Allowance - Farmington,UT

I didn't do allowance when the kids were little. I wanted them to do chores because that's part of being a family, and we ALL do chores. Plus when they are little the don't need money, you know?
Now when they got a little older and starting wanting stuff (new video games, extra clothes, movie money, etc.) I started giving them money for extra chores, usually more heavy duty stuff, like yard work or washing the car. They also started babysitting and doing pet and plant care for vacationing neighbors. I think earning money through work is a better lesson than being given money for something you SHOULD be doing anyway.

My kids are not paid to help around the house, they are part of the family. Since they have no income and are part of the family we give them money when needed, like movies and stuff with their friends.

If they need extra money I can usually scare up some job for them to do, if not my dad is the king of slave labor. :)

I put $5 per pay check into my kids savings accounts, $10 into ours, and $10 into my daught'ers dance account. We have money that goes into other savings as well, but this is what I do at the bank where we USE our money.

I don't give them any more allowance, because they don't want for anything. Everyone has to help at home, and thank God they enjoy helping.

I'm not anti-allowance for things, but it's just not how we work it in our house. My kids do use their own money if they want something above and beyond what we ware doing. For example, at the movies I buy soda and popcorn, if they want candy, they know to bring their own money. Luckily it's on base and only $2 :).

ETA: We don't pay them for doing chores. Sorry, I missed that the first time around. If they want a ride to dance/football/baseball/whatever, they need to help at home. It's just part of being a family in my eyes.

Allowance has always been tied to chores since they didn't get an allowance until they were old enough to do some simple chores. But we have a kind of hybrid application. As they take on new, more difficult chores they get paid for them - but once they have mastered them they become part of what needs to get donw to run the house. So my son used to get his allowance for taking care of the garbage and washing the glass on the doors. Now his allowance is based on mowing the lawn, vacuuming and "sharking" the kitchen floor - but he still has to take care of the garbage and the glass doors (especially since the fingerprints and smudges are his and his friends'). The same with my daughter - as it applies to dusting, cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the living room. She's 16 now and we expect more of her. Both kids share the cat feeding, the dishwasher and setting the table & kitchen clean up. They don't do any of their tasks as well as my husband and I do - but their skills definitely improve as they get older and we will send them back to the task to do it better if it's really bad the first time. Eventually they get it and my husband and I frequently come along side and help, guide, teach or finish up to get it to our standards.

It is not easy to teach kids as it takes longer initially - but it's nice to go to work and leave them their 2-3 chores for the day. Now when I get home the house is usually a little neater than when I left instead of messier.

We gave our kids money to teach them money management. We tied the money to chores. They got a minimum, and they got more if they did more and/or did the chores better.

When they wanted to buy something foolish (not too foolish) we let them spend their money as they wanted. If they wanted to buy something expensive and worthwhile, we would match their money.

That way they learned money management and how to save.

Good luck to you and yours.

My daughter's allowance has always been tied with her chores, and she gets extra helping out with other chores that me and my fiancee normally do around the house. She babysits my friends son and daughter and get paid for that, and she finds extra jobs to do and get paid for that. I dont really mind what she spends her money on, but we're trying to teach her the value of money, so try to teach her that to get things she needs, before things she wants. We make sure she saves money, (We have a bank account for her, but only I can get into there!) We gave her a credit card too, (Now people might think im crazy for giving a soon to e 14 year old girl a credit card!) But we trust her to make her own desicion when she uses it. (She once did that before, and our consequences for her is she has to pay it off)

Our LO is still too small for an allowance, but we will likely go this route when it's time:

http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/education/article?articleId=...

I'm not so good with money and, God love him, DH is great with it. Neither of us had great examples growing up, either. I agree that some work around the house is just part of being a family, but I also agree that we work for money, so children should as well. Be aware that your child is watching you spend money ... Experts like Ric Edlman say a child will make their first guided purchase with a parent at the grocery store around the age of 3. They become consumers very young and it's our job to help guide their consumerism. JMO.

Ha. I pretty much do it exactly as 8kidsDad. For the same reasons. Which is rare.

Set amount for completing all chores each week
Bonus for doing so with good attitude

(ADHD household, 'chores' also include personal hygiene, schoolwork, playtime, helping out with projects, etc. In addition to cooking/cleaning/daily living stuff.)

The only MAYBE difference, is that my end goal is that by 14.5 his allowance will match ALL his expenses, including a share of rent/bills in addition to sports, entertainment, etc.

Which, if he got it all now would be about $1000 per month. And only leave over about $50 after meeting all his responsibilities.

The goal, again, to teach responsible money management while still under the saftey net of being under my roof... Instead of doing it for the first time on his own (and messing up his credit, not being able to eat, etc. because it 'looks' like a lot of money, but really isn't... Because bills need to be paid, and food to be bought).

My daughter's allowance money is tied to her chores, her behavior as well as her school performance. She can earn $3 a week if all goes well. She has the ability to earn extra on occasion. This can be tied to her doing extra work or having extra responsibility but she does not always get extra money. We're trying to teach her that doing things just to help or taking on extra responsibility is a part of growing up and maturing. She knows that just because she does extra she should not expect extra money. However she is very grateful for the weekly allowance and extra she does earn when it happens.

She can spend her money on just about anything she wants within reason. This last time she could not spend it on any toys(she has more than plenty and doesn't play with the last toy she did buy)but was free to save or purchase a new book, beauty item, or clothing item. She chose a new book.

Our kids do not get paid to clean their room. That teaches them responsibility. Our kids do get paid when they do extra stuff that is not normal to them. Depending on the job is how much they get. My husband mows lawns on the side and so we have our oldest (8) run the blower to get the sidewalks clean. We pay him $3 a week for that job. With that we also have a split. 70% has to go into savings, 10% goes to tithing, 20% he keeps to do whatever he wants with.