Pocket Money

At 17/18 I was working full time but my mum worked at Woolworth's and they were looking for some extra staff in the run up to xmas and without asking me she put me forward.
3 afternoons a week is change into my uniform just before leaving my council job and toddled of to do 3hrs at Woollies and I did every Saturday to. I stayed there for almost 3 years.
I also did about 9 months part-time at Argos when I was about 22 to boost my income.

Riverwalk

Regarding your GD - as she's only 16 it will be difficult for her to find a part-time job.

What jobs does your DD think she can realistically apply for?

My 16 year old grandson has just got himself a holiday and weekend job at a sports shop chain (with a lot of encouragement from his parents) so there are jobs out there for 16 year olds.

At the age of 14 I worked on a Saturday at local hairdressers but got sacked after a few weeks when I burnt someones head with hot water. I then worked in a cake shop, I loved it. During the school holidays I worked in the bakery that owned the cake shop spent weeks putting jam in doughnuts! Also one year during the school holidays my friend who was at catering college got me a job in a factory canteen lying about my qualifications. I used to take the morning trolley around the factory dishing out teas and bacon rolls, listening to lewd comments of the workers!! One day I had to make strawberry Angel Delight for a dessert, in a giant food mixer I put milk and then powder in (instead of powder first) the whole kitchen was engulfed in a pink cloud. Took me ages to clean everything down.
Both my children had a brilliant work ethnic, they both had lots of jobs during University, especially my daughter who was able to run a car. They both came out with Firsts and went on to get good jobs.

Paper round at 11, Saturday job at Littlewoods a few years later then after A levels worked in a lovely hotel in Torbay. Through Uni. bar work a couple of evenings a week and each vac. returned to same hotel which I loved although b. hard work !
DS was told at 16 time to earn his own money and worked at Waitrose a couple of evenings a week until gap year when he travelled to Oz.
In the present circumstances the hospitality business is crying out for staff, your GD should have no problem finding employment.

As a single parent in my 40s I had a fulltime nursing job - fortunately’9-5’. I used to collect the children from school and drive to a cleaning job, leave them in the car to do their homework and clean offices to help pay for the ‘extras’

I worked in a little local restaurant in my school holidays when I was sixteen. I washed up in the tiny little kitchen, and dreaded 'curry day' - there was always rice floating in the greasy water no matter how many times I asked the waitress to scrape the plates properly. I hated the smell of it too, which is odd because I grew up to love curry. When I'd finished and washed out all the tea cloths and hung them out, I would race on to my next job cleaning several houses, twenty minutes run away. I earned hardly anything but I saved every penny. My parents had said if I paid for myself I could go with my sister and her college friends to Spain the following Summer. It was a narrow squeak but I just did it. We were there for a month and had a marvellous time. I was pretty and it was my first holiday away from my parents who were strict. My sister always said she almost despaired of getting me home safely. After that I always had a part time job, waitressing, filing in a hospital, working behind the bar in a pub when I was older. Everything I earned was saved to go on the magical holidays to the most exotic places I could afford.

At 14 I worked Saturday mornings at a local hairdressers then moved on to a local supermarket where I worked a whole day. For a half day I got 10 shillings, a full day £1.

From the age of 13 I always had a Saturday job in a local shop - ironmonger, haberdasher and later my dad's stamp shop It taught me the value of money. You didn't want to waste a day's work on something you didn't really need!

I worked in a cafe washing up and serving,i was 14,i earned £2 and had a free lunch and a ten minute break to eat it.
Started at 6am,finished at 6pm.
Sounds like slave labour now.







It was hard work,started at 7am fifished at 6pm.
Sounds like slave labour now.

My first Saturday/holiday job was washing hair & sweeping up in a hairdresser. then came a stint in an office at a garage dealership. The one I enjoyed the most was in the local chemist.

In my student days I worked in the vacations.
Delivering Christmas post.
Office job in the Tax office. I enjoyed that.
Office job in a shoe factory. They soon realised I was a bit
“ different” from the locals so I was given various special jobs to do, not just typing and filing,
Piling magazines on a conveyor belt. Very boring. I was only there for three weeks, as my parents discovered that the magazines included some mildly pornographic ones. Actually nobody had time to see what they were as you had to work quickly. In fact they were mostly comics.

Baby sitting and in the summer I helped my granda in his market garden, pulling up veg, weighing it out for orders. I had to put in wooden crates and leave at the gate for the customers to pick up. Lovely days, I remember eating the berries and tomatoes as I bagged them

My parents weren't very well off so from the age of 14 I did office cleaning 5 days a week before school at a neighbour's company. From about 15 I also worked as a cinema usherette 3 weekday evenings and weekends. I can vividly remember trying to do my homework at about 11pm when I got in from work having been up since 5am ☹️. It did affect my school work and not surprisingly my exam results were mediocre. Thankfully when DH and I had children we were in a position that we could make DD an allowance. She never had a part time job during term time at school or at university, it does make a difference. She had jobs during the long vacation though and has an excellent work ethic.

