The average person spends countless hours of their life commuting, but it doesn’t have to be a drain on your time and money.
Here are some clever ways of making a bit of extra cash on your commute.
Be a courier
Yup, you can drop off items to places that are on your journey anyway!
Nimber is a Norwegian start-up that launched in the UK in the middle of last year. It's been dubbed the Airbnb of delivery, providing a more eco-friendly and personal service.
The concept is really simple. A 'sender' will flag up something that they need to be delivered and 'bringers' will be notified if it matches their activity and routes. If they choose, bringers can make a deal with the sender directly.
How much can I make? It depends on how many trips you make, but at the time of writing one user was offering £20 to get a set of keys delivered from London to Reading.
Walk or cycle instead
There's health and environmental benefits to take into account of course, but you can also bag a bit of cash by getting fit.
Get paid to walk or cycle into work using the Bounts app. You can earn up to 90 bounts (points) a day for recording your journeys which in turn can be exchanged for high street vouchers.
It connects to your other fitness apps and tracks how much exercise you do, giving you more points the more you do. Even 7,000 steps or 20 minutes of walking counts. As well as points, you earn credits which you can put towards a reward wheel for a chance to win even more points.
How much can I make? On a free membership you can earn up to 15 bounts a day. You need 769 points to get a gift card from New Look, Currys PC World, Argos, Tesco or Debenhams. That would take you 51 days but imagine how fit you'd be by the end!
Alternatively you can pay for a Premium or Premium+ account to clock up more points. With a Premium account you pay £9.99 a year (83p a month) and you can earn up to 90 points a day. The Premium+ plan costs £14.99 a year (£1.25 a month) and you can earn up to 180 points per day.
Earn 5% from your current account
Do searches, take surveys, watch videos and more
Those who prefer a bit of mental stimulation in the morning can take surveys, watch videos, play games, listen to the radio or shop and get cashback on GetPaidTo.
[SPOTLIGHT]Once you've reached 500 points they can be transferred to your PayPal or bank account to be withdrawn as cash. There's also the option to exchange points for gift cards or you can opt for a Cashback Boost which makes your points more valuable.
If you'd prefer to get paid for everyday online searches, sign up to Qmee. Your searches will come up as normal but there will be a few extra ones marked as Qmee which you'll be paid to click on. The amount will be displayed in the top right-hand corner of the advert. What's more, there's no minimum redemption limit so you can withdraw funds from your PayPal account whenever you like.
How much can I make? Every 500 points is worth £1 with GetPaidTo. You can earn 168.75 points for filling in a survey (numbers vary), 20 points for signing up and 20 points for filling out your details. If you refer a friend and they build up a tenner in cashback, you can get a fiver into your account too.
A click on a Qmee link can vary from a few pennies up to a pound so you can build up your cash fairly quickly.
Review undiscovered artists
Fancy yourself as a bit of a music buff? You can review undiscovered artists using SliceThePie.
It’s really easy. Just sign up and start listening to tracks. You can start reviewing as soon as you start listening, but you need to listen to it for at least 90 seconds before you can submit a review. Some priority tracks warrant an additional bonus payment so watch out for those.
Payments are based on quality of review: if it’s longer and in well-written English, you’ll earn more. You can also refer a friend and get a bonus 10% of their review earnings to build up your pot more quickly.
It could take you a while to see any cash though: the minimum PayPal withdrawal is $10 (£6.84).
How much can I make? You’ll be paid around five or six cents per review, which is about three or four pence. Hardcore reviewers have reportedly earned up to £40 a month but they're likely to write a lot of reviews and get referrals for other reviewers. On your commute you’d probably be making a minimal amount.
So as you can see, you’re not going to be able to buy a new car from your commute earnings but they’re handy little boosters for, say, your morning cup of coffee. At least it'll make that commute seem a bit more bearable!
Earn 5% from your current account