Allowance or no allowance? About This Page:

[5SOXFNZ]

My other post about my kid's Disney countdown & how they are earning Disney Dollars got me wondering....

Do your kids get an allowance? If so, are they expected to do certain chores in order to get it and what are the chores? If they don't do the chores, do you deduct or just give it to them anyway? What are their ages? Why have you choosen to or not to?

I have an almost 8 year old, a five year old and a 2 year old. They do not receive an allowance but are expected to do certin chores each week, even the baby has to clean up his toys when finished playing. DH and I feel that these things are just part of being in a family and running a household. When my oldest came home from school and complined that he didn't get money we explained that we don't get paid to clean up and do dishes and laundry, it's just part of running a household. They do have the opportunity to do extra chores and earn treats or eve sometimes we'll slide them a $1 or two or going above and beyond.

There seems to be a whole generation of kids that have this entitlement issue...just for being! (Ask any high school teacher!! LOL!!) We just feel that by them learning that some things are just expected and others will earn you a reward we are preparing them or "life in the real world".

Anyway, I'm just curious what other families do...

[Huntermom]

My kids never got an allowance, although they could earn money by doing extra things around the house and my oldest son used to "babysit" his younger sister (there are 5 years and one other child between them) for me so I could work at home. He got $.25-50/hr.

My kids were also allowed to keep any gift money they received.

Even now, my DD in college, doesn't get any spending money from me. All my kids always had to earn their spending money. One worked quite a bit and bought a car while in high school, the others worked less and shared a family car. They paid for gas. I really was/am fine with how much or little they decided they needed. And I placed no restrictions on how they spend it.

Diane

[krisk11]

Once my dd got older and was always wanting me to buy stuff for her I started giving her an allowance. It isn't chore based as I agree with you and have always explained it to her that I don't get paid to clean the house so neither do you. She has things that I like her to but alot of time school work gets in the way so during the school year I'm not as tough as in the summer when she is home all day doing nothing while I'm working all day. DD is almost 14. Now that she has her own money if she wants something that isn't a necessity than it's up to her to save up for it. She get's $7 a week which is considerably lower than alot of her classmates.

[Carousel96]

DD gets $5 a week. It gets divided into four funds (segregated into frosting tubs).
One dollar goes to college (I know it won't add up to much, but it's the idea),
one to "charity" (50 cents in Sunday school every week and the rest she saves until there's a cause that she wants to help. Recently it's been the humane society though a couple of years ago it was hurricane relief).
One dollar is in her "save" bin, which she keeps for big purchases she needs to save up for and the other two are in "spend or save" which she can spend right away or save with the rest.
We still buy her necessities and many of the things she wants, but this gives her a little money to pay for things she wants that mom and dad won't buy. So she can buy the Hannah Montana trading cards if she really wants them, but learns that she then may not have money for the cat toy at American Girl.
I'm really impressed by how she will save if there's a goal in mind. Last year we went to AG Place in Chicago. We paid for lunch, but DD had saved enough money for all the outfits she had her eye on.

[Danielle Harmon]

Tommy is 11 and Autumn is 7. They get an allowance each week. $5 a piece. They also get $1 a piece each day that goes into a savings account for them...they aren't allowed to touch that money. It is for them when they get out of college as a starter for their "nest egg."

They have to put away some of their allowance as savings. Usually, they pool it in a big piggy bank and then split it for spending money when we go to Disney. Any gift money they get some thing...a percentage of it must go to savings.

They each have set chores they do each week plus 1-2 rotating chores that we all pull out of a jar on Sunday evenings. None of this is tied to allowance (and neither are their grades). Keeping house and family functioning is everyone's responsibility and their are consequences for whomever doesn't hold up their share (including mom and dad).

No "entitlement mentality" for my kids...and I see it too in some of our young people...sad really...they miss out on a lot.

[lauren-roxy]

We don't give allowances at our house. Our kids have certain chores that are expected of them in order to keep the family dynamic going like making beds, cleaning their rooms, and feeding the dog.

[bitterchickey]

I do use a chore-based payment system. No set allowance, but she gets paid by the chore, and we settle up on Friday's. Works for us actually. However, she's not paid for "personal" chores, like keeping room clean, bed made, etc. She knows those are expected of her.
She's a busy kid during the school year, and in summer, when she has a "real" job at a daycamp! Somehow she does find time to do work to get paid though!