I worked in Timex, Dundee each summer when I was at university and loved it. It was very repetitive putting straps on watches but there was always the bonus to aim for and the women were great fun to work with. And I made enough money to buy my first car!

I forgot the Christmas post job! I loved that - it was probably when I was in the lower sixth. Several of us did it, in spite of a headmistress (girls’ grammar school) who tried to forbid it. It was in a relatively affluent area so she liked to think that all our parents were well off and were dishing out plenty of pocket money - very far from the case for many of us.

I had Saturday job from 14 -18 in market stall then chain store then in a bar whilst student. Have always thought I was born into wrong life, I’d have been very happy never working, living somewhere like Chatsworth/ Downton Abbey going for a horse ride every morning and spending afternoons in the library with the dogs in front of a roaring fire someone else has made (another childhood job!) Slipping into designer clothes for dinner...... if only

First worked in chip shop after school serving on evening between 6-10pm then weekend 6- qq on Saturday and 10 -4 on Sunday on the sweet counter before working my way up to serving the chips and then got an additional job at littlewoods between 4-6 3 days a week and Saturday 9-4. I would straight from school to liilewoods the straight from littlwoods to the chip shop. I would do my homework between serving customers at the chip shop! Then when I finished school worked as a silver service waitresses!

That’s so funny ? x

Never had a part time job growing up - my father wouldn't let me; but I did have paid work experience whilst at college in the 60's. Both jobs were fun and taught me a lot.

When I was 14 and still at school I got a Saturday job in Woolworths, in those days you had to do all the adding up in your head. A few years later when I worked in an office I really did have a part time job working as a waitress in a cocktail bar (like the song) on Friday night we had a lot of the visiting football teams staying at the hotel- great fun although a lot of the banter would be frowned on today.

I worked in a VG store, clearing tables in a cafe, at Dolcis shoes, at Etam, as a postman at Christmas, in a factory welding, as a waitress , in a pub ....I loved a of those little jobs, they gave me freedom to travel and not struggle when I was a student.All jobs in the hospitality/ catering/ sales are excellent experience. As an employer, I would certainly be looking for any sort of work ecperience the applicant has, shows a bit of get up and go, maturity, knowledge of business etc.

My husband and I have both had part time jobs whilst bringing up our children and now with 7 grandchildren. We don’t take out loans or credit cards we save and pay for what we want. My husband has done part time gardening and we have both done life modelling for art groups.

I worked part time at a second job until my late 50's to make ends meet. I first made a disastrous marriage at the age of 17 (and separated three years later). My husband left debts, which I tried to pay. Later, after re-marrying, my second husband had a serious heart attack, from which he never really recovered. He was ill and unable to work for nine years. He died when I was 41.
Over the years, I worked as a barmaid, a waitress, a telesales person and as a cleaner!

Working whilst at Uni and even when in sixth form, was not to provide luxury items, just for food, etc.

All my children needed to work whilst at Uni. Also, before that whilst at school, Delivering the free weekly newspapers from when they were about 14 years of age, Saturday and/or sunday jobs once they reached the age of 16.

They all got excellent grades at their GCSE's and A levels and excellent degrees and Masters Degrees. Do think that having to earn some money, was an important part of their life education.

When I was 13 years of age, one Saturday my Mother took me to a shop in our local High street which sold higfh class glasswear and chinawear, etc. She informed them I was actually 14 years of age (only time I can rememebr my mother lying), as that was (then) the minimum age for saturday work). I startd there that day, stayed untikl I left school, and also used to work there during school holidays. I also got a wonderful little Sunday morning job at newsagent helping out during their rush time for paying weekly newspaper accounts.

As the years went past I did have all sorts of part-time jobs to helpo out with family finances. I did ironing twice a week for a couple hours each time. Worked as Saturday assistant in my local Sainsbury, did the washing up one night a week at the nearby carvery. Was the co-ordinator for the weekly fre newspaper round.

So much more difficult for youngsters these days. Few shops take on Satuturday/weekend staff. With so many hospitality staff looking for full-time work not many spaces for students, etc.

An old favourite, particularly at Christmas time was working for the GPO. My son, after his first term at Uni, arrived home and faced up to my fury that he had not sorted humself out a Xmas job. The following day he went into Central London and got work at Liberties store. He went back there during each holiday. So much thirty years ago.

Once I hit 16 I was dying to get a job in the school holidays, but I wasn’t allowed to - had to stay at home to look after younger siblings while my mother went to work. She said she’d make it up to me but never did - I used to earn reasonable money from babysitting, though - just as well since my pocket money was very little and by then my mother never bought me any clothes - all I had was from babysitting or birthday/Christmas money.

When I did finally get a summer holiday job, at 18, on a supermarket checkout, I had to give my mother £3 out of the £8.50 I earned. I later found out that at the same stage, dh was earning £20 on building sites and didn’t give his folks anything! Apparently it wasn’t expected. It wasn’t as if they were well off - they were probably even more skint than mine.