12 year old wants to earn some money

Lethal

Good luck with it. If you check the price of each computer game on ebay and then on amazon and seem to find a game which is in hot demand, then i'd suggest sticking it on amazon, but thats up to you.

ricky321_2

Poppy9 wrote: »

A 13 year old girl at my DD school was suspended for selling fags on school premises.

I remeber getting suspended for selling fags lol.

Poppy9

ricky321 wrote: »

I remeber getting suspended for selling fags lol.

Not allowed to sell anything on school premises now, even selling sweets/drinks will earn you a suspension as it contravenes the ban on junk food.

laughing_cow

Do you have any family members who own a business? My grandparents and dad both had their own agricultural/horticultural businesses and I used to earn extra pocket money tidying/weeding etc from about the age of 7! I then got my paper round at 13 and then a farm job from 14-16. A friend of mine used to help in her auntie's hairdressers from age 10-16, making tea, tidying and doing errands.

If you're 'helping out' a family member you might be able to get round the legalities of under age employment. However, my experience is from the 70s and 80s so I don't know if the laws have changed to prevent kids working in family businesses

Poosmate

Hate to spoil the party but I would be totally against children cleaning out wheelie bins. My rubbish is as clean as I can make it (meat and food waste double wrapped and sealed) but I put used kittylitter in there and can't guarrantee the double bags won't rupture. I know other people in my area are not so careful with their waste as when we went to every other week collections there was an uproar because some people's properties were infested with magots!

I would think very carefully about the health risk to your children before allowing or encouraging them to clean wheelie bins. I guess the recycle boxes would be ok though, although they couldn't charge so much and the demand may not be so great.

I reckon the best way for your children to earn a bit of extra money would be for yourself and other family members/friends to "employ" them for odd jobs on a "cash on delivery" basis. This way it doesn't introduce them to "credit" at such an early age (I'll buy you the phone now and you do extra chores in the future - how many of us would really enforce that agreement till the value of the credit is reached really? lol).

Hope you don't think this is too harsh, but I wish I hadn't discovered credit... well... ever really! lol

Bless the little 'uns for wanting to earn the money in the first place. Good on 'em!

Regards

Poo

gforster

Poosmate wrote: »

Hate to spoil the party but I would be totally against children cleaning out wheelie bins. My rubbish is as clean as I can make it (meat and food waste double wrapped and sealed) but I put used kittylitter in there and can't guarrantee the double bags won't rupture. I know other people in my area are not so careful with their waste as when we went to every other week collections there was an uproar because some people's properties were infested with magots!

I would think very carefully about the health risk to your children before allowing or encouraging them to clean wheelie bins. I guess the recycle boxes would be ok though, although they couldn't charge so much and the demand may not be so great.

I reckon the best way for your children to earn a bit of extra money would be for yourself and other family members/friends to "employ" them for odd jobs on a "cash on delivery" basis. This way it doesn't introduce them to "credit" at such an early age (I'll buy you the phone now and you do extra chores in the future - how many of us would really enforce that agreement till the value of the credit is reached really? lol).

Hope you don't think this is too harsh, but I wish I hadn't discovered credit... well... ever really! lol

Bless the little 'uns for wanting to earn the money in the first place. Good on 'em!

Regards

Poo

It's a fair point and I wouldn't be quite so harsh as to send her out and leave her to it ! (otherwise I would have shipped her off to work years ago) but certainly something to consider.

The whole getting money and buying with it rather than "paying off" stuff with chores is something I am sooooo keen to utilise and one of the reasons I encouraged the idea of earning extra money rather doing my odd jobs.

So few children are ever taught how to deal with finances it's no wander they get into such trouble when they are older. We were even thinking of introducing a budget system for her at home, sort of allocate her a large amount of pocket money say £50 per week but then charge for each service £30 rent, £10 to have your ironing done etc etc.

Then they can get used to filling in a budget and allocating money to different bills, it would mostly be virtual but at the end of the week when there is £10 left over to go and buy CD's it kind of puts it into proportion. It's just an idea at the moment....

Poppy9

We've given our DD (14) pocket money by Bank Credit for a few years now. Started off at £10 a month and is now £35 per month plus we pay for a mobile phone contract for her.

She has to fund her weekends from her pocket money but as the money is in the bank it doesn't burn a hole. She builds up money and buys her own make up and shoes that I won't buy (think high heels/wedges from New Look:eek:) and Itunes etc. We do give her extra over school holidays if she's going somewhere special that has an entrance fee etc.

She is expected to help out a bit at home but not in return for cash as we feel she is part of the family and has to just do her bit because she lives in the house. Goes without saying she has to clean bath/shower after herself, tidy her own room, plus she empties the upstairs bins weekly and she makes OH a cuppa to wake him if he's on a late shift. She also goes to the shops for me sometimes.

I don't know whether you can instill good money management skills into children. I'm one of 4 and my mother for very keen on making us all financially responsible etc. and we all had Saturday jobs from 13 and all always worked outside the home. We were never paid for jobs around the house either, we just had to do. However one of my sisters is dreadful with money, spent years in a pickle and borrowing. Always has been and always will. I used to have an elastic £5 when I was about 14 and she was 16. She borrowed it 2 days after her payday and repaid me her next payday and borrowed again. My brother and myself are "careful" but my brother is more careful as he's loaded! My other sister loves spending too but doesn't get herself in a pickle.

laughing_cow

Poppy9 wrote: »

I don't know whether you can instill good money management skills into children. I'm one of 4 and my mother for very keen on making us all financially responsible etc. and we all had Saturday jobs from 13 and all always worked outside the home. We were never paid for jobs around the house either, we just had to do. However one of my sisters is dreadful with money, spent years in a pickle and borrowing. Always has been and always will. I used to have an elastic £5 when I was about 14 and she was 16. She borrowed it 2 days after her payday and repaid me her next payday and borrowed again. My brother and myself are "careful" but my brother is more careful as he's loaded! My other sister loves spending too but doesn't get herself in a pickle.

That's a very good point. My parents are very careful with money and instilled into us the importance of saving and earning our own money. My brother is very sensible. Me - well, I swing from sensible to stupid! I always had part time jobs as a kid and as a student and I've never been unemployed. I've got a well paid job now and I've always got some 'project' or other on the go to make a bit of extra cash. I should be loaded, but I'm not - I enjoy and I am good at making money, but it seems I'm equally talented at spending it!

I still think it's worth trying to instill good money skills into kids, but sometimes their personality can simply override what they've learned.

tiff

brila wrote: »

It occurred to me the other day that if some young thing I vaguely knew knocked on my door and offered to take my bottles to the bottle bank each week for a few quid I would be very enthusiastic. If your nearest bottle bank is not too far to walk and your mum was ok with it you could do several neighbours, especially if you had an old shopping trolley or pram to load up to cut down trips. Eventually you could "employ" several friends to work under you and maybe one day go national. When Beccles & Co goes global you can buy me lunch!

I know this is an old thread but was looking for ideas for my 13 year old to earn some money and thought this idea was great. I'm going to suggest it to him, maybe he could try one side of our street and see how it goes. He can cycle to Tesco bottle bank and has a few friends who could help out. Any suggestions how much he should charge? What would you pay for someone to take your bottles away, especially if you dont have a car or it builds up quickly in your house?

plattinum

Hiya tiff, I was thinking about this last night, how about baking some cakes or biscuits and taking those to school and selling them. Maybe even sell them to the teachers. If it went well you could even personalise them.
I remember collecting news papers as a kid for school, they weighed them in and bought everyone in the school a mug for the queens jubilee in 77! No idea what happened to the mug but maybe theres another idea, much safer than glass