10 Safe Ways for Kids to Make Money in Their Neighborhood

So, if you’re a teenager looking for ways to earn extra money around your home, this post has some money making ideas for you too.

Easy Ways to Make Money in Your Neighborhood as a Kid

Ready to make some cash helping your neighbors?

Try these ideas…

1. Become the Neighborhood’s Designated Tech Support

If you’re great with computers and electronic items, why not become the go-to computer guy of your neighborhood?

What to you may seem like a simple thing to do, is foreign and extremely hard to understand for many people, especially the older generation.

You could offer hourly computer classes to housewives and senior citizens.

Teach ’em how to use their computers.

Teach ’em how to use Skype.

Teach ’em how to use Facebook.

Teach ’em…

The list can go on and on.

You can charge hourly, or per project.

2. Babysit

Babysitting can be a fun job especially if you’re good with kids.

And people pay decently for the service.

But one of the biggest concerns many parents have is leaving their kids with strangers. So they would love the chance to hire a babysitter who is also their neighbor, or at the very least, leaves in the neighborhood.

3. Do Yard Work (mowing lawns, shoveling snow)

Offering such services to busy people can be beneficial to both parties. Folks who lead busy lives are normally too tired to do their own yard work.

They will only be too happy if you offer to mow their lawns in the summer and do some snow shoveling work in the winter.

All it takes is going door to door to your neighbors and letting them know you are available for any kind of yard work.

4. Cook and Bake

Yes, you can make money with food.

You don’t have to be at the level of Martha Stewart to make this work.

People love food and they would love the smell of freshly baked cookies or brownies even more.

Bake what you want to sell in batches.

Go house to house in your neighborhood and sell them.

Use the feedback you get to improve upon your product or make something entirely new.

5. Hold a Garage Sale

I once made $1000 with a yard sale.

Perhaps you too have been living with clutter for months and you really need to clear the things you do not need anymore.

The solution is to hold a garage sale.

A garage sale is the perfect way to get rid of old and unused stuff and make some money, all the while interacting with your neighbors and friends.

Here is a post I wrote a while back on how to hold a successful garage sale.

Print some flyers from your computer and distribute them to the neighbors to let them know that you will be organizing a garage sale. Remember to put in the correct date and time.

With the extra money in your pocket, you can finally buy the clothes and other stuff you have always wanted.

6. Organize a Fun Run

Exercise is great for everyone and organizing a fun run seems like a relevant idea. It gives people the chance to stretch their legs and enjoy a cool run around the neighborhood.

If you have neighbors who are regular joggers, then it is more likely that they would agree to participate in your event.

To save on costs, try to find a few sponsors, or charge a small registration fee for the participants. You could, in return, give them free stuff upon payment of the fees.

For something memorable, throw in a theme to the run and get the participants to make it happen.

7. Pet Sit

If you’re anything like me, you’ll really enjoy pet sitting.

What’s better for an animal lover to hang out with cats and dogs?

This won’t even feel like work since you’ll enjoy it so much!

All you have to do is let your neighbors and friends know you’re available for pet sitting. Charge a reasonable fee and you’re on your way to making some money while having a lot of fun

8. Walk Dogs

I am sure there are a few people in your own neighborhood who have a dog or two.

Most people are busy these days, and while they may not have the time to walk their dogs themselves, they are willing to pay someone to do it for them.

You could be that someone. After all, who better to trust with your dogs than a neighbor.

9. Power Wash driveways

If you have a power washer machine, you can earn decent money with it.

If you don’t have one, you can pick up a decent one from your local hardware store for $150 or so. And you can make that money back with your first few jobs.

Even if you charge $50 per driveway (which is low actually; professorial companies charge a few hundred dollars,) and you get 6 jobs a month, that’s an extra $300 a month.

Now tell me you don’t have a use for an extra $300 a month!

10. Clean/Organize garages

If you have driven past your neighbor’s house and you cannot help but notice that their garage is filled with boxes piled up to the ceiling, maybe it is time you went up to them and offer to organize their stuff.

This could be a stepping-stone for you if you aspire to become a professional organizer.

Depending on the condition of your client’s home, it may take you a day or the whole weekend to complete the job.

11. Bonus: House Sit

I know the title says 10 ways, but here is a bonus.

This will truly be a fun job, but do make sure you act responsibly when housesitting.

Families going away for a long vacation may need someone to keep an eye on their house and also to look after their pets.

Offer your house sitting service to them and assure them that you can do the job. They can then relish in their holiday time knowing that their house is being taken care of.

Your role would be to visit the house a few times a day to make sure that the gas valves are all right and to feed the pets.

A quick Tip

You can be professional and come up with a list of services and how much you are going to charge.

Print them out on posters or flyers and distribute them among your neighbors.

You have the option of offering one-off prices for each service or charging seasonal prices.

For instance, you could charge $640 for four months’ worth of weekly lawn mowing.

To seal the deal, draw up an agreement and have the client sign after confirming the price and time frame of the service.

You could also request for a deposit to be paid to you before you start work.

The Bottom Line

Here is the thing, I know jobs are scarce, the economy is bad, and it’s getting tougher to make a living, but there are ways you can make ends meet.

And as you have seen in this post, you don’t have to go too far to do that.

There are dozens of ways to make money right in your own neighborhood, you just have to be willing to do some work.