MISS MONEYSAVER: How to help your children become budding entrepreneurs, learn life skills and even earn their own pocket money
Thanks to the popularity of car boot sales and internet re-selling sites, buying and selling is a great way for children to earn some money of their own.
My eight-year-old neighbour, Lily, is getting really good at buying up toys and games cheaply at fetes and car boot sales then selling them on for a profit — sometimes at the same venue!
And children can make good money (and have lots of fun) by doing similar.
It’s a good idea to get your budding entrepreneur to join in on a declutter session, too, gathering together toys, clothes and accessories they no longer want and allowing them to keep the money they make by selling this ‘stock’ at a car boot sale or online.
Show the children how to price items, how to give people change and how to negotiate the price of something with a potential buyer. Not only will they make handy money but they will gain valuable business skills at the same time.
Thanks to the popularity of car boot sales and internet re-selling sites, buying and selling is a great way for children to earn some money of their own (File image)
Making things to sell is also very popular with children, as with adults now. Kids can bake cakes and sell them from their parents’ car boot or on the front garden using a fold-out table. Sweets are also a popular product for children to make and sell at school, to neighbours or at a car boot sale.
And you never know where even a simple idea like making and selling sweets could lead.
Luke Scotney, 11, from Peterborough, turned his interest in sweets into a proper business. He made at least £1,000 before February this year from his pick-and-mix sweets selection, sweets4mysweet.com, which doesn’t contain traces of nuts or other allergens.
He doesn’t make the sweets himself, but buys them from wholesalers.
Crafty kids can make jewellery or friendship bracelets to sell on Etsy, or turn their artistic talent to creating attractive picture frames or ‘pimping up’ Starbucks cups to sell online, as a friend of one of my MoneyMagpies does.
Luke Scotney, 11, (pictured) from Peterborough, turned his interest in sweets into a proper business
He made at least £1,000 before February this year from his pick-and-mix sweets selection, sweets4mysweet.com, which doesn’t contain traces of nuts or other allergens
Kids with a bit of spark and an interest in acting can make money appearing in TV shows, films and commercials either as part of a crowd or with an actual speaking part.
There are various agencies that provide work like this, particularly those attached to performing arts schools like Italia Conti and Ravenscourt Theatre School Agency — both in London.
Judy McPhee, from the JAM2000 agency in Ruislip, Middlesex, has 3,500 children on her books and says it’s a great way for children to get some experience of work, learn to be part of a team and build their confidence.
Her agency has licensed chaperones who go with the children to look after them when they do their film and TV jobs.
Get £1,000 to sample sushi
Are you a sushi fan? Well you could be paid the equivalent of £1,000 to eat it! A company called DesignMyNight is looking for a ‘Sushi Brunch Tester’ who will receive £500 in restaurant vouchers and £500 in DesignMyNight reward points, for reviewing sushi brunches in their area.
The chosen tester will be required to sample sushi brunches in up to five restaurants and then write up their experiences for DesignMyNight. The deadline for entries is Sunday April 23. Go to shorturl.at/hnxCO to fill in the form.
Depending on what the work is, children can make from £40-£500 a day while having a lot of fun. If they’ve had a speaking part or been in a popular commercial, they might even get future payments for repeats.
‘We’re a busy agency and never have enough children for the jobs that come in so we’re always looking for more to fill openings,’ says Judy.
Other agencies that specialise in child actors and extras include Twin agency in London and Bizzykids in Kent.
There’s also an extras agency called Robinson Harris Hill that has a special section for children and young people (rhh-agency. co.uk/child-and-teen-performers).
There are ‘extras’ agencies around the country, but be careful as some are there just to take your money and won’t get you work. Check online for reviews of an agency before you sign up your child.
Quite a lot of children are particularly good at fixing broken tech. If yours is a natural ‘fixer’ they could make money mending phones and laptops for people in the local area.
It’s difficult to find trustworthy tech gurus so they could charge a decent fee for the work: £50 upwards, depending on the problem that needs mending.
Bite back against those soaring vet bills
The cost of living is making it expensive for pet owners. Research from Tesco has found that it now costs £600 a year to care for dogs and £330 for cats.
Research from Agria Pet Insurance found that eight in ten of us have noticed pet bills increasing over the last 12 months, to the point where six in ten are saying they will need to go without to ensure they’re able to care for their pets.
So how do we cut the cost of looking after our furry friends? Firstly, cut vet bills by looking for cheaper prices for the flea and worming treatments recommended by your vet. You can pretty much always find cheaper deals online.
Go for the best quality food you can afford, as cheaper food often includes unhelpful ‘filler’ items that can cause physical issues for the animals later on.
Dry food goes further but is boring for animals on its own so alternate it with some wet food including meat cooked from raw (you can use all the cheaper cuts including offal) and even leftovers from your own dinner at times.
The cost of living is making it expensive for pet owners. Research from Tesco has found that it now costs £600 a year to care for dogs and £330 for cats (File image)
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, even for pets, but most vets, pet shops and online shops have free or low-cost samples for you to try before you dive headfirst into a 7kg bag.
For healthy dog and cat food samples, try Natural Choice Pets Food (naturalchoicepetfoods.co.uk/) which has £1 samples.
For treats, buy bones from your local butcher. If you’re really struggling to feed your pet, there are now pet food banks around the country offering help. Various supermarkets offer them as well as Pets at Home stores, the RSPCA (which has a list of pet food banks on its website) and Cats Protection centres and the Pet Food Bank in Scotland.
Fancy a cut-price cruise? You could skipper your own trip around the Caribbean or the Med or just the Medway, by booking a yacht through Click&Boat (clickandboat.com). It’s like Airbnb on the water. They have all kinds of vessels from houseboats on the Thames to catamarans in the Caribbean.
One-day rentals can cost less than £100 but you can also find holidays. I saw a ten-night, fully skippered Caribbean adventure, setting sail from Martinique and sailing around the nearby Grenadines in a chic little three-berth yacht, from £1,500pp.
There’s a new payment card that earns you cashback as you spend. SuitsMe (suitsmecard.com) describes itself as an alternative banking solution, combining its e-money accounts together with an app and a debit card. But, unlike most other debit cards, it offers cashback when you spend at various connected retailers (online or on the High Street) such as Argos, Asda, B&Q, Sainsbury’s, Lebara, Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Halfords.
Ooh I love a good sponge cake with lashings of buttercream! So I’m thrilled to be able offer you 15 per cent off any cakes in the sponge.co.uk range which are delivered to your door. Just choose your fave and put JASMINE15 in at the checkout. Offer lasts until Saturday, April 22.
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