How Old Do U Start a Child with an Allowance?

We look at it a bit different. My daughter has chores not for getting money but to help out with the household. She has to unload her lunch box every day , put the freezies in the freezer, throw out what not and put the rest in the sink. she has to unload the silverware in the dishwasher. When she was little she was not allowed to touch the knifes. Bring her plate to the kitchen after dinner. Put her clean wash and folded clothes I washed into her drawers. Make her bed. Pick up and toys clothes etc of her hers out of the living room and away. Now that she is a11 she also has to clean the bathroom sink and the bathtub every other week. No allowance. But we also buy her whatever she needs and if she wants something extra she has to show us she does good in school all homework done and on target. To me the school is more important.

We give $1 per week per grade. Our 4th grader gets $4 a week, our 6th grader gets $6 and our 9th gets $9. We give them a months' allowance at a time on the 15th of the month. 4th gets $16, 6th gets $24, and 9th gets $36. They do have chores that they have to do and those are not generally tied to their allowance, but, we reserve the right to cut their allowance in half if the kids aren't doing their chores consistently.

Hope that helps!

I don't like the idea of allowances. What is the money being given for? Just for...breathing? I also don't tie chores to money except like this: Chores that must be done to keep the household running for ALL of us are not paid. Nope. But special chores -- ones that my child doesn't usually do -- are paid. In our house, that includes washing the dining room floor when asked (not mopping or Swiffering; she has to get down on the floor and wash it by hand because it needs it!) and big items like taking everything out of the linen closet and rearranging it. Now, my kid is 11, not 7, so she can be left to do things like that, and she is paid for those kinds of chores. But stuff like putting away the toilet paper (her job), taking out trash as asked, cleaning her own room or making her own bed etc. -- no pay, no allowance. Those things keep the household functioning and I don't believe in paying kids for those kinds of chores. An "allowance" never makes sense to me either -- it's just giving kids cash. Either let them find a way to earn it if they really want something in particular (sell lemonade, sell hot chocolate, rake leaves, whatever) or....they can wait and ask for it for Christmas, maybe.

But allowances for their own sake don't teach a kid anything much. Chores for pay, OK, but only certain chores, not the ones that we all should do every day just to function.

We have always given our kids an allowance. About the same per week as their grade but we never tied it to chores. Dave ramsey would tell you not to either. They will look at the money and decide if it's "worth it" to take the money or do the chore! At least that's my experience with little boys! They do the chores just because I wanted them to. The money is a way to help them understand tithing, saving and spending. If your kids never have money of their own they don't have much concept of how saving means money accumulates and if they wait for a while they can buy the extra thing they want.

We started when my son was about 6. He got 4 dollars. one for church, one for savings, and 2 for spending. He is now 8 1/2 and he gets $5. Still one for church, one for savings and 3 for spending. I think it is great for teaching him how to save money and for having his donations at church come from his own money makes it more meaningful. He has been known to put in a few extra dollars of his own, too, just because he wants to help. (Awwwww....right?)

He does have some jobs to do like help set and clear the table, keep his room picked up, and he does just help me out whenever I ask him too. I have on rare occasion subtracted a dollar from it if I have had to pick up a ton of stuff in his room, but it really doesn't happen often.

I think $10 a week is aLOT for a kid! My parents usually did things based on our grade in school. I guessI am kiind of doing the same since the money my son gets to "keep" is $3 and he is in 3rd grade.

don't tie allowance into chores. allowance is given as part of the family finances. having said that all kids should have chores as part of the family. everyone lives in the house everyone should have jobs to help keep the common spaces clean as well as the bedroom of their own which is a privilege not a right lol.

my kids were given allowance based on their grade level. so first grade $1 second grade $2 and so on.

when they started getting allowance they started having to purchase some of their own things. not big things but things like video game rentals, candy etc. those stupid beanie babies which have not been replaced with a bigger thing called a beanie boo lol.

as early as 3 my kids had house hold jobs which they were required to do each week. things like emptying the small trash cans in the bathrooms (we used plastic grocery bags in them so just grab the handles. taking their laundry to the laundry room, picking up their own toys, helping to fold towels and laundry, sorting laundry (see a theme here?)

I suggest that the allowance is a way of sharing the household income and not be tied to chores. Everyone has chores. Everyone gets a share of the income. I suggest that she gets a certain amount just because she's a member of the family. Then she can earn more for doing things beyond her daily chores. Just as the adults can earn more by taking a second job.

My granddaughter is 12 and she gets $10/week but can earn more. Her brother who is 9 gets $5 and he, too, can earn more. The parents and I do buy the children things as well so their money isn't their only source of extras.

When they KNOW that money buys stuff.

$7 at 7..... and so forth. You can mandate 25% or 1/2 to savings. Set a certain amount aside for holiday gifts, charity, etc.... We kept a log like a spreadsheet so they could allow money to accumulate for bigger items but I wanted my kids to have a few dollars for things they wanted in the grocery store ... little doo dads I didn't want to spend on. This way they can decide if they want it bad enough to deplete their own funds.

We started our kids on allowances when they were about 5 and 6 years old, and they got half their age every week. So the 6 year old got $3. More recently we switched to twice a month (like mom and dad get paid), but equal to their age, so it's really the same amount when you look at the whole month. They divide their allowance into three -- 10% for giving, 50% for saving (they have to save a certain amount in this bank before they can spend it), and 40% goes in their wallet to spend. The key is that they get enough to buy something very small (like gum), with incentive to save for something bigger (like a toy). If they get enough to buy a toy every week, they won't be motivated to learn how to save!

It's not tied to chores, although after several years we did set a minimum requirement that their room had to be clean on allowance day. Other standard chores they do because they are part of the family and we work together as a team. Extra big jobs, like washing the cars, I will pay them for, and it's a way for them to earn extra for when they are saving for something big.

We talk often with the kids about the purpose of the allowance so they don't get to thinking that money falls from the sky. :) They know that it's part of their education, training for how to handle money responsibly, hoe to budget and save. Anything they want (toys, gum, candy, etc.) they have to spend their own money for. And we never have any whining in the store any more for me to buy them something--yay!

I like the articles at Crown: http://www.crown.org/Library/default.aspx?catId=52

I think a dollar or two for every chore she completes is appropriate. That way she earns money for the chores she did do, while not earning money for chores that she decides to skip out on. Making her bed every day for 7 days a week at a $1 each time is still $7. So give her a couple more things to do on top of that and she'll easily be able to earn more than $10 a week.