Earning cash in 1970s England

[boltonia]

What would a boy living in an underpriviledged area of England do to earn some spending cash in the 70s?

I'm not thinking about getting an actual job like a paper route. I'm more interested in less scheduled things, like redeeming coke bottles and such. What would an 8-12 year old boy with the freedom to run the streets do?

Thanks!

Comments

[gillo]

Collecting golf balls from a local course kept my cousins in extra cash - they sold them back to the pro. (Yes, he might have to get a bus to the nearest course, but still.)

He might help out on a market stall, on a Saturday. He might watch the stall when the stallholder needed a 'rest break', do a bit of shouting for trade, carry boxes and sweep up at the end of the day.

He could have tried going round posher areas offering to clean cars or do a bit of garden labouring.

At 8 he'd be very lucky to make much extra cash - illegal and too easy for employers to be caught. By 12 he might be able to run errands, help on the market etc. Seasonal things like 'Penny for the Guy' and carol singing, of course.

Be careful about the prices - there was massive inflation in that decade, so what 6d would buy in 1970 (old money - decimal currency came in in Feb '71) would probably cost 20p by '79. And 80p now. :-(

[boltonia]

The golf balls is a good idea. Thanks. The rest might not be independent enough. Though the gardening might work.

[jayb111]

I don't think there was anything he could legally do. You have to be thirteen to get a paper round, and that's the first legal job available. (Excluding theatre work, which is very heavily regulated). It would all be cash in hand, with the risk of him unknowingly ending up involved in something dodgy.

As well as the things the pp mentioned, other things he could do, which would rely on no-one reporting him and his 'boss' to the relevant authorities:

Shelf stacking in the local corner shop; collecting glasses in a pub garden; helping out with a milk round - that is, carrying the bottles from the milk float to the front door and collecting the empties, to save the driver having to leave the float - used to often see young boys doing that, although not as young as eight.

Also favours for neighbours - doing a bit of shopping for an elderly person, walking a dog, weeding a garden, even minding a baby while its mum nipped out for a few minutes would have been acceptable for a twelve year old in the 1970s.

[boltonia]

I'm not looking for specifically legal. If my character lived today, he'd be a kid that roams town picking up aluminum cans for recycling.

[wingedkami]

I think returning 'pop' bottle for the deposit was still around in the 1970s, but I'm too young to remember it. Apparently it went on a lot longer in Scotland with Irn Bru bottles.

[theviciouslily]

They only just stopped it in Scotland a year or two ago. It had to be glass bottles specifically. I don't think you could get anything for plastic. You also used to be able to take empty jam jars to the pictures to get money off your tickets, but that seems like more of a wartime thing.