Pocket money/allowances for children.

[JonGirl]

What is the going rate for giving children spending money especially in the US and Australia where I am?
I've decided to start giving ds money for helping with the housework/cleaning his room and lately he's been getting about $A20 a fortnight.
Is that too much for a 7 year old? What do you say?

[WestAussieGirl]

My 7yo gets $5/week if she does all of her chores.  She has nominated something that she is saving for and has to put at least half towards that and can spend the other half or save it toward a smaller goal.

[kherbert05]

I'm not sure how much Loren and Brett get - but they have to divide it 4 ways
1 - Long term savings
2 - Short term savings
3 - Charity
4 - Now pocket money


It has made an impression. Last year they insisted on giving all of their short term savings to 3 kids who were in a horrific car accident. The parents were killed, the older kids left paralyzed. (The parents went to HS with Sis and BIL - a bunch of people from their class got together to have fundraisers to help pay the medical bills for the kids)

[MommyPenguin]

The sum I've usually heard is about 50 cents per child's year of age, starting around 4 or 5.  So a 4-year-old starts with $2/week, a 7-year-old gets $3.50 a week, and so on.

However, my husband and I also want to gradually, as our children get older, have them be responsible for paying for various things they want/need, and being able to sacrifice in some areas to save up money in others.  So, for instance, at 12, our child will probably get a larger than usual allowance, but be expected to pay for her clothes (she'll have certain required amounts of clothes that she must have, including clothes for church), any books and movies, snacks, toys, etc.  If she really wants $80 sneakers, she can choose to do that, but that might mean no candy for a while, or buying clothes at a consignment shop instead of new, etc.  We haven't gone too far along that path yet since ours are still too young to really get money, but the one thing we've started is giving them a large enough allowance to pay for their own gymnastics and dance lessons.  We'd like them to see how much money it costs to take gymnastics and dance and get an idea of how many LEGOs or bath toys they could have bought with that money, so that maybe they will appreciate the lessons a bit more.   (No, they can't decide to use that money for toys.)

And we do something similar to kherbert, in that we also teach them to put money aside for tithe and charity right from the start.  I think it makes it easier to maintain the habit if they start from the beginning.  Right now I'm not worrying about "save" versus "spend," because my daughter saves for months to get LEGOs already (she wants a LEGO robotics set that will take her 2 years to save for), and I think expecting her to save for something more long-term than that (college) is just too abstract.

[MummySweet]

My children receive $ equivalent to their age each week (so my seven year old gets $7, my 12 year old gets $12).    We started when each of them were 6.  They split three ways:  Spend Now, Save to Spend Later(planned expenditures), and Invest.   Their giving is done through donation of goods/toys and volunteer time.   

[Teenyweeny]

Back around 15 years ago, I got £25 a month (at age 12). I used to babysit/do a paper round to earn more. I had to but my own clothes, and I still remember the first outfit I bought. (I wore a uniform for school, and that was paid for by my parents.)

Having to buy my own clothes definitely taught me a lot of things. Like, "you can't just buy party clothes" (which I did at first), and "that shirt is nice, but it's see-through, and now you need to buy two tops instead of one" (also something I did). If I wanted anything expensive, I had to save for it, so I learned not to be too bothered about labels, and just to go for things I liked.

It worked well.

[lady_disdain]

I started receiving an allowance at 5 or 6. However, the real lesson was at 8, when my father sat down to negotiate an "allowance" plan with me, where we talked about what should be covered by the allowance at each age. So, for example, at age 8, my allowance would cover a children's book every 2 weeks, a new CD a month and a weekly treat. At age 15, it would cover going out with friends every so often (a movie and a burger, I think), a real book every two weeks, etc. The values would be readjusted periodically (hiper inflation is not fun) and we could, of course, choose to spend the money on other things.

He also expected us to negotiate with him over time. I successfully upped my book allowance by pointing out that I read adult books, not young adults, and they were more expensive. Since it was educational, it would be good to change the master plan to reflect this. However, I lost when I argued that I needed a weekly book because I read so much (sure, he said, but then we can cut back on the weekly outing, since you rarely go out with friends because you are reading) When my sister wanted more clothing/more expensive clothing than they thought was necessary, they gave her the amount of her clothing budget to spend as she wanted. She spent more than that, covering the difference from her allowance. I asked for the same privilege, got it and spent less on clothes and more on CDs. It cut a lot of teen arguing.

