Extra chores your kids can do to make $

lisaross

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Dec 29, 2005
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My boys are 11 and 13.

My older son was making some $ for a neighbor (who moved) crushing can for him.

My younger son takes care of my other neighbors cats when they go away.

I know my older son would like to get extra pocket money. He does have alot of outside activities - in addition to school (which is my main concern now) he is doing great! also plays soccer and basetball. So he is a bit busy.

i want to make a list of add'l chores he can do to make some money - not make me broke though..

i was thinking:

Pull Weeds - $4 -7.00 depending how bad it is..
Clean-up after dinner - $1.00 per night
Vacumming the upstairs bedrooms - $4

Any other suggestions - then i will have to put a cap per week on how much money they can earn
 
What chores do you need to have done the worst?

When my dd was that age, she loved to do the kitchen floor. That was a huge undertaking due to the size. And I hated that specific chore. But I did not pay dd to do it unless she had already done 1hour of other chores. (Sorry I do not remember how much I paid.)

When dd was ~14, she started to mow the grass. Again first hour was considered chores, we would pay her after that.

Dd is now in college, so just not home much to help
 
My boys are 11 and 13.

My older son was making some $ for a neighbor (who moved) crushing can for him.

My younger son takes care of my other neighbors cats when they go away.

I know my older son would like to get extra pocket money. He does have alot of outside activities - in addition to school (which is my main concern now) he is doing great! also plays soccer and basetball. So he is a bit busy.

i want to make a list of add'l chores he can do to make some money - not make me broke though..

i was thinking:

Pull Weeds - $4 -7.00 depending how bad it is..
Clean-up after dinner - $1.00 per night
Vacumming the upstairs bedrooms - $4

Any other suggestions - then i will have to put a cap per week on how much money they can earn
Oops forgot the rule.
 
At their ages, they can do just about anything. I like to pay for jobs that are my responsibilities or personal stuff for me rather than things you might would ask them to do around the house to help on a normal day, such as helping clean up after dinner.

ideas:
wash your car
love the weeding idea
clean your bathroom
special projects such as sorting pictures
organizing drawers, closets etc
Older one watching younger one for short time while you run errand
clean garage, patio etc

I believe in holding them to good standards and paying well for good work. If they clean your car as good as the car wash could, why not pay them the same amount?

Thumbs up for instilling good values in your boys!
 

Wow you pay a lot!DD14 would love to move in there with you! I pay a flat 15 a week and she does a fair bit of stuff. I have her work about an hour a day but I personally don't tie allowance to chores.

I too wanted to do the same thing for DD this summer. She wanted to earn more money. She earned about 1300.00 selling legos on ebay and running a dog sitting / walking service. As you can see both were extremely profitable!!!

Not sure if you live in a neighborhood or your son likes pet sitting or if they have old toys to sell. But we tried to think outside the box this summer b/c she had such a specific goal in mind she was raising money for. And honestly it taught her a lot of responsibility too!
 
Kids need money.

They just have to have it to buy some personal items and do things with their friends.

Chores around the house, though, are things our kids did because they are part of the family and we all have to do things because they need to be done.

The kids never got money for doing their laundry or cleaning their bathroom or vacuuming where we all live.

What if you are paying the kid to clean off the table after dinner and all of a sudden he says, "Ya know what, I don't really need that dollar so I'm not doing that any more."

If he gets jobs pulling weeds for other folks in the neighborhood, does that mean he never has to pull another weed at home?

For us chores and the spending money kids need were 2 different issues.
 
When my kids were in middle/high school we tried the chores for money thing and it would just never stick. Instead we figured school lunch cost about $3 (actually less but we rounded). I gave them $3 x 5 days. If they packed their own lunch they got to keep the money. DD never bought, DS would 1-2 times a week. I hated asking what to pack and not knowing what they were eating so it was a win for all of us.
 
My kids can earn some money by doing a few things for me:

-Scooping the litter box ($1 per time, with a limit of one time per day and generally only every other day)
-Cleaning the glass panes in the French doors ($2-3)
-Pulling weeds (amount depends on how much they do)

I sometimes offer money for things I don't want to do or if we have company coming and I want extra help - then they might get some money for cleaning the guest bathroom or vacuuming.
 
My ds12 gets $5 a week to mow the grass - front and back yards. My dd9 gets $5 a week to scoop the cat box, unload/load/start the diswasher (and handwash the pots/pans), and run the vacuum every day. I think she would deserve more but she chose the chores and set the price (she also set a disclaimer that if she missed one item during the course of the week that she would get nothing).
 
Like most my kids dont get paid to do their standard chores but if it is something over and above I do pay.

Wash the car
pull weeds
a dead tree was about to fall so they got paid to help pick up sticks and stack the wood once DH cut it up - it was a lot of work
clean out crawl space in basement - they helped me

If it is something that I would pay someone else to do and they do it or help dh and I then I pay them.
 
The 13 yr old could start babysitting.
My daughter also did pet sitting at that point.
He could make up a flyer and put it in the neighbor's mailboxes.
 
Saturday, my oldest (13) made $25...
$15 cutting the grass (we have almost a 1 acre lot and a push mower)
$10 cleaning out and vacumning/detailing interior of my car

Both of these are jobs that I would not hesitate to pay an outside person to do (although they would want more than my 13 year old charged me) so in my eyes, it was win win!

My 10 year old made $15 this weekend
Empty pantry, wipe out all the shelves, put back in neatly and set aside anything already expired or going to expire before 9.15 (so I can sort for discards, or plan to use before it expires)
Wipe down floor molding in Living room, Hallway, Den & kitchen

These chores I most likly would not pay an outsider to do, however, it would have taken time from DH or myself as they were things that really needed to be done.

In my mind, this was $40.00 well spent! It saved me at least 4-5 hours of time that can be reallocated to family time. The way I figure it, they can be trained on any chore and how to do it well (which means how to do it "my" way). I work with them one on one for the first few times and once they have it down, they run with it.
 












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