Allowance - The Activity Mom

Do you give your kids chores? Do they earn an allowance or are they paid on commission? There are many viewpoints and opinions about these issues.

Some people believe children should do chores just to help their family and not to earn money.

Others believe children need to earn money to learn lessons on spending and saving at a young age where the risk isn’t so high. You can pay money per chore or in one lump sum when all of the chores are finished.

I’d like to think I’m somewhere in the middle. I believe there are certain jobs our children need to do to help out our family. I always tell them “We are a team!”. On the other hand, I also think they can learn a lot about managing money, saving, spending, and goals at an early age that can save them from mistakes as a young adult.

But we also struggle with earning money through chores because they only want to do them when there is something they want to buy instead of consistently earning and saving. It makes me wonder if I’m doing it “right”. So I went in search of ideas and solutions other moms are using.

Earn minutes toward electronics time with these chore tokens.

Idea from Deja Ju

Allowance is automatically given (chores are expected as part of the family and not paid for) and they use a chart to keep track of what they have earned and where they have spent their money.

Idea from Ducks in a Row

Earn money with chores and save for a family vacation

Idea from Love Our Disney

Interactive velcro chart to help your child independently keep track of their responsibilities.

Idea from PRACTIPS

Job chart with daily and weekly responsibilities (free, printable) to teach kids to work.

Idea from Emmy Mom

Printable Chore Cards

Idea from Biblical Homemaking

DIY Banks for Saving and Spending

Idea from The Activity Mom

Daisy

Wednesday 20th of February 2013

We do an allowance, but it's completely separate from how they help out around the house. I was completely inspired by Barbara Coloroso's book "Kids Are Worth It!" where she talks about doing this. Although she goes so far as to say that they need to save some, give some away and then the rest they can use as they see fit, as longs as it's not harmful in any way (so, can't blow it all on candy!). We didn't do all that but I like to think they are still developing a good sense of how to use their money!

Shonda

Tuesday 19th of February 2013

Great ideas! Pinning!

medina family

Great ideas. I'm not sure where we are on this...but I do like the idea of saving for a family trip. That might be doable for us!

Emmy

Thanks for including my charts and yes it is always such a balance to help them figure out the importance of work and needing to do it but also wanting them to be able to learn about money and it's value and worth.

Becca @ Love Our Disney

Thanks for including my Disney Chore Bucket! I hope I am in the middle. I never got an allowance as a kid, but back then, a kid could have a paper route, etc. Now days, not so much. So I will probably find some way to do an allowance but a lot of chores will be expected as well.