[Outdoor Girl]

The plan I saw on Oprah, that I would have used if I'd had kids, gave each kid their age per week, as long as every chore on their list was done.  They got 3 reminders over the week and if there was one chore not done at the end, they didn't get their allowance.  The kids said it only happened once.

With that amount of money, 1/3 went into their college fund, 1/3 went to 'taxes' (which was the family fun fund, for a big family purchase or vacation) and the other 1/3 was spending money.  The parents bought all their clothes at regular stores like Target or Walmart but if one of them wanted designer whatever, the parents would give them the money they would have spent and the kid had to make up the difference from their spending money.

[Jones]

My daughter is 6. She is expected to tidy her room, feed the cats, and put away the clean dishes; just by virtue of living in a house and being part of a family team. Her 1 year old brother has already started to help with putting toys in the toybox and pulling dishes out of the washer.

She can earn pocket money by doing certain forms of yardwork; nothing too strenuous. Scooping dog poo (yes she gets a shovel and gloves), weeding, watering. Payday is Saturday and some weeks she gets $10 while other weeks she gets nothing.

[miredrose326]

My kids are 14 & 12 and right now they get $20 every 2 weeks (that's when I get paid so that's when they get paid). It's probably about time for me to bump it up to $25 since it's been a while since they got a raise and they tend to go out more with friends now and I do expect them to use their money for that.

In addition to the money that I give them, they have ample opportunity to work for their grandma and make $5 per hour.  My daughter takes all the opportunities provided and generally can save up about $100 per month that she uses for shopping or hanging out with friends. My son does not do any more than is required of him and spends his money almost instantly, therefore he has a very active social life for about 2 days and then his money is gone.

[kherbert05]

My parents did a gradual release thing for clothes. Starting at age 8 or Mom would sit on a bench, in a chair and we would find clothes and bring them to her for her approval.


Then we moved up to putting things on hold, while Mom was else where in the mall. Bring Mom and she would have final approval.

Then we did the same thing, without Mom in the mall. When she came to pick us up - she would go to the stores and give final approval.


Then we were authorized to use their credit cards. But had to show our parents all clothes before the tags were removed. Have to return things because they don't meet basic modesty rules or blow the budget- lose the credit card privileges. Credit cards were preferred to cash because they offered additional protection if lost or stolen.  They lost veto power over clothes for modesty reasons, when we were fully self supporting.


Sis is planning on doing the same thing with the kids (did it with older niece somewhat). She is thinking about pre-paid cards or maybe debit cards with a low daily limit.


Sis is planning on doing

[SiotehCat]

DS11 doesn't have chores, but we were giving him $5 whenever he walks home from school. So he usually gets $15/week. This came about because we wanted to give him an allowance, but we didn't want to give him chores.

This works out well for us, because if I can't pick him up then it means that I am busy making money at work. I'm fine with some of that trickling down to DS.

I never had an allowance growing up and I was always broke.

[Clarissa]

My 2 eldest children are 11 and 10. They don't get pocket money. They get tuck money each day for school. If they have behaved through the week and have done their chores, I will pay for them to go swimming/cinema etc. They asked about pocket money, and when I explained that if they had spent it, there wouldn't be any more, they didn't want it anymore! Fwiw none of their friends get pocket money.

[Sophia]

The plan I saw on Oprah, that I would have used if I'd had kids, gave each kid their age per week, as long as every chore on their list was done.  They got 3 reminders over the week and if there was one chore not done at the end, they didn't get their allowance.  The kids said it only happened once....

I plan on doing something similar but from the Love and Logic books.  Chores have to be done by a certain stated time.  No reminders.  If they aren't, then mommy and daddy do them, and the child pays for the labor by having their allowance docked by X amount. 

[nolechica]

I don't have kids, but my allowance was correlated to the grade I was in, for $3/week for 3rd, on up through 10th.  It was in .50 increases before 3rd though, bad deal.  However, there was no charity giving or savings either. $4/week in 4th grade was just enough to keep me in books.