Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
8 ways to make money from your postcode
MoneyMagpie team
10th Jan 2023
Did you know you can make money from your postcode? Whether you’re in the country or in the town, you can make some extra cash simply by being where you are.
Let’s examine the top 8 methods to make money from your postcode below:
- Your postcode can make you £800 today!
- Find local work
- Be a poll clerk
- Sell energy to the national grid
- Consider renting out your driveway
- Renting out a room
- Rent out your garden
- Move to another postcode to get a better deal on insurance
- More ways to win free stuff and cash
Your postcode can make you £800 today!
The first way to make money from your postcode can be done through Pick My Postcode, the free postcode lottery. You can also make up to £800 from this on any given day. The website is totally legitimate and offers a chance for you to make money from your postcode every day.
All you do is sign up with your email address and postcode. then check back on the site every day to see if your postcode has won. So be sure to check every day!
There’s no catch either. The website works by having people check the site every day so it increases the traffic. This in turn increases the amount of money they can make from advertisers.
So the website makes enough money simply from it’s traffic, enabling their cash prizes!
Not only that, but the site has lots of other ways you can make money just by watching videos or clicking on links.!
Try it here; put your email address and postcode in and win £800 today!
Find out more in our article about it here.
Find local work
Perhaps the most obvious way to make money from your postcode is to look for local employment.
For example, in your area you could do:
- babysitting
- dog-walking
- house-sitting
- tutoring
- performing at weddings
- painting and decorating
- catering
- waiting staff
You can also use sites like Gumtree, RatedPeople, Freelancer.co.uk and Peopleperhour.co.uk to find work in your local area.
Or just do it yourself. Make flyers and posters and advertise your skills in local libraries, train stations, pubs or even put leaflets through letterboxes in your area.
be a poll clerk
When there is a General Election or any local elections, someone has to sit in the voting office to tick people off as they come in and go. This ensures everything happening is done properly and democratically.
That’s the job of a poll clerk, and it’s pretty well paid as you can see in our article here.
Get in touch with your local council to have your name put on the list. Then once the next election comes around you can take advantage.
Sell energy to the national grid
If you’re making use of sustainable energy you can sell surplus energy back to the National Grid.
For example if you’ve put solar panels on your roof, you could sell some of your surplus. Remember it does need to be green energy to be sold.
- A programme of what are called ‘Feed-in Tariffs’ (FiTs), provides income from every kilowatt hour generated in your home. All renewable energy qualifies so check on the Feed-in Tariffs site for more info.
- Renewable Heat Incentive became another potential source of income where you could also receive a tariff for renewable heat sources (RHI).
Both of these schemes will pay you a bonus for exporting energy or renewable heat sources into the grid or network.
Renewable energy, which is suitable for domestic use, includes solar energy, wind turbines, water turbines, ground source heat pumps or biomass boilers and stoves.
These various technologies are designed to last 20 to 25 years but they do cost money to install. However, over time, you should be able to make that money back and earn a profit.
There is a variety of government grants available to householders installing renewable energy technology.
Consider renting out your driveway
Do you have a driveway, garage or private parking space that you don’t use? Do you live somewhere popular like the centre of town, near a train station or sports ground? You could make money by renting out your space.
Contact YourParkingSpace to advertise it. Even if you use the driveway regularly, you can still make money by renting it out temporarily.
For example, you might not use it at the weekends, when the local football stadium is busy. Or you might live near Wimbledon but move out during the tennis.
Either way, read the full article on renting out your driveway to learn how drive up your income levels from your parking space.
Rent out a room
You can make up to £4,500 a year by renting a room in your home. It’s also tax free!
We like Spareroom which includes an interesting ‘buddy up’ section where people looking for somewhere to stay can find others in the area who are also looking. That way they can get together and find a whole house to rent together.
For more ideas, take a look at our article on renting a room.
If permanently sharing your home doesn’t appeal, consider taking in foreign students short-term. English language schools are always looking for good homes for their growing number of students.
Depending on where you live and how nice your place is, you can make between £35 and £150 a week.
part-time lodgers
If renting out a room full time isn’t something you want to do then a part-time lodger may suit you better. The website Monday-to-Friday specialises in just this type of person. It appeals to people who need to stay in your area during the week, but go home at weekends.
For even more temporary lodgers, you can put your home, or just a room, on Airbnb or HomeAway so that you can make money hosting tourists or business visitors for one night at a time. For extra cash you could offer breakfast too.
Just rent space
You don’t just have to rent to people, though. If you have an empty, dry basement or a big loft, you could potentially advertise it as storage space, particularly if you live in a crowded city where storage is at a premium.
If you have a cellar or garage that has its own access, you will be able to charge more by offering clients their own key and 24-hour availability. This could make anything from £5 a week for storing a few boxes in your loft to around £50 for filling a garage in central London. Try Spareground or Gumtree to get started.
Rent out your garden
If you have a large garden, consider turning it into allotments, particularly if you live in a city. In London the average waiting time for allotments can be several years.
So if you don’t mind people coming into your garden whenever they like to grow fruit and veg, then it’s a good way to make some extra cash. Not to mention keep the weeds at bay.
Municipal allotments charge very little, between £10 and £30 a year. But that doesn’t stop you from making a private arrangement and charging more.
Find out how to turn your garden into allotments here.
move to another postcode to get a better deal on insurance
When you move house your insurance premiums can rise or fall depending on the area.
For example, insurers Confused.com have found that a 40-year-old man with a five-year no claims discount driving 15,000 miles a year in a Ford Focus would pay over £1000 a year for car insurance in Bradford (BD1 postcode area), compared to around £4000 in Aberdeen (AB).
Not surprisingly, London is the most expensive city for premiums where Truro in Cornwall (TR) is one of the cheapest areas for insurance premiums. Take a look here to see how much you could save on your car insurance today, wherever you live!
For home insurance, Bournemouth is the cheapest area at around a third less than the average. With York and Glasgow the second and third respectively.
Of course, you don’t have to move house just to get a cheaper insurance rate. You can save cash just by switching next time you have to get a new policy. Try this comparison to make money for yourself!
More ways to get free stuff
Want more ways to earn free cash and win great prizes? Stay up-to-date with the latest MoneyMagpie competitions on our new Competitions and Freebies forum!
Get stuck into the other parts of the MoneyMagpie Messageboard, too. Ask your money questions and get responses from the MoneyMagpie team, community members, and even vetted experts. Even better: the best post of the week wins a £25 Amazon voucher!
Putting your name forward to be a poll clerk is a good idea but there is always long wait for your name to be considered.
Having a lodger is a nice way to make extra money but just have to be careful of ensuring you abide by the tax rules governing having a lodger.
Yes, good points there.
I think this site is great with a clean design, very helpful and insightful.
I have an office and I am based in SW7 and I am looking for virtual PA or Property Management work a few hours per day during office hours.
I would be interested
Useful information for making money from your postcode.
Own energy who you recommend in this article that I received to my email today, ceased trading in 2012
Good gracious – thank you for pointing it out! We will remove it!
someone to do my garden and have the bottom part as an allotment for themselves
Hello can you please elaborate on how can I use a stream at the end of my garden to generate hydro electricity?
I am competent in putting together flat packed furniture. Please contact me to discuss your needs, very reasonable prices.
I am very intersested in looking after a child