Aside from a job (obviously), does any one know a good way for a teen to make some money?
Steal
Panhandle
Extort from your family or friends
God forbid you actually deliver some value to somebody for this money.
Define “teen”. 13? 18? 19?
If you’re 18 you could sell your plasma. $42 and a piece of cake that will knock your socks off. I’m not sure they let those under 18 do this, but you could check it out.
If your a male over 18, at that age you should have lot’s and lots of…uh,something else…to sell.
If your old enough to drive, have other teens pay you to cart their butts around. Sell your parents cigarettes to them. Sell grandmas prescription meds. How far you wanna take this?
'Course, if your something like 13, I can’t help you much. Sell your bike or your Barbie dolls or something. Get kids to pay you to eat bugs. I don’t know. How old are you?
Go to http://www.amateurteenslutswhoneedmoney.com…they’ll show you how. 
Sell your parents cigarettes to them. Sell grandmas prescription meds. How far you wanna take this?**
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DO NOT sell your grandmas meds to your friends. That was a joke.
Contrary to popular belief, there are extremely few people or institutions out there that will give you something for nothing.
Yes, if you’re willing to sit on a streetcorner and degrade yourself for about two days, you might be able to gather enough change to buy a pack of smokes.
Other than that, you WILL have to do some work.
Don’t want to get a paying job? Fine. Collect aluminum cans to recycle. If you live in a suburban area, go around and offer to mow lawns… Oops! That’d be a job, wouldn’t it?
And let me forward you this advice: In looking on the 'net, you will find a great deal of sites and sources that say you can make “easy money” or “fast money from home” or whatever. These places are 99.99% scam- THEY make THEIR money from YOU, not the other way around.
Strangely enough, the more “successful” scams, if you’ll pardon the expression, take more time, equipment and effort to operate than would a “real” job… go figure.
Damn! It’s just a joke and not a real site…
You don’t say how old a teenager. State laws vary. I’m a painting contractor & probably flouted state laws by hiring my neighbor’s son from age 15-16 to do occasional work with us, for $10.00/hr cash.
I doubt many unskilled “documented” jobs like working in fast-food joints pay nearly that much, though the experience is probably invaluable.
Also, there are a couple of kids in my 'hood who do yard work & advertise in the little local newsletter.
When I was 14, I was lying about my age & tending bar in the summer, but I’m probably not a real good role model!
Go mow some lawns. That’s what I did when I was a teen.
Oh, wait. Did you say you don’t actually want to work for money?
Well shoot, that’s easy. Just go on welfare, & the rest of us will support you.
Or I suppose you could call those 1-800 numbers in your local paper. you know, the ones where you can make $5,000 a month part time stuffing envelopes. [sub]yeah right.[/sub]
walking dogs
washing cars
have a yard sale
collect & sell recyclables - go to local bars, pizza places etc. and see if they’ll let you have all their aluminum cans
collect the deposit on bottles if your state has that
buy junky bicycles, fix them and sell them
go to one of those grocery stores that have posts to keep people from pushing the carts out to their cars, and carry groceries for people
When I was a teen I borrowed my sister’s Honda scooter and did a paper route with it. It had a little basket on the back where I put the papers. It took my half an hour tops, and my mom drove me on Sundays when the paper was too big as long as put some money in for gas. It was a piece of cake, and I always had money to go do stuff.
??? I thought this was illegal, like selling organs. At least, illegal in the US.
Uh, no. It’s perfectly legal in the U.S… Plasma centers even advertise for doners/sellers in the newspaper. It’s perfectly legal and legit! Why did you think it was illegal?
Honest to God, I’ve never heard of such a thing. I guess I just made an assumption. Do you have an example of one of these ads?
Please clarify. Do you mean money without working or how to make money working odd jobs vs having a steady job.
Sure, thing Al
http://collegian.ksu.edu/issues/v100/su/n162/edboard-7-11.html
Just look in the Personals in any big city news paper. There is usually an ad from a plasma center. The pay rate changes depending on their need. Once it was over $100, then dropped to $12. In Milwaukee it’s usually around $42. I sold mine when I was in college a few times. All legal.
Oops. That wasn’t an ad. But if you read it and click on the “selling plasma adds to pocketbook” you’ll get the info.
Am I the only one who read cvandy3’s post as a query that presented not an aversion to work but difficulty with a scheduled and regulated job?
cvandy3, several ideas have been posted, some of them not necessarily helpfull, but some worthwhile. I’ll make the assumption that you’re not able to commit to a regular working schedule. I did the lawn care thing as a teenager with what I considered great success. Mowing a yard ain’t that hard, and the burbs allowed my friends and I (we organized a little yard care service) to net ~$150/day. Weekends only, though.
I also sold newspapers at street corners. That made, at best, ~$25/day, if you stayed at it.
You can, of course (and has been mentioned), just sell stuff you own. This course has an obvious finite limit.
Amongst stuff you own is your blood plasma. I went that route in the late '70s and the going rate then was $7. Tough way to make a living, but it did help round out the grocery budget. If I ever again take transfusions, I’m sure I’ll remember that bloodletting room and my compadres therein.
Anyway, good luck!
Goodness. Well, pkbites, you have earned your SDMB stripes today for having fought ignorance, specifically my own 