Earn your, own, you say. All very well, but how? How? In many ways, so many in fact that you can almost take your choice. First you must decide if you want to make money consistently or just in periodic spurts for special expenditures. If you decide that you want a constant supply trickling in every week, then you must find a way that will guarantee a steady income. That is the program I will discuss first.

Jobs that bring in money steadily are jobs at which you must work steadily. Naturally, with school and dates in the picture, these jobs will have to be part-time ones, which can be done of an afternoon or a Saturday. These jobs are not always easy to find, but they do exist. Check into selling jobs in the department store, the drugstore, the stationery shop. Look into waitress jobs, again at the drugstore, the hotel restaurant, and such.

Aside from such steady jobs as these, there are jobs like taking on the sales of magazine subscriptions or greeting cards, which can be steady provided you are willing to devote the time to them.

Baby-sitting can be a steady job or a hit-or-miss affair, depending on the way you want to go about it. If you want to work at it regularly there is nothing to prevent you from making up a list of clients and keeping in constant touch with them. Often young married couples would like to know that they can depend on you to be free to come to their house one definite night a week. You could schedule yourself in such a way, that you could count your chickens in advance.

Such a schedule might look something like this:

Monday night—The Browns Tuesday night—The Smiths Wednesday night—The Joneses

Thursday night—(no regular job) Friday night—(no regular job) Saturday night—(free for dates)

Don't forget on your schedule to leave room for free time—to do homework, to wash your hair, and for all the million and one things that have to be accomplished. Also, those free nights from time to time can be used to take on emergency jobs when you would like a little extra cash.

Suppose, however, that you don't want to baby-sit on a steady schedule. You only want to do it when you are in a dire financial slump. Then get in touch with a friend of yours who does baby-sit regularly and ask her if she would like to suggest you to her clients as a filler-in. Also, you could babysit for friends of your family, on the understanding that you are only free to do it from time to time. However, once you have taken on a job, do not cancel it. Even if you only expect to work spasmodically, you will get yourself a bad name if you back down from an engagement.

In summer baby-sitting can truly evolve into a profitable occupation if during the school months you have established a reputation of being safe and sound. One idea is for two girls to band together to form a sort of unofficial kindergarten. The system would work like this: contact the mothers of five children or so and tell them that you and your friend would agree to take the child in every morning (or every afternoon) five days a week. Think of the boon to busy mothers who would know in advance that all through the summer they could count on three hours or so that would be uncluttered with small children.

In order to amuse the children during the time that you were responsible for them, you could take them to the park, to the playground, or to the beach (if one is nearby). On rainy days you could use your own home (here you would have to talk over the plan with your mother) and read them books and supply them with crayons and paints. With a little organization, you could get the thing going in no time, and incidentally gain some valuable knowledge on the care and feeding of children.

Another kind of activity that can be turned to profit is cooking. If you know your way around a kitchen, you could try and set up a junior catering service. Offer your wares to friends in the neighborhood who you know to be planning parties. This is a good summer job, because you have time to do a thorough piece of work and are also free to take on an emergency call. Canvass your block and notify everyone that you will make cakes, cookies, hot rolls, etc., for any parties they are planning. You might also agree to undertake children's parties, doing everything from preparing the cookies and ice cream to making up the games and favors.

Even if you don't cook, other people's parties can be turned to your profit if you offer your services as a helper. You could serve the refreshments, tidy up the house in advance, and clean up afterwards. A few such sessions with mop and dishcloth will enable you to buy that dreamy dress you've long been coveting.

Come summer, you have the time to try out all these schemes. Don't be bashful about starting out. Advertise yourself, ring doorbells, and get going full steam ahead. The idea is to undertake as much as you can, but still have free time to

Play-Summer is perhaps the most valuable job time available. It is the time when you can experiment, feel your oats in the business world. Any teen who has a glimmer of what she wants to do when she gets out of school should certainly try to gain experience in that field some summer before the day of cap and gown. If you yearn to write, go down to the local newspaper and see if they need a copy girl. If you yearn to be a fashion girl, try to get a selling job at the local store (selling experience is one of the surest ways to get ahead in fashion). If you yearn to decorate, see what odd jobs the interior decorator has—remember nothing is too lowly. The way to gain experience is to go out and get it.

Sometimes it is not just an individual who is out of funds; sometimes a whole group, a club or an organization, is down to its collective last dollar. When the exchequer hits bottom with a thud, don't throw up your hands in despair. Instead start figuring out how you can revive the treasury.

Groups can do much to raise money because they have more than one pair of hands to help. What about a raffle, and why not raffle off Argyle socks made by your own loving

Groups can do much to raise money because they have more than one pair of hands to help. What about a raffle, and why not raffle off Argyle socks made by your own loving hands? Why not raffle of! an afghan, with each girl making one square? Why not give a white elephant sale with each member donating some one of her treasures—stuffed animals, old but still useful clothes, etc.?

One of the most enjoyable ways to raise money is to give a party (and charge admission)—but it is also one of the most difficult. In the first place, a party needs money to start off with—money for refreshments, decorations and music (if only records). Perhaps the way to surmount this problem is to have each member of the group contribute—crepe paper from one, one dozen lemons from another, cookies from another, and so on until the list is complete.

One sure way to make a party a success is to invite everyone you know. The more the merrier is a true saying—and furthermore, the more that come, the more admission fees you have to tuck away in the till. Another success tip is give yourself time to do the job properly and also time in which to give out advance publicity on your plans. Get others excited about what you are proposing to do and they all will come flocking from curiosity.

An unpleasant subject that I am forced to introduce at this point is that often the lack of cold cash is due to mismanagement of funds at hand, otherwise known as poor budgeting. One of the facts of life that must be faced is that money must be handled with sense.

Whether you are on an allowance, whether you earn your own, or whether you come to Mother each time you need cash, you should all know how to budget your money. Budgeting is not mysterious; it is a simple matter of balancing what comes in against what goes out.