This is a guest post from Clare who writes at My Money Cottage. Clare’s blog aims to help families to bring in more money, save more money, and stretch their pennies that little bit further.

Looking after the family finances can be really tough going. There always seems to be something that you need to pay for. As a Mum of three, it feels as though one of the children needs something paying for every single week! No matter how hard we work, the money still seems to drip straight through our fingers. There are school trips, shoes, coats, trousers with holes worn in the knees, swimming lessons, football, the list is endless!

In order to keep our heads above water, I do lots of side hustles to bring in more money, and it’s these side hustles that pay for all the sudden emergency items that the kids need, as well as allowing us to put money aside for treats such as family holidays.

A Disney holiday can be particularly expensive, especially if you’re planning on going in the school holidays. But, there are lots of things you can do from home in order to raise the money to get you and your family off on the Disney holiday of your dreams.

5 ways to raise money for your next Disney trip.

First of all, you need to work out just how much money you need to get together. Sit down and add up how much you’re going to need for travel, accommodation, park tickets, food, passports if necessary and anything else that you’re going to need to pay for. This might be a little daunting, but it’s really important to know exactly how much money you’re going to need to get together.

Once you’ve done that, you can start to work out a plan of action. There are lots of legitimate ways you can make money from home, but these four are my absolute favourites, making me over £1,000 every month.

1. Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping is one of my favourite ways to make extra money. The idea is that you sign up to a mystery shopping agent and then apply for mystery shops near you. Many high street shops and pubs use mystery shopping companies to make sure that their services are up to scratch and customer friendly.

Over the past few months, I’ve had numerous free pub meals and freebies from shops, and I’ve been paid a fee for visiting too.

If you live near a big town or city, then you’ll probably find that there is lots of work available for you. I live in a small town, but still manage to do at least one mystery shopping visit most weeks.

There are even mystery shopping jobs where you can just make a phone call to a company and report back on your findings, so you don’t even need to leave the house.

2. Surveys

OK, so I know there are a load of really low paying survey sites out there where it takes forever to actually be able to get your money out. I do use those sites, but they’re a slow burner.

However, if you want to make some decent money with surveys, then Prolific Academic pay really well. I’ve had £6 for a survey that took just over 5 minutes.

Prolific Academic are slightly different to other survey sites in that they screen users before making the survey available. This means that you don’t get part way through a survey only to be told you’re not eligible. So, no wasted time and not getting paid for it.

3. User Testing

User testing is such an easy way to make money from home, and it’s something I rarely here people talk about!

Big companies often want to have their websites tested out before they go live with them. Badly designed websites that aren’t user friendly can lose customers quickly. So, they employ companies such as WhatUsersDo and TryMyUI to get their websites tested by real people.

In order to become a user tester, you will need to download some software onto your computer that will allow your screen to be recorded.

Each job will have its own specific instructions for you to follow, but they generally involve navigating your way around a site and speaking your thoughts as you do so.

You can be paid £5-£10 on average per job and they take a maximum of 10 minutes each! That’s not a bad hourly rate.

4. Declutter

You would be amazed how much money you could make just by decluttering and selling stuff.

Think about the toys your children no longer play with.  Many of us have old bikes sitting in the shed that they no longer use, or they’ve grown out of.

Bag up bundles of clothes into age groups and list them for £5-£10 on Facebook Marketplace. Baby clothes sell really well as people know they’re not going to be using them for very long. Babies grow so quickly!

Things like jumperoos sell really well second-hand.

Spend a day decluttering your things into 4 areas – keep, sell, charity shop, bin.

As well as Facebook, you can list items on eBay, Gumtree, Preloved and Mercari.

There are so many you can make extra money to fund your next Disney trip. I hope you’ve found these four useful and they help you on your way!