I think my allowance started in the 6th or 7th grade. It wasn't a lot but I was able to splurge on the occasional Lip Smacker, magazine or candy bar.
Did you get an allowance? Will your kids get one?
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No, I never got an allowance. I'm not sure what we'll do for LOs.
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We got a stipend based on grades with report cards each six weeks in junior high. DH got an allowance. I'm not sure about our LOs. I do think certain chores above and beyond what I think is just contributing their part would warrant some monetary prize, so we'll see.
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Nope!
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Nope. When I needed money I asked....both parents
I'm not sure if we will give our kids an allowance. I learned money management because I helped my mom balance her check book when she paid bills. An allowance may be helpfulto teach a child how to save up for a big purchase, wwhich is not something I learned as a child.
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No, never got an allowance. We had to do chores and help with yard work just because we were part of the family, not for cash incentives. If there were things we wanted to buy my parents came up with large projects for us to do to earn cash. I started babysitting at a young age in order to earn additional spending money. DH and I already agreed our children won't be getting an allowance.
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Nope! Not sure how we will handle money yet. Chores are an expectation...but money management is a good thing to learn!
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Yes, but it wasn't very much. I remember it being like $0.25 and then $0.50. By highschool, we just got $10/week which was lunch money, so we ended up netting about $2/week for our allowance, haha.
Our kids will probably get an allowance, but it won't be very much!
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Yeah, we did - it started around a dollar/wk when I was about 5 and was up to around $15/wk by the time I got my first job at 16. Any time my brother and I wanted a "raise," we had to do a little presentation to mom and dad to explain why we deserved one, ha.
I really think it helped both of us learn how to manage money - we're both savers now!
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@raspberries: what did you have to buy yourself out of allowance? Was any of it tied to chores or grades?
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Yes, i got one starting from when i was in the 4th grade, $10/month. They weren't really good about teaching me what to do with the money.
DH has a whole incentive program thought up...we'll most likely start early on, maybe in the 1st grade. Basic chores will be an expectation.
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Nope, if I needed money, I asked. I knew my mom didn't have a lot, so I didn't ask for much very often.
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lol not really. I remember there was some talk at one point of giving me $5/week, but it never really happened often and I was never the kind of kid to ask for money. Also it had nothing to do with chores because chores/housework are what you do as a member of the family who lives in the house. They are not a gift or a job. When I was in middle school my grandma asked me if I wanted to start cleaning her house weekly for money and so I did that. It wasn't much, but I'd spend maybe 45 min vacuuming and mopping and wash her windows if they needed it and I think I got $5-10.
I don't know exactly how we'll handle money. I think we may do an allowance but frame it just as a no-strings-attached (or maybe the only strings are good behavior at home and in school) weekly amount so that she can have some freedom and fun money and learn about money management. I don't see myself ever doing a chores-for-money arrangement because I don't want her to tie housework with money.
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I got pocket money. It was £1 a week when I was about 7 or 8 - I think it went up to £5pw over the course of a few years, until I got my first Saturday job.
We will do some sort of allowance with E to teach her to budget and save for larger items but we haven't worked out the details yet!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: The allowance wasn't directly tied to chores - we had a chore list for each day, and weren't allowed to watch TV/play with friends if they weren't completed, so that was a separate motivation. And the allowance itself wasn't tied to grades - I don't think there was really a point where our grades dropped below a B though, so it never became necessary to use bribery for good grades.
If we wanted to buy lunch, it came out of our allowance - but my mom always encouraged us to take our lunches instead and made sure there was plenty of lunch-friendly food for us to pack (packing our lunches was one of our chores, ha.) Otherwise, especially when we were young, we could spend it on whatever we wanted - my dad encouraged us to buy savings bonds with it though, and would make a big production of counting it out, then taking us to the bank to buy them in person. I remember it feeling really cool to pay $25 and get a bank note saying that it would be worth $50 when I cashed it in.
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When I was in high school my mom gave me money for bus fare and I usually had enough left over to go for an occasional snack, movie or book. I would walk instead of taking the bus if I wanted to save up! I am not sure what we will do for LO.
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Yes, I got an allowance starting around 15 maybe? Once I started getting an allowance, I needed to save up to buy things I wanted.
I do plan to teach LO about money by giving her an allowance.
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no we got pocket money but i'd love to do an allowance with our kids!
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Nope, no allowance. I had a piggy bank though, I used to empty my dad's change bowl into it every once in a while.
I learned the value of money when I started working summer jobs at 15.
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Yes - $1 a week for every year old we were. It stopped when we were old enough to get a real job (because at that point, we had to earn our own money).
I think having an allowance and saving for big purchases of things I wanted as a kid really taught me how to manage money well. We were always required to put half of the allowance in savings and could do what we wanted with the rest. And my mom made us learn from the beginning how to balance our checkbook and stuff too.
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I did. I did do chores/have good grades but the money wasn't necessarily tied to that. I can't remember how much or when it started, but I think I was pretty young (elem school?). Then, I started working part time in high school and it ended.
I wish my parents instilled in me to tithe, though (not just give offering/charity). Though I saw my parents do it, they didn't explicitly encourage me to, so it's something I struggle with now as an adult!
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Yes. But it was minimal. I think I talked myself up to $5 a week by the time I was in high school since I was the only kid left at home and did 3 times as many chores because of that.
Chores and allowance weren't directly linked. We were expected to do chores because we were a family and everyone had responsibilities. BUT, if someone didn't do their chores, they didn't get an allowance. That started young, I think around 4. We'd get a quarter for setting the table or something simple.
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No, never. I would just ask if I needed money. We haven't really talked about whether we'll give LO an allowance.
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Nope! I was an only child until 13.5 y/o, so chores and cleaning was always expected of me. For the most part, my mom made it fun - put on some music and cleaned with me (never for me!) It was never used in a negative way, so I never really minded, and was usually a neat child anyway. I'd like to think I'm a pretty organized adult
DH used to have to do chores as a punishment, so he's not as into cleaning as I am. -
Nope. I probably won't be doing an allowance with my daughter either
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@Mrs.KMM: we did the exact same thing!
I think it was a good thing, learning budgeting and saving from a young age was a very useful skill.
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@raspberries: love this! What a great skill for you to develop (the presenting). I bet you know how to ask for a raise like nobody's business
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To answer, the question, at some points I remember getting an allowance but it was pretty pointless since my parents also gave me money for what I needed and in some cases wanted. So the concept didn't really last.
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