I always have various unfinished posts and ideas sitting in my Drafts folder so this is me having a bit of a clear out.
These Boots Are Made for Walkin’
I’m not a fan of strolling but I don’t mind a bit of fast or power walking. With the gyms locked down (prior to the recent reopenings), I added walking to my exercise routine.
One loop around the estate is a 9-min fast walk and I try to do this twice a day (rain or shine), before I start work and after I’ve logged off for the day. I’m not walking any great distances on a daily basis – it’s probably more important to me that I push my heart rate up when I’m walking.
That said, I’ve also been on a few 6-7 mile walks on trails near where I live and last month did a trail in Yorkshire.
Get Paid to Walk
At around the time I started doing more walking, I came across an Android-only app called winwalk*. The blurb states:
winwalk is a free and easy to use pedometer that will motivate you to walk more every day and will boost your activity level
The bonus is that you can get paid with egift cards/vouchers.
Scam or real? I thought I’d try it out.
So, for every 100 steps which are tracked by the app, you are awarded one coin. Coins are coverted into gift cards.
You need 20,000 coins to convert into a gift card. The app uses the arbitrary ‘healthy’ measure of 10k steps a day to cap the amount of coins you can earn from walking to just 100 coins a day.
So just from walking, assuming that you clock 10k steps every day, that would take 200 days to accumulate enough coins to redeem a voucher. Hmm…doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort, particularly as I only average around only 5k a day?
But wait, there are other ways to earn more coins, including watching video ads, downloading and playing games and answering surveys.
I’ve been doing the latter and have found it relatively easy to earn a few hundred more coins each day, on top of the 100 coin limit you can earn from walking.
Recent surveys I’ve answered have been quite interesting, including ones on my shopping habits during lockdown, my work situation during the pandemic and my finances (all anonymous).
You even get awarded a few coins if you don’t qualify for surveys so it’s probably worth clicking as many surveys as you want to spend/waste time on. Surveys can last from 1-15 mins – usually the longer the survey, the more coins you are awarded.
So after a little over 2 months, I’d collected my 20k coins and I painlessly redeemed them for my chosen gift voucher:
Other giftcards are available, including (at the last check, as they seem to change periodically) Argos, Tesco, Currys/PC World, Primark, Nike, Sports Direct and Spotify to name a few.
This app obviously isn’t going to make you rich but if you’re going to be clocking up your steps anyway as you go about your daily life, when you take the dog out for a walk etc, why not have your steps go towards earning gift cards? All the other stuff, eg surveys are optional and require little effort even if you do choose to do them.
A couple of notes:
- I have the app set so it’s running in the background all the time. I don’t know if it works on any other setting
- Make sure you bank all the coins you earn so they are added to your account. The collected coins are reset at midnight so if not banked, you could lose coins you’ve earned
Conclusion
Although I’ve returned to the gym, I’ve continued to walk daily so perhaps lockdown has helped me develop more active behaviour for the long term and as such, I’ll continue with this app a while longer to collect my coins!
[*referral link – if you sign up via my link, I get some coins to go towards my next gift card]
Thanks for this, interesting, I may well sign up.
I joined a similar scheme called ‘Bounts’ a few years back, it was TOO generous at first – it gradually reduced the rewards and then folded, just as I was about to qualify for an Amazon gift card :-(. Make sure you extract your points as you earn them!
There’s another one called Betterpoints which looks worth looking at, though takeup seems low – ‘tens of thousands’ across the globe.
I’m signed up for Swagbucks, Populous, Viewsbank, Ohmydosh and YouGov for surveys and games, which provide a trickle of income, though I often get through the first few questions only to be told the quota is full or I don’t qualify. You can bump your passive (ish) income by getting onto one of their ‘panels’ for insurance, TV watching habits etc, though I avoid the ones that require me to install software to track my browsing, downloads etc.
Good luck!
