drawback is that you "bank" your earnings until you have £50 and then get sent a cheque very soon after. I find that I get a cheque about every 18 months.
http://www.yougov.co.uk/

Harris International panel - These people pay in Amazon e-vouchers which can be very useful for birthdays and Christmas. You get points for each survey and 100 points = £16 voucher. If they decide that you don't "fit the profile" then you get two points as compensation.
http://uk.hi-epanel.com/


Has anybody else got any favourite ways of increasing income please?