Everyone could use a little extra cash, especially in the middle of a global financial recession. While most of us work full time jobs, we could be earning a little bit of extra petrol money by simply working on our lunch hours. How? Here are eight ways you could earn a little extra money on your lunch by simply using your computer.

1. You probably surf the Internet at lunch on those days that you do not go out for lunch. You can very easily earn a little bit of money simply by looking up stuff. Yahoo pays for power searches as well as a variety of other different websites that are trying to get people to use them over other search engines such as a Google. Once you sign up with one of these paid search deals, you could earn up to £30 in about two months time. The website will pay you via PayPal or bank transfer when you've earned their minimum withdrawal amount.

2. Earn some extra money by taking surveys on the Internet. Once again, these do not pay a lot of money, but if you're willing to be patient you can earn a nice little stash of cash in a few months. Be careful, however, which survey websites you decide to use. Some of them are not legitimate sites, and you could be taking surveys for nothing.

3. The social networking site Yuwie offers users the opportunity to make some money simply by joining, setting up a profile, writing a blog, uploading photos, and everything else you would use a social networking site for. You get paid on the number of times your pages are viewed, and if you have a lot of friends and visitors you can make a good bit of money simply by socialising.

4. How many mobile phones do you have lying around your home or office? We know you probably have at least one. Gather up your old and obsolete mobile phones and send them in to Mopay. You can receive anywhere from £2.50 to £200, depending on the phone's make and the condition it is in.

5. If you are a successful blogger with your own batch of fans, you could earn some extra money by selling advertising space on your blog around your posts. Google Adsense is a great way to utilise this service, and every time someone clicks on an advertisement on your blog you get money. You can promote services, sell e-books, or advertise products and get paid for having the ads there.

6. Do you enjoy taking photographs? Have you built up a good collection of digital ones on your computer? Consider selling them to photo agencies for a commission. You could earn a good amount of money over the next few years on royalties on your pictures.

7. If you have things hanging around your house that you really don't want to part with but know someone else could get some use out of it, consider renting it. This is a fairly new craze, and while you don't really want to rent out your power tools or stereo system you could make some money on that fancy gown in the back of your closet or baby swing in the basement that is collecting dust.

8. There are websites on the Internet that will pay you to answer people's text questions or to write informative articles. You can earn anywhere from £10 a month to £10 an hour, depending on the website you choose to use. If you are a trivia buff, this is a great way to earn some money with something you love. Additionally, if you like to write and are knowledgeable on a specific topic, you could get paid for the information you share with other people.