Having your own money as a kid is one of the most exciting things imaginable. Even a small amount can go a long way!
I remember taking my £5 birthday money to go shopping and thinking that I was the richest kid on the planet 🤑
Kids often don’t get any money, apart from a little pocket money. And there aren’t that many jobs for kids around.
However, many kids now want to earn their own money – and this is an excellent idea in my book!
For a start, when children and teenagers are given the chance to earn their own cash, this gives them the chance to develop valuable entrepreneurial skills.
I’m sure you’ve seen stories about children running their own businesses and becoming millionaires by the time they are teenagers.
Plus, you will learn money skills such as budgeting and saving up for whatever you want to buy. We all tend to take better care of our money when we worked hard for it!
How to make money as a kid: 13 fun and easy job ideas for kids
Although the chances of becoming a millionaire by the time you leave home might be slim, there are plenty of ways out there for kids to bring in some extra pocket money.
Just a word of advice: if you’re a kid reading this, please do talk to your parents about any money making ideas you want to try.
They will want to know what you’re doing to keep you safe, whether that’s online or offline.
And while some of these ideas are suitable for any age, for other ideas, you’ll need the support of someone a bit older.
Anyway, let’s look at a few fun and simple ways you can make money as a kid at home.
Pay close attention kids, as you might find your next big money-making opportunity here!
Walking dogs
Well, not just dogs, anything really.
Ever seen someone walk a rabbit? I have!
Seriously though, walking dogs is one of the best ways to earn some extra income without that much effort.
For kids starting out, it may be best to find a friend, family member or a neighbour who is willing to pay you for walking their dog. For those with dogs already this will quite literally be a walk in the park.
Make sure you are fully equipped with the dog lead, a toy and some bags to clean up any mess left behind by your pooch.
It’s always a good idea to also take the phone number of the person whose dog you’re walking, just as a precaution.
So, now to talk money. Walking dogs isn’t going to be the biggest money maker, especially if you’re only walking one dog. However, line up a few potential customers and you could soon see the money coming in.
It’s recommended that you charge anywhere between £6-£10 for a 1-hour dog walk. So, let’s say you are walking 3 dogs at a time, charging £8 per hour, that’s £24 an hour. Do that every day and you’ll end up with over £600 a month just from walking dogs.
Pet sitting
We’ve already touched on dog walking. However, pet sitting can be more lucrative if more money is what you’re looking for.
People go on holidays and often don’t want to pay the price to have their pets placed in a shelter whilst they are away, or they may not like the idea of leaving their beloved animals in a strange environment.
That’s where pet sitters come in. Making daily visits to the pet’s home to take care of them, keep them company and play with them. Sounds easy, right?
Some customers may want you to stay overnight and often provide food for you before they leave. Or sometimes the pet will come to you and stay in your home!
(You may need a licence to look after animals in your home – check with your local council where you live.)
Pet sitting is a little more involved that just walking, so you’ll be more likely to make a little extra cash. People can charge up to £25 a night to look after pets.
Due to the extra level of responsibility, this one may be more suited to older kids.
You can choose to sign up to websites such as Rover to find pet sitting jobs. However, you need to be over 18 and you will need to upload documents and identification to do this, for insurance purposes.
Perhaps you could team up with an older relative and ask them to take on some pet sitting jobs while you help out with walking, feeding and playing with the animals.
Otherwise, the best way would be to contact friends and family with pets directly, or create a social media page advertising your services.
Related post: 6 Ways to Make Money With Animals
Sell your old toys/games
This is the perfect opportunity to start your own business without needing any money at all!
Simply by looking through all your old toys, books, games and DVDs and selling them on eBay you can bring in a decent amount of money to get the ball rolling. This is one of the more interesting ways to make money around the house for kids.
If there are a lot of old books, games, DVDs and so on in your house, there are some apps such as Ziffit and WeBuyBooks where you can scan the barcodes and see how much money you can make. This is easier than selling on eBay but doesn’t pay so much money.
Getting set up on eBay is easy. They give you a step-by-step process on how to list items, take pictures and make your first few sales. As we are talking about making money as a kid in the UK make sure you sign up for the UK version of eBay.
After that you can use the money however you want, but one of the best ways to invest with this money is to buy more products at a low price and continue to sell them on eBay for a profit. This is called ‘flipping’.
