OT: Allowances for Kids

[tikilyn]

This is a good thread. I started dd 5 on an allowance this past summer. We made her a list of chores and each chore received a certain amount of money (if all were done she would get 6.00). Yeah, well that list didn't work. She would tell me not to pay her for not doing the chore. And the bad part was that we haven't given her a steady allowance either.

Just today I handed her a 10.00 bill and told her it was her allowance till daddy got paid again (in two weeks). She smiled and ran to put it in her piggy bank! I don't think I'll have a problem with her saving. She never pulls money out of her bank and never really ask for anything at the stores.

There's a lot of info here. Hopefully I can come up with a way to make her want to help out the family and doing her chores.

 

[cruisnfamily]

This was decided after last week dd13 scammed us for 2 movie trips~$10 each, racecar place $20, and $10 for a church lock in for New years!!! We ended up giving her $50 in 4 days for her "social life"!!!! Every weekend she makes plans with friends and it always includes her needing money, so we figured this to be a way for her to manage her spending and little more conciously than just having us hand her money whenever she asks.

Tis is exactly why we started the allowance thing! To make DD13 finance her wants while we continue to finance her needs. We do still pay for presents for friends when she's invited to a party....but just yesterday she wanted to buy a small gift for a friend who wasn't having a party and I asked her if she had any money, of course she didn't so there was no present bought. We do require her to save 1/4 of her allowance($13 allowance, $3.25 saved, $9.75 to spend) and she can only withdraw from the savings with our approval and she has to have a matching amount in cash to the amount she wants to withdraw.(you want the $100 skates, you save $50 out of your spending money and you can take $50 out of your bank account). The whole point is to teach her to make good financial decisions and prioritize her wants/needs.

DS10 will also get an allowance when he hits $13 and each child will get an amount equal to their age.

 

[Julia M]

I'm still kinda torn about making them save a portion of it, a part of me wants to make dd13 save 5 of her 20 and dd6 save 2 of her 5 but another part of me says let them just do what they want with it, they will have to learn money responsibility when they grow up anyways!! I haven't decided on that part yet.
Tammy

That's kind of how I feel......some good points have been made here about being in the "habit" of saving.

On the other hand, I may just hand out the allowances, and see how the saving goes, on their own. If they do well, okay, if not, I may change the rules. Since the money is mine, and I am giving it to my kids to learn money management, I can certainly change the rules, if the need arises to help them learn!!

Now my goal will be to sustain all of this.....the allowances, the chores, everything, for more than just a few weeks!

Julia

 

[geetey]

I think the keeping it going part is the hardest part!

DH created a form for each of the kids. We printed one for each of them and they are hanging on the refrigerator with a pen. Every weekend when I withdraw our weekly $ from the bank, I also pull their maximum $ amount out. (their money is a line on our monthly budget). On Sundays, we pay them. Since we have taken the money out.... and the forms are precreated.... and they are in plain sight in the kitchen.... we are much better at paying them on a weekly basis, which makes them *much* better about doing their jobs.

 

[txgirl]

I think the keeping it going part is the hardest part!

DH created a form for each of the kids. We printed one for each of them and they are hanging on the refrigerator with a pen. Every weekend when I withdraw our weekly $ from the bank, I also pull their maximum $ amount out. (their money is a line on our monthly budget). On Sundays, we pay them. Since we have taken the money out.... and the forms are precreated.... and they are in plain sight in the kitchen.... we are much better at paying them on a weekly basis, which makes them *much* better about doing their jobs.

Good idea!

 

[cruisnfamily]

I initially thought this way also but I decided that some disciplines must be taught as they aren't very good at seeing what's around the bend. I don't think I will *always* make them save but initially when they aren't able to see the fruits I will do this and when they can see the benefits they will better be able to make the decision themselves.

I equate it with something like brushing their teeth. They can't know the cost of a cavity or the pain so we *make* them brush. Eventually they have to brush on their own without being told but they have years of the discipine set in place along with visits to the dentist.

I also "force" savings with DD13 and DH has said we may be doing her a disservice by forcing it rather than letting it happen but I agree with you. And besides, it would never happen at this stage without the "forcing". Thanks for putting my thoughts into words better than I could do it. As time goes on, I'm hoping she'll see the benefits in savings....I'm going to look at it as training for the time being.

 

[jinglesmountjoy]

My kids haven't reached the age of allowance yet but ever since I was 11, I was fascinated at the allowance structure two friends of mine had from their parents (they are brothers). I fully intend to use this myself.

Give them two allowances. One for clothes and one for leisure (or whatever they want). They can borrow from the 'leisure' allowance to buy clothes but they can't borrow from the 'clothing' allowance for leisure. They had to provide receipts to prove the 'clothing' allowance was spent on clothing.

What a great system. If they really want that $100 pair of jeans, they have to decide whether to wait and save or sacrifice their 'leisure' money to have it now. Now that is definitely true to life.

 

[ElizaB39]

We do allowances here with a base salary and commission earnings. DD12 read about it in AG magazine and she brought up the idea.

The base is only paid if they do the three things that are on the base list, clean room once a week, pick toys up nightly and clean up basement after each use. If they don't do these things, then an amount gets deducted from the base. However, the base can't go below zero, it only zeroes out. However, this might have to change since I have heard recently "well just deduct it from my base" NOT!

What shows me that it has worked so far for us is that both DD and DS have saved enough to buy large items, $200 and $250 respectively, since school started, including birthday and christmas money. This also takes into consideration giving to church (sporadically not regularly but we are working on that) and some saving. One of the reasons we agreed to the large purchases is that they had to save ALL of their allowance for the next three months and put it all in their savings accounts. No extra spending on wants.

DD12 researched her purchase online and at school and made her decision with parental approval and minor input. DS8 made his request, we researched and made the final decision but did insist on an appropriate helmet.

It has worked for us.

We have charts on the fridge and they have to keep track, if they don't, they don't get paid. Oh, well, you forget to punch the time clock, guess you don't get paid! bad mommy...

 

[Servants of Evan]

Evan is four and has been getting an allowance this year. We have a large checklist on the 'fridge and each night we tally the day's checkmarks. Basic stuff like brushing his teeth, putting away his toys, making his bed and throwing his laundry down the chute, washing his hands before dinner, etc. For each checkmark he get's one point. At the end of the week we tally up the score and if it's over a certain value, he gets one Disney Dollar. He places it in an envelope with the other weeks' money and it's tucked away. At this rate, for our next vacation he'll have more spending money than Dad!

 

[Julia M]

well, I know things will change and we ARE in the "homeymoon" period, but this has been the most pleasant week. I may remind once for a chore, but there hasn't been one single argument about anyone doing anything.

Now if we can just sustain the joy!!

Julia (who is one happy mom right now)