Ways to make extra cash over Christmas and the New Year

In general, it can be pretty hard to keep costs down over the Christmas and New Year period. After considering how much you'll have to spend on presents for loved ones, and also the additional cash that you might have to part with to cover off any Christmas nights out or New Year celebrations, it's fair to say that you might be worried about not having enough cash to get you through the festive season.

However, that's not to say that, with a little preparation as well as some imagination, you couldn't come up with ways to ensure you have enough money to get through one of the busiest periods of the year. In fact, many people across the country manage to come up with ways to ensure they can make ends meet over the period.

Firstly, while it might sound obvious, one way to make sure you've enough money to see you through the festive period is by saving up cash throughout the year. Even having a jar of money or a piggy bank that you regularly top up with spare cash during the year could go a long way to making sure you have enough to see you through the season. Similarly, you might want to keep Christmas in the back of your mind when you make any frivolous purchases. While it might be the last thing in the back of your head when you're considering buying a new HD television in June, it's safe to say that come December you might have wished you'd bought the model down from the one you did to free up an extra £100 or so for presents!

Using cash-back shopping or credit cards that reward users for choosing their services by paying them back with money they've made in commission over the year can also be useful. It does however go without saying that you might not want to overstep your budget when using them, potentially in the hope of getting more money back.

Results from recent online surveys have shown that actually taking the surveys themselves is becoming a more widespread way of making extra cash over Christmas. Indeed, they allow users to make a bit of extra money just by answering questions on particular topics that they might already feel strongly about - making it one of the easiest ways to make some extra cash not just over Christmas, but all year round. Interestingly, results from the survey showed that they were the most popular way of making money for Christmas, with 75% of UK respondents doing so.

However, it also revealed that selling personal possessions such as CDs, DVD, games and books on the internet was popular, with 35% of UK respondents doing so, as opposed to only 1% who said they would use more "traditional" methods such as selling offline at car boot sales, or babysitting.  

The trends suggested by this survey would definitely highlight that more people are taking advantage of the moneymaking opportunities offered by the internet, as opposed to more old fashioned ways of making extra cash. By combining these opportunities with traditional methods of preparing for Christmas, such as saving up spare cash over the course of the year, you might be able to ensure that you're able to get through the festive period without too much of an effect on your wallet.