Allowance

[chris31997]

For those who pay for some chores and not "standard" chores... do you have any kind of rule that the standard chores must be completed before they can earn the money for the extra ones?

Our kids get money for chores. Over the summmer they can do extra chores to earn more money.

The rule is, standard/normal chores first. Extra come last. The extra chores are all about making Mom's life easier They also have to split the extra chores.


Our kids get paid for some chores around the house, think of it as a "job". Other "chores" they do because they are asked to do it and are part of the household. They get paid very little because we cover almost all of their needs. This money for them is their "I want". They also have to save money to buy birthday/Christmas presents for each other and their friends.

 

[Kitzka]

DD 14 gets $50 a month. To earn this she she must load and empty the dishwasher, set the dinner table, put out the milk containers (we get out milk delivered), take out the recycling and help out away the groceries each week/day.

Her standard unpaid chores are putting away her laundry, keeping her room clean, an being a productive member of the family.

This money covers all of her expenses. Occasionally we chip in some extra money but if she wants more she has to do a little more around the house. Amazingly when she hears this, the money she has is more than enough for her social life.

 

[aprilgail2]

My kids would never clean the bathroom for 30 cents.

Sent from my iPod touch using DISBoards

My daughter wouldn't do it for 30.00 nevermind 30 cents LOL!!!!!

 

[Abbeys_mom]

Like a PP, we go to work and earn a salary. No work = no $. Why wouldn't the same apply to a child? She will be better prepared to manage her money when she gets older. Giving an "allowance" implies entitlement (yes, we follow DR).

She also has three buckets: give, save and spend. For every $1 that she saves, we "401k" match it. Guess who is buying her own car?

 

[reginaastralis]

Like a pp we do a sort of ticket system, except it's Popsicle sticks. Each stick is generally worth about .25 and dd can get them for good behavior, school work and chores. Each day, I make a short list of chores that needs to be done, and she has the option to do them. If she doesn't do them, which happens more often that I'd like to admit, she can't watch extra tv. She can earn as much as she wants, but most weeks it's about $5-10.

The "school work" option is extra school above and beyond. DD is a reader, so she can get a stick when she completes a book, plus another .25 if she writes about the book she read. We were having some issues with her retelling stories, and I realized she would do anything for a quarter, so I figured why not. We're working on math and such over the summer, to help with the summer slide, so when she completes her weekly packet ... you guessed it, a quarter.

And she'll gladly clean the bathroom for .50 ... it's pretty awesome! She has her spend/save/give jars and she saved the $100 she needed for summer camp pretty quickly. This year she's saving for Toys for Tots or the Ronald McDonald house. What I've learned is that while she wants lots of things, she'll gladly put extra money into the give jars to help others. It's been a pretty great year.

 

[aprilgail2]

i would not give a 5 year old an allowence.dd7 doesnt get one and probably wont until shes 10. I didnt realize parents gave their kids money so young

I gave my daughter an allowance from the time she was about 3- back then it was easy, she would stuff it all in a piggy bank LOL. Now at 13 she generally spends every bit of the allowance because she brings in other money that she saves 100 percent of (babysitting, dog sitting, and she does acting jobs that pay her up to 300.00+ for one days work). That money she saves all of for college. I already have a car for her so she doesn't need to save for that.

 

[Jedana]

We do $1 per year. So, my 9 year old gets $9.

Allowance is not chore based. However, if he doesn't do his chores, and I have to do them, he has to pay me $1 a chore.

but he does have rules for the allowance.

$1 must go to help others (he can buy something and donate it, he can donate the money, he can save up and do something big or do a dollar a week somewhere--up to him).
$1 must be saved.
$1 is put back for a "bigger fish" (as he likes to call the more expensive options, like video games). He can save more, but never less.
He can spend $6. This goes towards toys, video games if we go to the sports bar that has an arcade, fun stuff at camp, etc.

If he sells an item (for example, he sold his Weebles a few years ago, for $100, or his Geotrax for $200), that money is his to do with as he sees fit. He bought himself a DS and games with that money, btw.

 

[Jedana]

Our kids get money for chores. Over the summmer they can do extra chores to earn more money.

The rule is, standard/normal chores first. Extra come last. The extra chores are all about making Mom's life easier They also have to split the extra chores.


Our kids get paid for some chores around the house, think of it as a "job". Other "chores" they do because they are asked to do it and are part of the household. They get paid very little because we cover almost all of their needs. This money for them is their "I want". They also have to save money to buy birthday/Christmas presents for each other and their friends.

Yep, I love the extra chores. Cleaning baseboards and window sills...much easier on 9 year old knees than 42 year old ones.

 

[kcrew]

Like a PP, we go to work and earn a salary. No work = no $. Why wouldn't the same apply to a child? She will be better prepared to manage her money when she gets older. Giving an "allowance" implies entitlement (yes, we follow DR).

She also has three buckets: give, save and spend. For every $1 that she saves, we "401k" match it. Guess who is buying her own car?

Ummm....you?

 

[kajs22]

We also pay for chores and feel that it is equivalent to them having jobs to do. If they do not complete their chores or do a poor job then some of the money is deducted. I know I would not work if I was not paid to do so and as an adult it is my responsibility to keep the house in order - I don't think anyone should pay me for that. Children really don't have many opportunities to earn money. They also get money for holidays, birthdays and such -if they do extra "work" they get extra pay to use any way they would like. They do not get any money otherwise for the sake of having money and if they want something they both know how to save, taxes, planning etc... (they are 10 & 12). Right now they are both saving for vacation in August.

 

[cheap traveler]

We started allowances around here 2ish years ago (DDs were nearly 5 and 7.5). They get 1/3 their age, only increasing when they get to the next whole dollar (DD turned 9 in January and increased to $3/week, other DD will be 7 in a few weeks and won't get a raise.)

This money isn't tied to chores, they don't get paid to pull their own weight. That being said, they don't have many chores, just because my work schedule has them away from home 7am-6pm all week. I'm not going to load up their night with chores when I want them in bed at 7:30. Weekends they have to do as they are asked, maybe just feed the cat, maybe scrub the tub with me and weed the garden and bring in groceries and sweep the floor. Depends on the kind of mess they made during the week honestly.

Their money is for fun stuff - buying books at school (we have over 400 already, no joke), snack money at camp, gum at the store, DD9 recently wanted sandals when I think she has enough, so she shopped around and found cute ones for $10. She had to borrow it from her sister (and pay her $0.25 interest LOL) bc she left her money home, but she bought them.

I'm sure the low allowance won't last much longer, as she gets older and spends more time away from me, I will have to reconsider.

One last thing, they can both lose allowance for bad behavior. Have a tantrum at school? Lose money. Refuse to feed the cat because you are angry with me? Bye-bye allowance.

 

[jdcthree]

I started giving my son $5 a week when he was around 7 or 8. I didn't want his allowance to be chore based because chores are expected of him as a member of the family, but he needed to learn how to spend wisely. He wasn't "getting" that lesson spending my money, lol.

Recently I changed things up a little because my son can be lazy at times. He must do 5 chores a week, and beyond that he gets 50 cents per chore. If something is pretty difficult, like shoveling snow, he gets extra. He has to keep a list of what he did and he give it to me each Friday. How much allowance he gets each week is now up to him.