Paper rounds as a Kid

Did an evening and Sunday morning one when I was about 15, some 27 years ago. Not for a shop though, I got them via a local distributor who dropped them off at my house in a taxi. I had to collect all of the money and keep track of the accounting. I got 2p per paper, which with around 50 evening papers and 75 Sunday papers worked out at about £7.50 per week. Took about 1/2 hour evenings and 1 hour on Sunday. That went up to £60 with tips at Christmas though :)

Really taught me about keeping track of money and good customer service since in effect I was the shop and had to keep the customers sweet.
 
I used to do a morning one - think I took home about £17 a week as it was further out of the village than most of the other rounds. Used to take me about 45 mins during the week but I hated weekends because of the supplements - had to do 2 trips :(
 
I did a Sunday paper round when I was a kid, you needed 2 bags to fit it all in and they were heavy when you're small, it took 2 hours and I only got around £3 for it but it taught me that hard work pays off.
 
Col_M said:
I did a Sunday paper round when I was a kid, you needed 2 bags to fit it all in and they were heavy when you're small, it took 2 hours and I only got around £3 for it but it taught me that hard work pays off.
Click to expand...

and the houses were 5 miles apart and you had led shoes :rolleyes:
 
Col_M said:
I did a Sunday paper round when I was a kid, you needed 2 bags to fit it all in and they were heavy when you're small, it took 2 hours and I only got around £3 for it but it taught me that hard work pays off.
Click to expand...

Would have taught me scamming people for change at the drinks machine was an easier line of work.

Could make £3 in about 10 mins.
 
I did a total of 13 rounds, all were at least an hour each and I got a grand total of £1.40 a week.
On a saturday I did a bread round and sometimes I helped on an ice cream van.
On a friday, saturday & sunday I would go and play in club/pub bands with my old man and get £1 a gig.
This was back in 1972 though.
 
I did a sunday morning round from when i was 13 till i was 18 :p
most weeks i would do 2 or even 3 sunday rounds aswel cos our shopkeeper had hardly any paper boys and i felt bad for him.
Also covered friends mornings and evenings if they were on holiday etc.

Since quitting iv made more money from a couple of poker tournaments than i did in 5 years as a paperboy, but it was good at the time, taught you about saving up. I knew if i wanted something i would have to wait a few weeks before i could get it, nowadays if i want something i go to the casino and have the money an hour later, but i still think its teaches valuable lessons to kids.
if i have sons im gonna make them be paper boys :p
 
The post box flap is like a booby trap. I pushed in the paper, the flap flipped back and nearly snapped my finger in half, that's my experience for the first paper round ever, when I was 14.

I did the rest of the paper round whilst my finger's bloody and in the rain :(
 
I did one from 13-16, 10 years ago now! I used to do two rounds, 7 days a week, £22.50 per week for one and £18 for the other + any extra rounds they had on a weekend when I had time. I used to get up at 6am 364 days of the year and it took me around 75 mins to finish both. Very good money for that age and kept me fit.
 
Done one when i was 13 or 14, only took about 20 minutes to do for the princely sum of £6.00 per week.
 
I did two paper rounds for years.

Morning round for the post office - seriously sought after job amongst us kids at the time! You had to inherit rounds from people when they were maimed or something. I got £7 a week to deliver about 15 papers every weekday morning. Took me all of 15 minutes, it was on my road, I lived at 86 and the round was spread over houses 1-50. The papers were even loaded in the right order as I came to each house so no thinking involved.

Also did an afternoon round for the Evening Post that was far more time consuming (used to take an hour even on a bike and covered the entire village which is located on a mountain edge so lots and lots of hills and off road stuff. Gave me loads of time to think/daydream/listen to my walkman though, and brought in up to £20 a week. Got very good tips off that round too as I had to collect payment.

Always avoided Sunday rounds. MASSIVE bulging bags (usually 2) huge rounds, papers never fit the letterbox, but the pay was good if you were willing to do it. I wasn't!
 
Slinger said:
£11 quid !! :eek:

I done it ONCE, I had to do probably about a 100 papers(seemed like loads more when I think about it, could have been) papers, and what did I get.... £5.50!!! pay packet the following week.

it took me about 2.5 - 3 hours !!!

and this wasnt in the 1980's or something.... its was in 2006, when i was 16.

was the first and last time I ever do that. Can shove their £5.50
Click to expand...

Crikey,

I did something similar when I was 15 odd, it took me forever and I got a cheque for £15 odd.

six months later I made £1.5k in three hours without leaving home.

It's essentially slave labour
 
iBot said:
and the houses were 5 miles apart and you had led shoes :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Well about 70 papers in 2 trips over about 4 miles, taking into account the time it takes to walk back and forth up paths, through gates then fold and cram the sunday papers into the letterboxes it's about right. It was the early-mid 90s so £3 wasn't too bad then but I'm not sure if you're old enough to know.
And I have no idea what you mean by LED shoes, I didn't have a pair :confused:
 
Fat chance of me getting up to do a paper round, I'm too lazy :p

I'll earn money with a real saturday job and my internet things. Better pay too, and less effort.
 
well on the other side my mum and dad wont give me anything apart from a bit of money for christmas and birthday i got a jobe and have bought everything i own really,
a decent computer,a nice tv and a ps3.
My friends just get these as "presents" for doing well
but they have no sense of doing somehting for themsleves.
 
Col_M said:
Well about 70 papers in 2 trips over about 4 miles, taking into account the time it takes to walk back and forth up paths, through gates then fold and cram the sunday papers into the letterboxes it's about right. It was the early-mid 90s so £3 wasn't too bad then but I'm not sure if you're old enough to know.
And I have no idea what you mean by LED shoes, I didn't have a pair :confused:
Click to expand...

I think he meant lead shoes ;)


Now no offense to all those with the crappily paid hard labor of paper rounds, but were you really that dumb to do that much work for that little pay?

Especially when there where are so many other ways to get more money than that at that age.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom