My husband and I have been talking about whether or not it’s time to start giving an allowance to our children. Mainly “Monekyboy” since he’ll be 6 next month! We don’t want to leave “LuLu” out, though.
Does anyone have thoughts or experiences with this?
How much do we give? I’ve heard $1 for each year
How do you determine what to give the allowance for?
Should it be tied to chores?
Thanks!
photo credit: Families.com
It depends on the kid, I think. We just started giving DD an allowance and she is 9 (10 in October). She get's $5 a week ONLY if she does her chores and looks after her dog, she gets paid Saturdays. DH also has always given her his loose change for her bank (which she used $3.25 of today to get the dog a toy at the groomers).
As I said I think it depends on the kid. When they are able to understand that "If I do this THEN I will get this". and understand the value of money. For instance if she wants something she knows she has to save up for it, I won't give her the extra money. She is able to understand that tax is included ect.
We haven't given her an allowance before just recently because we didn't feel she would be responsible enough to complete her chores on her own, or be able to realize the value of money.
As far as the amount goes, that should really be up to you and DH. We feel $5 is enough, if she wants a DS game, she can save for a month to get it. It's not too terribly long and she isn't wanting to go to game stop EVERY weekend and cluttering her room up with stuff.. lol..
Good Luck with your decision 🙂
PS. another thing we went buy is, is she able to save some. We want her to save .50 cents out of her $5 (10 percent). To help teach her to save for when she gets a real paycheck. 🙂
by* lol
Hey Dana, this is an issue we struggled w/as well. We've been giving our son an allowance only for about a yr. He's ten. It, like the previous poster, is $5/wk.
I take issue, for our family, with just giving an allowance for breathing. I also don't like the idea of giving an allowance for things I expect him to do as part of our family unit, such as clean his room, put away his laundry etc. He must complete his chores and he has chores that help me as well. He is responsible for the garbage/compost, dishwasher and his playroom. He can earn extra money for anything above and beyond. For example, husband is teaching him to mow the lawn, if he dusts the living spaces,etc.
I know these things are above the ability of your six yr old but there are things a six yr old can do to help around the house not tied to himself personally. Helping to fold towels, dusting, setting the table.
We also require a savings of 10% and a tithe (for our church) of 10% from each month's allowance. I believe as soon as they learn to spend, they can learn to save and give.
Hope this helps. Best of luck w/choosing how to best teach your kids good money management.
We haven't started allowances for our kids. We do have savings accounts set up in each of their names. We set up an automatic deposit from my husband's weekly paycheck for each of them. They put their birthday money etc into their banks in their rooms. When we go special places, we give them a set amount of money for them to spend. We do talk to them all the time about credit cards vs debit/bank cards.
Let us know what you decide. :0)
It's so funny you wrote this post today! I had just decided this morning I was going to have set chores for my son each day and that I would give him allowance of $5 a week. SO he can learn to manage money and learn that he has to earn spending money instead of begging me for money. I love the ideas of making the kids put 10% away for savings which I will def make him do. how many chores do you give per day and what are some examples??? He's so far is sweeping, take out trash, and have a clean room. I need some more… THanks for your help ladies!!
Thank you all for commenting! I'll let you know what we decide.