MISS MONEYSAVER: From renting out your home or even just your driveway to house-sitting… How to make money while you’re on holiday

Getting paid to travel the world may be much easier to achieve than you think.

In fact, there’s a growing number of savvy people making sure all their holiday expenses are covered while relaxing in the sun.

The easiest and most lucrative way to do this is to rent out your home while you are away. My friend Neil has often rented out his two-by-two-under terrace in York on Airbnb for hassle-free pocket money. You can make £50 to £100 a night doing this in a city or tourist hot spot like York which would make for a nice trip.

There’s a slew of apps and websites you can sign up for to let others know your property is for rent. Obviously there’s Airbnb, but there are others that have jumped on the bandwagon, including holidaylettings.co.uk, vrbo.com and booking.com, where you can create and manage a listing quite easily.

General rental sites such as spareroom.co.uk or mondaytofriday.com also offer good ways to find people who want to stay longer than just a few nights.

SpareRoom renters and Monday-Friday renters tend to be young adults or business people looking for a stopgap while finding more long-term accommodation, so they not only want a longer stay, but are also less at risk than some Airbnb randoms.

You don’t earn as much as you would through one of the holiday booking sites as you target people looking for a short term rental, which averages just over £250 per week. But it means you can rent out the property for the entire time you’re away, without having to ask a friend to clean your house and make the beds.

Advertisements on SpareRoom are free. Airbnb and Holiday Lettings, meanwhile, take a 3 percent commission, while booking.com gets a whopping 15 percent discount. What you can do is indicate a minimum stay. That will get the really short-term renters out of the way, but it may make it harder for you to find someone to rent the property

Since I did this myself, I recommend that you store any valuables or delicate items. It’s not worth worrying about.

There are a few legalities to check, such as whether your local government has a ban on Airbnb-type listings (a few counties require you to apply for a “change of use” schedule for vacation rentals if you do so more than 90 nights a year), and whether you need to increase your home insurance. For example, Airbnb will cover you for up to $1 million (£777,440) in insurance, but your own home insurer may also ask you to pay a small fee to include renters on your policy.

If you just don’t feel like letting someone else stay in your house while you’re away, you can always rent out your vacant driveway instead. Having a car in your driveway can also keep potential burglars at bay.

Again, the amount you could earn depends on where you live. If you are in a city or near a major sporting venue, such as Wimbledon, where parking is a major issue at certain weeks of the year, your ride will be in higher demand than if you lived on Dartmoor.

There are plenty of companies that specialize in driveway rentals, including justpark.com, parkonmydrive.com, stashbee.com and yourparkingspace.co.uk. You will also find people listing their driveways on Gumtree, Facebook and other less specialized sites. The three cities most in demand for parkers are London, Edinburgh and Brighton, where parking near the center typically starts from £9.50 a day (if you discount the contenders charging £50+).

The ultimate earner is to become a house sitter and get a free vacation in someone else’s house in exchange for keeping the house safe and taking care of their pets.

If you rent out your house and driveway while babysitting for someone else, you will come home a lot richer.

Homesitters.co.uk is a house and pet sitting company that matches trustworthy people with homeowners who need to be in place and possibly look after their pets for a while.

You would have to go to their HQ in Aylesbury to be interviewed and have good references from the past 20 years to join the agency. Once you’re on their books, you can babysit someone’s house for around £30 a day, which includes a food allowance and petrol costs to and from the property. If there are pets to care for, your pay would increase depending on the type of pet, the number of pets and the duties involved.

Buy your boiler cheaply now

At this time of year, I start thinking about kettles. Yes, I know, I’m weird!

But a great way to save money is to buy goods and services out of season and that is very much the case with boilers.

A survey by the plumbing services website fairfix.com found that a quarter of us have had boiler problems in the past 12 months and more than half had to wait between one and five days for a technician to arrive. In addition, a third of us were charged £150 or more for the call out. Sounds familiar?

It is therefore not surprising that according to their research, 17 percent of us have tried to repair our boiler ourselves. Honestly, I’d suggest no one tries it themselves.

However, there are some things we can do to reduce the need for an expensive emergency call, including annual boiler service.

It’s a good idea to make sure the system pressure stays green, or between 1 and 2 bar on the dial. This will prevent your boiler from overheating.

And make sure the smoke outlet is clear. Check that it is not covered by anything like leaves.

Also check the batteries in your smart meter. “We get a lot of calls from customers with wireless programmable room thermostats that have stopped working,” said Tyrone Ekrem, founder of Fair Fix. “It’s almost always the batteries.”

If you suspect your boiler is on its last legs, now is a good time to have it replaced. Compare prices on moneysupermarket.com and uswitch.com and see if you can get a discount to get it installed. Find a local plumber at bark.com.

Embrace pink for free tickets to the Barbie movie

Vue cinemas in Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City are giving away more than 200 tickets to the Barbie movie this weekend.

To enter, put on your pinkest Barbiecore (or Kencore) outfit and make your way to the service counter of either shopping center until 7:30 pm today to claim your free tickets. Be quick because first come, first served!

If you have a Hungry Horse pub near you, you can get a free bacon, sausage or Quorn butter this weekend. To get your free breakfast, you must go to your local Hungry Horse between 9am and 10am on July 22 or 23. To find your nearest one, go to Hungryhorse.co.uk/find-us.

Fancy a free cold brew coffee? If you visit London until July 28, you may be able to get a free drink delivered by blankstreet.com. Blank Street will also have a cold brew cart giving away free coffee at various locations across the capital. Choose from the traditional Cold Brew, the tight Cortado Cold Brew, or the more syrupy Shaken Brown Sugar Cold Brew. Call 020 8058 8000 for a chance to win a freebie.

The Sweet Hamper Company (sweethampercompany.co.uk) makes lovely basket gifts filled with all kinds of sweets, whether you prefer a British favorite like the Huge Cadbury’s Chocolate Hamper, the American Sweet and Chocolate Hamper, or a delicious throwback like the Huge 1960s Retro Sweet Jar. You can get 15 percent off with my special code, DAILYMAIL15, when you enter it at checkout.