With households budgets squeezed tighter than ever some people have found new ways to make extra cash in the run up to Christmas.
One This is Money reader has revealed how a little bit of money saving work throughout the year allowed her to buy £500 worth of presents for just £100.
Heather Morris, who lives in Wales with her three year old daughter, does market research online to earn extra cash throughout the year to provide some extra money to spend at Christmas.
Heather, 29, earns the majority of cash through market research websites. This year, she earned £80 on ShopandScan – a website which pays members for scanning in their shopping each week.
More... Amazon is ranked best online Christmas shopping experience as retail websites close doors to last-minute shoppers You can take back granny's Christmas jumper: What to do with unwanted giftsMembership is invitation only, although you can register your interest on the website. Those who join up will be sent a barcode scanner and this will need to be connected to a PC via USB drive.
HOW HEATHER'S MONEY SAVING ADDS UPMoney Spent£8 on Christmas tree
£60 on cash for vouchers (presents for daughter)
£11 on Boots 2 for 1
£21 Miscellaneous (money spent in addition to vouchers etc)
TOTAL: £100
Money earned/saved£80 from ShopandScan
£60 from Valued Opinion and Pure Profile
£60 from cashback
£98 from tree sale
£170 saved gift vouchers
TOTAL: £468
Earnings via ShopandScan are paid in the form of vouchers. Heather mostly cashed her points in for M&S and Boots vouchers and used them to buy presents for Christmas.
She said: ‘It might take a up some of my time but it’s worth it! This Christmas I have spent just £100 on £500 worth of presents, a whopping saving of 80 per cent and my best saving to date.’
She also used Valued Opinion and Pure Profile to earn £60 collectively over the past year for filling in online questionnaires.
Heather answers questions on the websites on a daily basis, on anything from her shopping habits to what washing powder she thinks is best. The information is used to collate research for big firms and users are paid for their time and answers.
She made a further £60 over the past year by using cashback website, TopCashback, to buy insurance and do her weekly shop.
Her most productive money spinner to buying an artificial Christmas Tree from eBay in March for just £8. She then sold it earlier this month on the online auction website for £98.
She said: ‘My mum told me about the Christmas Tree listing on eBay and I snapped it up. I didn’t realise it was worth quite so much, it was a real surprise and definitely worth the gamble. I’m going to buy up more next year to sell on.’
Heather, who is a full-time mum, will £170 worth of vouchers and gift cards she earned this year as presents. £60 will go towards buying presents for her daughter.
She said: ‘You have to check the expiry date so that you can still use them but it’s a great way to get presents for free.’
‘I used the vouchers to help buy presents in Boots – with its 2 for 1 offer I managed to buy 9 gifts for just £11 once I combined them the vouchers.’