This is a perfect side hustle for kids. You can go browsing in charity shops in your local town, find bargains such as cheap toys and games and then resell them for a nice profit.
Use this method and snowball it until you have a big inventory, and an even bigger bag of money!
Related post: How To Turn Your Old Books Into Cash
Do chores around the house
Pocket money is probably the easiest way to make money for kids!
If you’re lucky, you might already get some pocket money each week or month from your parents. So why not strike a deal and see if you can increase the amount, in exchange for helping out with some chores?
There are plenty of easy ways to earn money around the house for kids, and the good thing is that there are chores that you can do as a kid of any age.
So this is one of the ways you can make money even if you’re too young for some of the other ideas on this list.
Just chat to your parents, tell them you are looking for ways to make pocket money, and ask them what jobs you can help them with.
Here are some of the most common jobs to do around the house for pocket money:
- washing up
- loading/unloading the dishwasher
- folding laundry
- ironing
- vacuuming
- dusting
- feeding pets
- watering plants
- weeding and gardening
- setting the table and clearing away
- helping with dinner preparation (or even cooking a simple meal for the family!)
- washing the car
I’m sure your parents will have lots more ideas!
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a popular website where you can make money online for doing various tasks.
You earn points called Swagbucks or SB, which you can exchange for cash or vouchers once you have enough. Here are just some of the things you can do to earn SB:
- Answer surveys
- Watch videos
- Play games
- Search the internet
- Download apps
- Invite friends
You have to be 13 or older to sign up with Swagbucks. So this isn’t one for younger kids.
But if you’re wondering how to make money as a teenager without a job, this might be a good place to start.
This is not really a way to earn big bucks, but it is an easy, fun way to make money from home with no special equipment or money needed!
You can request your payment in various gift cards, such as Amazon, iTunes, Steam and more. This means it’s a great way for teenagers to fund their own hobbies.
Related post: The Ultimate List of Paid Survey Sites in the UK
Babysitting
Babysitting. Who wouldn’t want to take care of those tiny, precious little things? 👶
However, babysitting isn’t for everyone. You need a lot of patience, you should enjoy cuddling and playing with little children – and don’t be squeamish about changing nappies!
If that sounds like you, then you might have just found your money-making method.
Babysitters can charge anywhere from £6 an hour upwards and you are quite likely to have at least a few hours work a night.
Again, you will need to be slightly older to do this job, because you will have a lot of responsibility. Babysitting is more commonly a job for teenagers.
But I know some families who have employed younger teens or tweens as a ‘mother’s help’, to keep the little ones busy while mum is working from home or doing housework.
When you’re starting out, it’s easiest to find a friend, family member or a neighbour who is looking for someone to look after their baby.
Once you get some good reviews, they will recommend you to their friends and you could soon find yourself with regular work.
Sell gigs on Fiverr
Fiverr is a website where you can sell any kind of service from as little as $5 – that’s where the name comes from! You can also make much more than $5 by offering more expensive services or bundles of things.
Unlike many other online job sites, Fiverr lets you sign up from just 13 years old! This makes it a great way for teenagers to make money online.
Plus, nobody on Fiverr even knows how old you are. Most users have a random username and use a cartoon or something as their profile picture. So, you don’t have to worry about people not taking you seriously because of your age.
You might be wondering what kind of services you can sell on Fiverr as a teenager. Well, since Fiverr gigs (that’s what they call the jobs) are typically very small tasks, it’s a good idea to specialise in something. Here are some ideas of small but profitable gigs:
- Make graphics for bloggers e.g. Instagram images, Pinterest pins, website banners (you can use free design programs such as Canva)
- Make YouTube thumbnails
- Editing photos (if you have the right software and skills)
- Voice actor/record voiceovers
- Making logos
- Running social media accounts
If you are serious about making money online, I recommend taking the time to learn an in-demand skill, such as Photoshop, coding or programming. There are lots of free online courses to learn these things. For example, try Codecademy to learn coding.
Then you will have a special skill that you can use to make money online. It will also really help you out applying to real jobs, colleges etc in the future.
But even if you don’t have any special skills at all, there are still things you can sell on Fiverr!
People are charging for all kinds of things, such as making funny messages, creating memes and even playing online games with people who need a partner. I like browsing the ‘lifestyle’ section to see the interesting gigs people come up with.
