15 Creative Ways for Kids to Earn Money Quickly

Kids can learn valuable lessons from working hard to earn some cash, and there are a variety of things children of different ages can do quickly and easily without special tools or materials. Help your child choose things that fit his strengths and abilities to ensure success!

If you're good at technology, you could offer your services to help others set up or resolve issues with things like smartphones, ipods, or tablets. You may want to start with your grandma's or grandpa's friends or put up a flyer at a local senior center. Younger kids might need help with their phones, too, so you could spread the word through school or friends that have younger siblings.

Many kids love making different craft projects, and you can turn your hobby into an easy way to make money. The list of items you could potentially sell is as limitless as your imagination - clay figures or decorations, bead key chains, small painted canvas pictures, popsicle stick picture frames, window clings, cool artistic pictures, and more. You can sell your items at local arts and crafts fairs or school events.

Laundry is a chore that just never ends, and you could turn it into a way to make fast cash. Help local neighborhood parents sort, fold, or hang up laundry to help them save time. You could charge per load or per hour.

If you live near a lake, people might be looking for inexpensive bait. You can dig up worms, place them in containers (make sure the lids have holes in the top so the worms can breathe) and sell them to locals who like to fish. You could also catch minnows, place them in buckets, and sell them for bait if you have access to the water.

If people in your area like to have bonfires, you could make money fast by gathering small sticks and tinder, then putting them together to sell in 'kindling kits' (you could use something as simple as some twine or old shopping bags to secure your kindling). People can use these to start their weekend bonfires. If you want to do more, you can enlist the help of mom or dad to stock the freezer with frozen hot dogs or the pantry with marshmallows, and sell those for a profit, too.

People like to decorate around lots of holidays, but they may not have the time or energy to do it. If you have a knack for decorating or like details, consider offering a decorating service that helps people set out, hang, or otherwise display holiday or seasonal decorations.

Do you like to organize things? You could help people out and make money at the same time by providing a service to help organize things like book shelves, games, or other common household items. Older kids could even set out to completely organize closets or spaces like laundry rooms or pantries that get disorganized quickly.

While it's true that you're not going to get rich off of recycling cans and bottles, recycling those cans and bottles is a great job for a younger child. By recruiting family and friends to turn over their cans and bottles, kids can make even more cash. Another idea would be to get creative with recycles materials and create crafts or functional items like bird feeders you could sell.

Set up your own business that helps people in your community plant their gardens. You could also offer services like helping to plant seeds, weeding throughout the summer, helping harvest the vegetables, or helping shuck corn or freeze or can vegetables. You could even extend your services to things like berry picking or composting.

While it may seem that snow blowers have taken the place of shoveling, many people don't own one and would love to have a resourceful, neighborhood kid shovel a snow-packed driveway. To drum up business, kids can offer their shoveling services to trusted neighbors after a snowstorm, or create flyers at the beginning of winter announcing their availability. Small local businesses might be glad to have someone shovel snow off their sidewalks or in front of their stores, too.

Although this job is certainly not glamorous, it does have the potential to bring in a lot of money quickly. Many dog owners would be thrilled to relinquish the task of cleaning up after their four-legged friends. All that's needed to get started is a high-quality pooper scooper, some heavy gloves, and a good supply of trash bags. Kids can approach trusted neighborhood dog owners to inform them of their availability to scoop poop from their yards. It's likely they'll have more business than they can handle.

Artistic kids who love to wrap presents can easily earn extra cash during the holiday season. Busy shoppers will appreciate the extra help, and kids can either save their earned money, or use it to do their holiday shopping. Creative kids may even want to offer personalized or homemade wrapping paper, too.

Do you like to sing, dance, do puppet shows, or try out magic tricks? Turn your hobby into a money-making business by offering to do entertainment for kids' parties or community events in your area. Older kids could even offer additional party services, like doing the decorations, putting together goody bags, or helping serve snacks or cake

Elderly or disabled people who live alone will often pay for help with common indoor and outdoor chores such as folding laundry, keeping a kitchen tidy, weeding, mowing the grass, washing windows, or grocery shopping. An added bonus? Helping someone in need brings kids a great sense of satisfaction and fosters compassion for those less fortunate.

Many video game retailers such as Game Stop pay cash for old video games. Since kids often have stacks of video games they no longer use, turning in their old games for cash or credits can be a great way to earn money, especially if multiple kids combine their resources. You could also sell them to other kids, too.

Earning money teaches children the value of hard work. It also gives kids the practice at money management skills. Teach kids how to save for goals, how to spend responsibly and even how to give generously to charities.