One Hundred Dollars a Month

Do you pay allowance?  Do you expect chores in return?  I have heard both side to the chore argument–one is that allowance pays for their services, the other is that they do chores because they are part of the family and allowance is just their spending money, irregardless of services performed.

I sit somewhere in the middle of both of those camps.  I have teens and give them both $60 a month and they are responsible for buying most of their clothes, gifts and movie tickets {or other entertainment} or anything else they want.  They get this irregardless of what chores they do, but believe me, when I ask them to help me out, I expect them to help.  And they are great kids–they do help, they help in the garden, the run errands for me, they help clean, etc.

I give them allowance to help them learn to manage their spending, so when they leave the nest, budgeting won’t be a shock to them.  I get that in the real world, if you don’t show up to work, you don’t get paid–but occasionally my kids will have a CRAZY week filled with sporting events and have major tests to study and not be able to help out as much as they normally would.  I consider their schooling part of their work, so I pay them anyway.

{Melissa and Dog Chore Chart}

I looked up a couple of articles {this one, and this one} because I was curious what the standard thinking on allowance was these days.  One of the articles suggested starting allowance right around kindergarten.  One even gave a formula for deciding how much {suggesting either $.50 to $1.00 per year of age}.  So, a 7 year old might get anywhere from $3.50 to $7.00 a week.  I don’t know about you, but that seems a little high–has inflation really impacted the rates since my kids were 7?!  I like the idea of little ones having to save for a toy or item they want–like for awhile, so they can see that it takes time to save for something you reaaaally want.

Both articles suggested increasing the child’s financial obligations as they aged.  I thought that was a pretty good idea.  Obviously, your kindergartner can’t be expected to pay for their clothes, but should they pay for birthday gifts for friends out of their allowance?

I saw an idea on Pinterest not too long ago where a mom had made a list of EXTRA chores and assigned a monetary value to them, so if kids wanted to do extra work to earn money faster, they could.  I thought it was a pretty cool idea for little ones–it puts them in charge of their “savings plan.”  {I would like to put out there that I will pay ANYONE’s kid $1.00 to clean toilets at my house.  Ha!}

I’ve also heard of people who keep a notebook.  Rather than giving little Johnny cash each week, they write down the amount in the notebook.  It’s like a savings account that they can draw from when they are ready.  That way, when they are at the store, they can make a purchase from their account {mom or dad buys, based on the amount they have in their account}.  It is supposed to be helpful for parents, because let’s face it, it’s hard to stay consistent with allowance when come Friday, you don’t have any $1 bills.

So, of course, I’m curious, HOW MUCH do you pay in allowance?  Do you expect CHORES in return?

~Mavis