How Can Kids and Young Adults Make Money?

We have been getting a lot of requests from young folks looking for ways to make money before school starts. Here are some Brainstormed ideas for them by the ThriftyFun community. What are your tips for what kids can do to make money? Post them below.

Susan from ThriftyFun

Very Important: Before starting any job or trying any money making ideas, you should run them by your parents.

Pet Sitting

How about starting a pet sitting service for neighbors who are going on vacation? The kids can feed and play with cats, change litter; walk and feed dogs; feed birds and fish and keep their respective homes clean and uncluttered. This works well for city as well as suburban dwellers. My son put a sign up on the bulletin board in near the mailboxes in our building and had a very successful (financially) summer.

By Alice

Errands for Elderly Neighbors

The old standbys are yard work, pet sitting, and car washing. How about running errands in the neighborhood? In small towns or in areas where there is a grocery store close by, elderly folks or someone who can't get out, might be thankful to have someone run to the store to pick up milk, bread or other small items for them. Make up a brochure and leave it with folks who can then call you when they need your service. Another thing that could be done is assisting with light housekeeping such as taking out the garbage, vacuuming, dusting, emptying the dishwasher, folding clothes, matching socks, etc.

By Sandi

Wash Cars

How about asking your parents if you could wash their car? Cars are constantly getting dirty (thanks to the birds), meaning they always need cleaning. Ask your parents for $20 per car you clean and you should be making tons of money by the end of the week. Hey, and maybe while you're cleaning their car, someone might ask you to do theirs too. A business in the making.

By Kandi

Start Working Before You Are 16

This may be a little too "mainstream" but we just got our 14 (almost 15) year old daughter a job at McDonald's. They will hire kids that young. Personally, I believe teaching our kids to work is one of the best things we can do for them. Even if they "hate" the job, it teaches them a lot. Also, our daughter has taken lifeguard training through the park system and when she is 16, if she passes certification, will be able to get a lifeguard job. If your child is into sports, umpiring is a way to earn money. Normally, there is some sort of training before the season starts. Country clubs may hire kids to caddy. Of course, these are not "occasional" types of jobs just to earn a little spending money and won't work if that is what they want to do.

By Jan

Be a Class Helper

If you have a local dance class in your area, ask the teacher if they need any help passing out supplies. My two sons volunteer at the local YMCA dance classes for kids ages 4-6. My boys are 9 and 12. The boys help out in classes after school twice a week and the teacher generously pays them $10 a week. The boys enjoy helping out and are proud of their earnings. It also teaches the boy responsibility.

By Kelly

Garage Sale

They can have a garage sale if they have old things they need to give away.

By Celeste

Invest In A Lawn Mower

Ok, the absolute best way for any kid who is responsible enough to make money in the long run is to buy a lawn mower, preferably a riding one, and offer to cut grass. This may seem unrealistic but let me explain. One could ask his/her parents to take him/her to the bank and get a loan for however much the lawn mower would cost. (around $1000) Now, go and buy a lawnmower that is capable of vacuuming the leaves and grass and other debris into bins, THIS IS CRUCIAL. Now you may cut grass professionaly in the summer and vacuum leaves professionaly in the fall! Considering you make $20 a yard, cut at least 2 yards a day, you will make $560 a month! The lawnmower will be paid off if you work hard in June and July. August through November, you will make money! Roughly $2000! Then you store the lawn mower until spring where you can continue the business in the spring, summer, and fall of next year!

By Keith

Lemonade Stand And More Tips

The kids sold lemonade and cookies during our neighborhood garage sale. They made $30! That was profit, paying back Mom for supplies. The kids will also be pet-sitting, which they love animals. Last year my son cut the neighbor's lawn and house-sat while they were on vacation. Sometimes the kids have the best ideas given the chance.

By Amy

Hold a Car Wash, Yard Sale And Other Ideas

My kids make extra money by holding a " new school clothes" fund raising car wash. My 11 year old cares for pets while neighbors are out of town, just about twice a month, for $10 a day! She just made $40 this weekend! They also host a "fund raiser yard sale" where they sale their clothes that they can't wear anymore. Usually we donate old clothes though. Tell them to get creative! What is something they are good at, like soccer. They can host a "soccer camp" in their backyard one week.

By Becky from Alabama

Neighborhood Newsletter

How about starting your own little neighborhood newsletter using your own computer and printer? First you print up a sample newsletter with nothing but neighborhood news (A lot of good news) Then pass out this newsletter to your defined neighborhood. Now you can charge your neighbors a subscription for this letter, but it would be better off to give it to them free. What you make your money on is selling ads to all those youth like yourself that need neighborhood jobs. So much for a ad for a 10 year old dogwalker or a 13 year old car washer. Sell your ads by each edition whether it be weekly, bi weekly or monthly. Make sure you set up a space in your free edition telling all the neighbors that you are selling ads. Oh, you can also list yard sales, cars for sale or furniture, whatever. You won't become rich but I'll bet you can earn enough to get your IPod.

