Kids allowance...

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  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    I give my kids $50 every two weeks and don't expect anything of them. Also, they get a participant trophy every evening just for breathing.

    To the OP. I think that's a good plan.
  • junyr
    junyr Posts: 416 Member
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    In my house allowance and chores are handled separately.
    Chores are the kids contribution to keeping up the house, they're to teach responsibility and self-sufficiency.
    Allowance is for learning how to manage money and for a little independance.
    When you tie chores into receiving allowance, you run the risk of the kids not doing chores because they don't need or want money.

    Yeah, I've been torn on this very issue as well. I don't want to give them the idea of getting paid for nothing though.. Yeah, there's the teaching money responsibility, but part of that responsibility is to not get it without earning it.

    Thanks for all the input everyone! Many many good points to think about here.
  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 7,937 Member
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    Anything over 25 cents is too much -- but my data may be a little obsolete.
  • ffuunnnnyy__ggiirrll
    ffuunnnnyy__ggiirrll Posts: 431
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    [/quote]

    Yeah, I've been torn on this very issue as well. I don't want to give them the idea of getting paid for nothing though.. Yeah, there's the teaching money responsibility, but part of that responsibility is to not get it without earning it.

    Thanks for all the input everyone! Many many good points to think about here.

    [/quote]

    Yes, they will be getting money without earning it but they also are performing jobs they get no reward for. I think there are lessons in both.
  • junyr
    junyr Posts: 416 Member
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    Yeah, I've been torn on this very issue as well. I don't want to give them the idea of getting paid for nothing though.. Yeah, there's the teaching money responsibility, but part of that responsibility is to not get it without earning it.

    Thanks for all the input everyone! Many many good points to think about here.

    [/quote]

    Yes, they will be getting money without earning it but they also are performing jobs they get no reward for. I think there are lessons in both.
    [/quote]

    Good point there as well.
  • Ceezie
    Ceezie Posts: 21 Member
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    I'm almost 20 now, and I never really had an allowance up until middle school. (I then had $20/week and that was honestly overkill haha.. but I used it as lunch moneym very seldom small social outings at the time, books, presents, etc.)

    When I was in elementary school, I didn't have an allowance because my parents provided all the essentials that I needed of course. :P However, if I wanted something special (like my Gameboy color :D, new game, toy, etc.) I would do extra work around the house or whatever work I could do or help out with for a month or so.

    If this method isn't really to your liking, I think the amount of dollars/age is pretty reasonable :)
    Don't forget to buy piggy banks also! hah
  • tig_ol_bitties
    tig_ol_bitties Posts: 561 Member
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    Our allowance for doing all of our chores was not getting our *kitten* beat. Scare tactics worked well for us.
  • healthyJodi
    healthyJodi Posts: 31 Member
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    In my house allowance and chores are handled separately.
    Chores are the kids contribution to keeping up the house, they're to teach responsibility and self-sufficiency.
    Allowance is for learning how to manage money and for a little independance.
    When you tie chores into receiving allowance, you run the risk of the kids not doing chores because they don't need or want money.

    ETA: I give the kids anywhere from 1.00 to 10.00 a week depending on age.

    I totally agree, I give my kids $100 bucks a month, (14 and 16) this is not chore based, they are still obligated to help out in running the household This is spending so if you want a pop after hockey you are on your own money or if you want to go to the movie with a friend or if you want call display on your phone 7 bucks is coming off that hundred every month. Teaching them how to budget is essential.
  • agoldlife
    agoldlife Posts: 9
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    I dont remember what my allowance was but I remember my mother had me keep a ledger. I had to report how I used the money given me down to the penny.
    If I earned money she gave me an additional 50% of what I earned. So If I cleaned a neighbor's yard and they paid me $10 she'd give me $5 more.
    If I saved money she matched what I saved. If I got a good value on my money she reimbursed me for my purchase. My allowance was not tied to chores but to how well I managed to base amount.
    I give my 10 year old $5 a week as a base anything else is "earned". My 4 year old doesn't know to the names and values nor can he do the math money management requires. He is not given an allowance.
  • kaelawilliford
    kaelawilliford Posts: 41
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    some good tips.....
  • agoldlife
    agoldlife Posts: 9
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    Dave Ramsey has a pretty good system to teach kids responsibility with money. We're incorporating that now with our 3 year old.