These things won’t make you so much money because they are very competitive. But they are a fun way to get started.
Start a YouTube channel
If you’re thinking about how to make money as a kid online, YouTube was probably one of the first ideas to come to mind.
YouTube is well known for making people very rich and famous over the years. It’s the internet’s biggest platform for media sharing. And anyone can start their own channel!
This can be a fun and exciting way to bring in extra money every month. The great thing about YouTube is that you can do pretty much what you want on there, with every chance of being successful.
So, should you want to make a channel about makeup, or video games, or toy reviews, or just want to show people your daily life, then you can!
Look at all these kids making piles of money from YouTube for inspiration:
The main way in which people make money from YouTube is by having adverts playing before and during their video. You will need at least 1,000 subscribers to start using ads.
However, there are other ways to ramp up your earnings. For example, you can get sponsorships from companies wanting you to promote their product, sell your own merch, and some YouTubers even get donations from their subscribers.
You can start today, with no investment needed upfront. You can actually start with just your phone, providing you have a high-quality smartphone, capable of producing high quality videos.
You must remember though that in order to be successful on YouTube, you need to be consistent. The more content you produce, the more people will have to watch.
However, stop posting for a few months and those people will quickly disappear!
Start a blog
If getting on camera and putting your face on the internet is not for you, then blogging might just be the way to go.
Blogging is another potential way for kids to make money online.
Anyone can start a blog, no matter what age you are.
You don’t even have to have any knowledge or experience in building a website or writing, because it’s such an easy process to learn.
Just like YouTube, with a blog you can write about whatever you want.
So, if you have a passion for movies, photography or pets and want to write about them, then blogging is a way to do that. And as you gain some followers who share your passion, you can start to make money.
So how do bloggers make money, you ask?
As with YouTube, the main way to make money with blogging is having ads on your blog. Gain thousands of visitors to your site and you’ll see the money start to roll in.
You can also make money by sponsored posts, and something called ‘affiliate links’. This is when you recommend products and you get some money when somebody buys from your recommendation.
Blogging takes a lot of hard work, determination and consistency!
Many bloggers give up within the first few months, but realistically it will take 6-12 months to see any money coming in.
I didn’t make any money for the first few months of my blog, but after two years I was making over £2,000 per month, and now I make double that!
So stick with it, and who knows what your blog will become 🙂
If you’re ready to start your own blog, I have a tutorial for you here. Just follow my step-by-step guide and you can have your very own website in under a hour 🙂
Related post: How to Start a Blog to Make Money: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide
Design T-shirts
Here’s another way to make money online as a kid.
Did you know you can design your own T-shirts, hoodies and other items to sell online?
There are website like Merch by Amazon and Printful where you just upload your design, then they will print out the actual object and send it to the customer. These are called ‘Print on Demand’ or POD sites.
So you don’t need to deal with any stock or shipping yourself. It’s so easy!
I do this as a side hustle myself, and I make over $100 every month, more at busy shopping times like Christmas.
You can read more about it in this post.
You do need to be 18 to set up an account on Merch by Amazon. But that doesn’t mean you have to be 18 to get designing!
You can ask a parent to set up an account and handle the official and financial side of the business, while you create designs for them to upload. Then, share the profits 🤑
Craft and sell on Etsy
Here’s another low start-up cost method to making money.
For those who don’t know, Etsy is an online store where people create products by hand and sell them on for a profit. People sell all sorts on there such as friendship bracelets and paintings, to name just a few.
Got a creative touch? Then selling on Etsy could be just the thing for you. You could grab a few supplies, even from discount shops or pound shops to get you started, create some unique pieces to sell and upload them onto Etsy.
If you are better at designing on the computer than crafting with your hands, you can even make posters and wall art to sell.
You can upload the files and sell them as digital products for people to print at home. This way, you don’t even have to worry about postage.
Prices vary widely on Etsy, so you need to make sure you are pricing competitively, making sure that you’re not under-pricing nor are you over pricing.
I have seen some paintings go for thousands of pounds on Etsy, so the money is there to be made!
Deliver newspapers
Delivering newspapers is one of the most common ways for kids to make money offline.
There are a few ways that you could get into delivering newspapers. The most common way is getting a job within a local newsagent where they source the customers and simply give you a route to learn with a weekly salary of around £30.
This is an ideal first job for kids, teaching them the basics.
The other way is bringing in your own customers. You can do this by going around your local area and asking people directly if they would like their newspaper picked up and delivered.
The second option requires a little more work. But it could prove to be more lucrative in the long run.
Get yourself a bike and you’re good to go. Not only will it bring in extra cash, but it will help with your health too! A win-win if you ask me.
Wash cars
This is another of the most common job ideas for kids.
It’s perhaps the most labour-intensive ways for kids to earn money offline. Car washing takes time and commitment, and an eye for detail.
But you will never be short of customers!
You can start with the basics – a bucket and a sponge are all you need to get going.
But if you want to take it seriously and really make some extra money then you’ll need to upgrade your equipment and get the word out to your local area.
Car washing takes time to perfect and you will need to make sure that you don’t rush it. Try your hardest to get it right the first time for your customer.
After all, a happy customer is more likely to pass on your services to their friends and family, potentially bringing you in more work.
FAQs on ways for kids to earn money
How to make money as a kid online?
There are lots of ways for kids to make money online. The way to make the most money would be starting your own blog or YouTube channel. Be prepared that this takes a lot of work!
Another idea is to use print-on-demand sites such as Merch By Amazon to design T-shirts and other goods.
If you are over 13, you can join Swagbucks, Fiverr and Slice The Pie to make some money fast.
How to make money as a kid at home?
The easiest way to make money as a kid at home is to ask your parents to pay you for chores. This could be something like washing cars, cleaning the house or weeding in the garden.
You can also try any of the ideas above for making money online.
How to make money as a kid at school?
I know some kids who’ve made lots of money at school by selling things to their classmates! This could be anything from snacks, to small toys that are in demand. You will have to save up some money first to buy the items, then sell them on as a profit.
There is one catch: make sure this is allowed at your school!!! Some schools don’t let you make money at school. Personally, I don’t understand why not, because I think it’s a good idea to let kids learn about business. But please check with a teacher first before you start trading things at school.
How to make money when you’re 11 or 12?
When I was researching this article, I noticed a lot of people asking how to make money at 11 or 12. I guess this is because by age 11 or 12, you have lots of things you want to buy, but you’re still too young to get a proper job. And lots of the online money-making opportunities start from age 13.
Still, there are ways for an 11 or 12 year old to make money! Here are some of them:
- Chores for your parents, neighbours, family friends
- Make and sell cakes, cookies, lemonade etc around your neighbourhood
- Walking dogs, other jobs to care for small animals e.g. cleaning out cages
- Selling your old toys and books (either online e.g. on eBay, or to your friends)
- Designing T shirts and things to sell on print-on-demand sites (you will need an adult’s help to set up the account, but you can make the designs yourself)
What are some jobs for 13 year olds?
If you’re already 13, you’re in luck! You might still be too young to get a ‘real’ job in a shop or somewhere, but there are a lot more ways to make money online that open up at age 13. Here are some of them:
Take a look at this post for more: 10+ Legit Online Jobs For Teens That Really Pay!
In additional, now you’re a teenager, you might have more luck getting babysitting jobs, or even tutoring younger kids.
Of course, you can still use all the other money making ideas on this list, even those for younger kids!
So many money making ideas for kids!
You probably started reading this article wondering how to make money as a kid – is it really possible?
Hopefully by now you can answer with a big fat YES! We talked about 13 of the best ways to make money as a kid, but there are tonnes of other ideas out there to get you started.
I hope that you can take some of these, try them out and see which one works best for you.
Getting the entrepreneur bug at a young age is a great way to find out your passions and try out different ideas to find the best one to make you the most money!
Of course, not all these ideas are suitable for every age group, but if you can team up with a parent or older sibling or cousin, you can find lots of ways to make money when you’re 11, 10 or even younger.
What things have you (or your kids) done to make money? Please share in the comments!
Related post: 29 Legit Online Jobs For Students
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I totally agree with almost all of your ideas except breeding animals. Kids shouldn’t take such a responsibility + there is plenty of unwanted animals in pet shops.
Good point, the pet sitting/walking angle is better!
The kids can also start a TikTok channel. Hopeful it gets many followers and they will then get sponsorship.
Ooh yes that’s a good idea and quite kid-friendly!