Neighborhood News Flash: Mr. Thrifty Is Gone

By Mr. Thrifty

Get Paid For Chores or Babysitting

I saw a TV show one time and the father had an absolutely wonderful idea. His son broke one of his electronic games. His father who was very wealthy refused to buy a new one and made his son earn money to buy a new one. So for each chore he did, (cleaning up the kitchen, taking out the trash, washing dishes, emptying the dishwasher, etc) he got a $1.00. Each week he was paid for each item he did. The more he did, the more he got paid. Why couldn't a child do something like this for money. Any working parent would probably love to have kids help out around the house, especially after a long hard day at work. I know I would surely pay my kids to help out with chores around the house. Or do what I did my whole childhood, babysit. I had so many babysitting gigs I had to turn them down. There are tons of families out there who need responsible teens to babysit all summer long while school is out.

By Connie

Get A Paper Route

You can get a job at the local papershop by doing a paper route.

By Hannah

Making Money Advice

There is no such thing as making money "fast and easy". One may make money, yes, but it is a slow process and, at the same time, one has to SAVE! I agree with Sandy: yard work, cleaning, running errands, car washing, anything legal. Target single parents and the elderly, who may need someone to help. They may not be able to pay much, but if you save what you earn, you will also earn interest and eventually, you will get there! Also, make sure you know the difference between a wish and a want. Good luck!

By Willem

My elderly parents always wished they could hire kids to do the things their own kids used to do - like wash cars, mow the lawn, shovel snow from driveways, etc. Try approaching the senior citizens in your area and see if they have work to do, errands to run. Maybe you could take them grocery shopping, take them to the doctor's, run errands and so on.

When I was a kid, I also had a flare for running children's birthday parties, playing games and so on. I picked up money that way, too.

How about setting up a "summer camp" program for the little kids in the neighborhood and entertain them with crafts and games a few hours a day?

By pamphyila

Great Ideas To Make Money

Ask your parents if you can use their lawn mower to mow people's grass. Offer to help pay for the gas with what you make.

Set up a mini daycamp for kids. It would just take a few hours a day but give the parent's a chance to run to the grocery store, clean, read a book or have a few friends over.

Talk to people in your neighborhood to see when they are going on vacation. Offer to take in the mail, newspaper, water the plants, take out the garbage/recycling, etc.

Find people that will hire you to walk their dog. Ask the same people if they will pay you to pick up after the dog. Not a glamorous job but I think you will find many people would pay for this.

Make some small crafts and sell them. Friendship bracelets, fun frames, whatever you have for crafts, see what you can make. If you live in an area where you have some traffic, set up a table similar to a lemonade stand.

Have a kid/teen garage sale. Advertise as this and get rid of the things that you no longer need but another kid would think is really cool.

Decorate/paint t-shirts and sell them.

Think out of the box for ideas.

By CRMom

Advice From Other Kids

I'm, 11 and I really want an Xbox 360. I asked my mom if I could do extra stuff around the house and I get about $5 a day. But I'm done with all of that in a hurry. I want to do extra jobs, sometimes I work at my mom and dad's place and I get $5 an hour.

By Joey

I suggest mowing lawns. I'm 12 with a busy life and do it every Sunday. This way, I build muscles and get $10 an hour, that's an average of $50 on Sunday, alone.

By Matthew

I'm 13 and I luv fixin cars so my cousin put me in Quick Fit. Without him, I couldn't work there. Now that I work there, I get money and experience. Every Saturday, I get 80 pounds.

By Rizwan

One thing you could do that I've done over the summer is maybe get together with a couple of friends and start your own business like that. For instance "S&S Landscaping" and come up with something you both enjoy. That is how you make the most money. One thing I did to make money is buy bumper stickers for $0.99 then raise the price and sell them at $4.99. You could make a bumper sticker with your town's initials and sell them for that much more and make that much more profit!

By J-Dub

Well, what you can do is you can sell lemonade. Make flyers and hang them up and on any certain day, you can have a lemonade sell, $0.50 per cup. I've done it and altogether we got $40.00. Have a friend with you.

By Shaina

OK, well, if you play soccer, then refereeing is a great thing to do. You need to contact someone who is part of the soccer league in your town and get the information, take a course, and buy supplies. After you ref a few games, the cost of the course and uniform is gone. Seriously, this job is amazing. For 9-10 year olds, you make $16 per game, and for 11-12 year olds, you make $25. It is even more for older players but since you have to be older than the kids you ref, I don't know about the other rates.

By guyonthesidewalk

Well, you could sell stuff that you don't use anymore. Once I sold some old stuff and I got $200.00.

By LOZZ

I think that kids should be able to work at restaurants and places like Kroger or Target. We need the money too, not just 15 or 16 year olds. Many people don't need their car washed or their lawn mowed, and, even if they did, they wouldn't hire kids that are 12 and under. <3 Good Luck

By hello

If you have some old video games or DVD's laying around, you should bring them to EB Games or Gamestop. They let you exchange the games/systems for some cash. An average working game usually gets about $10, depending on what it is- so that can really add up if you don't play a lot of your games. An entire video game system is even more- plus there's the controllers, which adds more money to the total.

By Christine