    Thanks for this information I looked him up and have begun to impliment some of his methods as a family. Thank you again.
  • Smansfield1
    Smansfield1 Posts: 50 Member
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    I have 4 yr old twins & a 3 year old... they have 4 chores they have to do every day and if they do it, I give then a quarter. Its not alot but they think its cool. Probably helps they are pretty naive when it comes to things like video games and stuff like that. Their favorite place to go is the Dollar store.
  • MonkeyLover1993XxX
    MonkeyLover1993XxX Posts: 36
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    i didnt get money as at nearly 19 i still dont thing is my parents saved it and when i wanted/needed somthing like a bed cover or anything we would go out and pick buy it toghter or when we was verry little and there was 8 of us we use to go on day trips out were we got to pick sweat and an icecream 1s a month.
    but its made me grow up to not really ask for money or things and try to earn it myself.
    or we put the monkey in to a bank acount and saved it up till we hit a certain age to get it out <you save alot this way
  • klynn81
    klynn81 Posts: 178 Member
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    Allowance? This is a foreign concept to me, never got it. :bigsmile:

    lol. I was about to say the same thing. Wow, I think I got hosed. lol. jk
  • dalgirly
    dalgirly Posts: 280 Member
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    I always liked how my parents did it. We never got allowance but we had a list of chores with a money value attched to them. We still had to do basic chores, but we got money for doing extras. I liked it that way because I feel it taught us that we weren't just handed things in life, that to get something we had to work for it.
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
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    I dont remember what my allowance was but I remember my mother had me keep a ledger. I had to report how I used the money given me down to the penny.
    If I earned money she gave me an additional 50% of what I earned. So If I cleaned a neighbor's yard and they paid me $10 she'd give me $5 more.
    If I saved money she matched what I saved. If I got a good value on my money she reimbursed me for my purchase. My allowance was not tied to chores but to how well I managed to base amount.
    I give my 10 year old $5 a week as a base anything else is "earned". My 4 year old doesn't know to the names and values nor can he do the math money management requires. He is not given an allowance.

    I really like that idea of a "base" and teaching earning as well as money management. I also think 4 is too young for an allowance, or if one is given I would think something very small is sufficient, like $1 for their base.
  • klynn81
    klynn81 Posts: 178 Member
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    Yes, they will be getting money without earning it but they also are performing jobs they get no reward for. I think there are lessons in both.

    I can't say one parents ways are right or wrong, but I will say that from an early age we were expected to do things to help out around the house (make our beds, clean our rooms, laundry, dishes, sweep, vacuum, dust, set and clear the table for meals) and outside (feed the animals, weed whip, mow the yard, shovel snow, bale hay, lay bedding for the animals in the barn). No allowance.

    Sure when I was younger, I hated that I had to do more things at home than probably half of my friends, yet they always seemed to have anything and everything bought for them that they could possibly want. Maybe I didn't get the immediate reward like many of my friends did, but I know that learned what it meant to be a hard worker, to value my money, how to be responsible, and even more grateful for how hard my parents worked to provide for us....there isn't always an immediate reward for all your hard work, but there is always a reward. It doesn't always have to be in the form of money!
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
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    My son has opportunities to earn his "commission". We don't just hand him money. We do $1 per year, so right now he has the opportunity to earn $7 a week because he is 7 years old.
  • jennmoore3
    jennmoore3 Posts: 1,015 Member
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    I made a chart for the twins. It had 2 things to do each day, so 14 chores to do a week.

    For example monday and wednesday was fold 1 basket of clothes, and clean the movie stand. (We have a lot of DVD's and they get all messy when they watch movies so I had them straighten them back up in order to where they were all lined up like books in a library on their sides, no crazy like ABC order) Anyways then Tuesday and thursday were something like Clean the bathroom sink and counter, and straighten up the shoe bin. no one puts shoes in the bin, they toss them on the floor in front of the door, drives me crazy. :)

    For everything it had a $ amount, so the total was 5 bucks a week. it would be 25 cents here then 75 cents there, a dollar for this. ect. Then I told them that the first week I would remind them to do the chores so they could get into the swing of things. The next week chores were switched up between the kids and they were on their own. If it wasn't done, then no money for that chore, so I would deduct it from the total of 5 dollars.

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