Hi Phil
Not heard of Bounts but I was signed up with ValuedOpinions years ago, back when it was really easy to earn £80- £100 a year doing surveys (I was paid in cheques back then!). After a while, it just wasn’t worth my time.
At some point, I’ve signed up to Swagbucks and YouGov but continually being screened out for surveys meant again, it wasn’t worth my while attempting them (although I’m a few quid off from the minimum £50 YouGov payout).
I’ve been on a couple of investing panels which have paid £100+ for taking part in webinars.
The good thing about this app is that even if you don’t qualify, you still get a few coins paid out whereas most others don’t reward you with anything.
Interesting, I too was a part of Bounts and chuffed to get a steady stream of vouchers. But ultimately, it and it sounds like the app above was too much work for a tenner voucher. The increased mental overhead of managing the app and time consumed wasn’t worth it in my view. It’s a bit like picking up a penny in the street, if someone employed you to bend down and pick up single pennies at the rate one every six seconds,, you’d earn less than minimum wage – and be using your free time to boot! I don’t do surveys etc anymore for the same reason.
Hi Chris
The surveys (and other tasks to earn coins) are optional and like you surmise, a real time suck. However, if you’re going to be walking the dog anyway, or you walk/run for your exercise, you can get a tenner voucher for no extra effort. There’s no need to do the other stuff if you think it’s a waste of time.
I don’t convert anything I do outside of my job into £/time because it’s what I choose to do in my free time – it’s a bonus if I get paid (whatever) for it. Not figured out how I can get paid for watching tv and reading – that would probably be my ultimate side hustle! 🙂
And yes, I still pick up pennies when I see them!
Interesting, shame it is capped as I quite often walk more than 10k steps in a day.
I am signed up to swagbucks and yougov. and get the odd bit of money now and again. Swagbucks is too in your face emailing you every day.
I normally end up with about £50 by Christmas to help towards treats.
I guess the cap encourages people to do the surveys, play the games to earn more coins over and above the limit.
I turned off notifications for swagbucks – just too much!
Good to hear that you get a decent amount in time for Christmas!
Hey thanks weenie, it sounds interesting. I’ve downloaded the app using your link. I’m normally walking or running 10k or so daily, so it’s worth a try for me 😀
A while ago I heard about an app which would connect to the Fit Bit app, register your steps and and give you some rewards from there. I don’t know the details as it was available for US residents only, but always wanted to find something similar for the UK.
It’s walking time! 😀
Thanks for signing up via my link, Tony and good luck with it!
Hi Weenie,
Thanks very much for this, I have signed up via your link, hopefully you will have received the coins, I’m at 1752 after a week.
During lockdown I have been ridiculously busy and stuck behind a desk working from home most of the time. Anything that encourages me to get out and burn off a few calories is a good thing. One of the things I have missed during lockdown was the commute, as that was my time to myself. Whilst out walking I have been downloading and listening to podcasts again. So this should improve my mental health as well.
Hey Mikul
Thanks for signing up via my link – you’re one of 7 people who have signed up so have earned me 2,100 coins – thanks very much to you all!
Yes, working from home has made me inactive – I now make a point to go for at least one walk a day (1km round the estate) and try to get off my chair and away from my laptop regularly to move around.
Although I’m financially better off as a result of not having to commute, I too miss it as it was time to myself, to reflect, or just think of nothing while listening to music.
Perhaps I need to make an effort too, to add that time back into my life.
BTW, I checked out your blog – will you be continuing when the new seasons start and will you just stick with Bundesliga 2 or look at other leagues?
Thanks Weenie,
Yes I will continue when the Bundesliga 2 season starts and add other leagues to my blog. I’ve had mixed results in some of the other leagues, Turkey was really good, Portugal provided some surprising losses, interesting thow different leagues and teams adapted to playing without crowds.
I am currently betting on Belgium (Lay Away), Brazilian (Lay Away) and Japanese (Lay Draw) games. I have also paid £50 for a lifetime subscription to a Lay the Draw service which is across multiple leagues, so far it is going OK.
Will blog about it all soon.