[eff051102]

When we had our dear foster daughter (11) she did her normal chores around
the house and would get $11 a week. We told her $5 needs to go to savings that
she could have when she left us, $2 for church every week and the rest was
hers to spend. Also she could earn more by doing "other" chores like vaccuming
out the car, pulling weeds, etc. When she left to go to a relatives house she was
so proud of the money she got to take with her. I think it was around $75 and
she was talking about saving even more money.

This was a special situation because the girl didn't know anything about saving
money nor about giving money. They lived hand to mouth and would steal what
they needed most times. I hope she continued to see the value of money.

I think when kids get to be a certain age, an allowance is a great teaching
tool. It starts small and can build so that once they are in high school you
can use it to teach them about checking accounts and college. We will be doing
that with our DD. I want her to know that money doesn't grow on trees and
that she will be responsible for her own money and how to go about it.

[lukeandbrookesmom]

No allowances here

[korki-rad]

After our Financial Peace University class, we decided to start 5yo DD on a chore-based allowance. I made a chart of about 5 things around the house (mostly things we've had a hard time motivating her to do) and if she does them, she gets paid. Right now, she gets paid immediately after doing them, but as she gets older, we plan to go to a weekly "pay day."

We also got her a special bank with three compartments: one for saving, one for spending and one for sharing. We don't specify how much she puts in each; it is her choice. It makes us smile that the majority of her money ends up in the "sharing" compartment. She has to use her own money for treats, toys, etc, and we don't really restrict what she can buy (unless it goes against our values)...the ice cream man (or ding-ding man, as she calls him) has been getting a good portion of her money this spring.

[Teresa]

We pay the kids for grades. School is their job. We get paid for doing a job, so they do also. But we weight what we'll pay so they each end up with about $50 every 9 weeks or so.

[duck addict]

Had plenty of chores
No allowance... mother does not believe in them :
Once or twice a year she would pay to go to a movie. (Usually the Christmas cartoon fest)

[PamelaK]

Grace gets a monthly allowance based on how many nights she wears her braces. She was getting $1 per night up to $20, but when my hours were cut in half at work, she agreed to have her allowance cut in half as well. Now that my hours have gone back to normal her allowance will increase again when my paycheck begins to reflect the increased hours. We started doing this because I could not get her to wear the braces and her flexibility was getting worse. We just had an appointment yesterday and her doctor said her flexibility has improved in the last 6 months. Her dad gives her $20 a month for no reason really. However, he doesn't pay it every month. Every few months he sends her a check for 5 or 6 months worth of allowance. He tries to send it when he knows that she has something special coming up where she would need/want the money. (Like a Disney trip.)

I don't pay her for grades, but her school does. THey have a special store after every report card and students are paid 30 Eagle Bucks for an A average, 20 for a B average, 10 for a C average. They also pay 30 for perfect attendance, 20 for only 1 absence, 10 for 2 absences. And then 30 for Excellent behavior and 20 for Satisfactory behavior. If they get an N in conduct then they lose all privileges to the Eagle Store. The kids are motivated to do well because they have some pretty cool stuff in the store. The administration feels that school is the students' jobs and they should get paid for their work.

[DopeyGirl]

We have tried the chore based system with DD (8 y/o) but she is very hard to motivate and never would do her expected chores even with the prospect of "money for Build-A-Bear" floating over her head (seriously, it always seems that whatever money she gets for gifts or anything else, it all goes straight to Build-A-Bear Workshop. ) As she gets a little older, we will probably try to do the chores system again.

For the past couple of school years, we have given her a little bit of money for her grades in the major subjects (math, language arts/reading, social studies and science) They are graded on a 1-4 grade system (4 being "above grade level", 1 being "well below grade level") and she gets $2 for every 4 she gets, $1 for every 3. Normally she ends up getting something like $5-6 per report card.

Due to her behavior at school sometimes (she is a talker. ) we have also started working on a system where if she can come home with "green cards" all week (meaning she hasn't gotten in trouble at all all week) she will earn $5 to spend however she chooses. If she can get greens for the entire month, she gets a $5 bonus.

Even though she REALLY is trying, as she really wants to earn some more spending money for our WDW trip in June, she has only come home with all greens for 3 weeks since we started this about 9 weeks ago. It's a process. She'll probably get into it just as school ends.

[MBUS]

My boys get allowance. They are expected to help out around the house and keep their rooms picked up, toys put away, laundry put away, etc. I was doing allowance based on age for a while ($1/year) but that was a nightmare each Saturday to have the correct change. So I changed it to $5/wk for the preteens and once you hit 13 $10/wk. This is a lot easier for me.

They have college accounts at Fidelity that we contribute to, and savings accounts at a local bank that they contribute to.

Beth