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For years we've struggled with giving our children an allowance (or “commission” as some parents call it.) Â We were horrible about remembering to give pay them, and struggled deciding whether or not they even needed an allowance (as all of their needs are pretty well provided for!)
But as our eleven-year old is getting older, we decided that there is value in teaching our children how to wisely handle money while they're at home, so we started the “quarter system”. Â Basically, certain chores in our home earn our children a quarter. Â We keep three jars – one per child – on the kitchen counter where quarters are added as the chore is completed. (The larger jar holds loose changes that gets collected throughout the week to add to their jars as they earn!)
Here are the chores that earn them a quarter:
- Making their beds each morning.
- Unloading the dishwasher (each child is assigned a separate part of the dishwasher).
- Helping with complete other cleaning chores or yard work as needed.
- Hang up bookbags and put shoes away each day.
- Put folded laundry away in dressers.
- Set the dinner table.
- Help clean up after dinner.
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We have a flat “salary” of $7 per week for our ten year old. She does dozens of activities including gardening for the local food bank so I think she works very hard. I struggle with the fact that she takes that $7 and spends most of it on a Starbuck’s drink and other junk food as soon as she gets it. Not how I would chose to spend my hard earned money but she needs to learn the value of money. If she missed a chore and I have to unload the dishwasher she loses a $1 and has to give it to me for doing her share. The next step is for her to start earning the money we spend on gifts for her friends birthdays. That can easily be $50 per month and I want her to appreciate what we spend to give thoughtful gifts to all her friends. Does anyone have their children contribute to their friends gifts or extra activities?
Hi Erica! I hadn’t even thought about asking kids to contribute to their friends gifts/extra activities. Jackson (my oldest) probably ends up with $5 per week, so at this point I don’t know that I would do that b/c his “income” is pretty small (and a big portion goes to savings). But, I have definitely reminded him in the store when he asks for something that he could use his own money, and he almost always decides not to! I think when he’s earning more we may make him to pay some money towards those things – definitely something worth considering!
I LOVE the 25 things idea Jen! I may have to add that to our to-do list…. right now my hubby has taken over helping w/ laundry but I’m betting he’d happily pay them $.01 per item he doesn’t have to fold! Great tip 🙂
I just started something new. My kids are required to do their “own” work. put away laundry make beds. Extra jobs earn money. Since I’m so bad at keeping tabs we also have a “quarter” system of sorts. I have a paper on the fridge and for every 25 things they put in the proper place they get a quarter sticker (garage sale sticker) It doesn’t matter what it is. Taking 5 items out to the recycling or 5 items into the dryer both count equally. I’ve tried other systems and this works best esp since my youngest can’t read well but she can count to 25 so she can earn money too. They have to put their own sticker up. I just pay them on Sundays.
I love the Accountable Kids information – that is great! We do an allowance for our kids, but it is based upon if they actually do the work on their own. We have a chore chart on our fridge, and it lists what chores can earn you money around the house. Each chore is worth 25 cents. They have to do it on their own (without us asking) in order to earn money – making your bed, cleaning your room, clean up toys in the living room, and various chores (they will randomly clean windows, do the dishes, etc. for me – they love to clean). There is a separate category I mainly have for my 11 year old daughter, called “watching Hayden” (the almost two year old). When I need to take a shower, etc, I will ask her to watch him for me. My daughter usually earns up to $5 a month, and my almost 5-year-old earns anywhere from 25-cents to a dollar. We’ll probably start having the youngest earn when he turns two.
Love the babysitting to earn money! I don’t do that much yet w/ Jackson (because he usually wants to play outside and has no desire to babysit!) but Caroline could definitely earn a little moo-lah that way! Great tip Amy 🙂
I like your system. I might have to adopt the quarter a job, idea.
We pay a set amount, it’s minimal and it’s basically not attached to any chores. (though you need to be a helpful family member!) Our goal, with allowance, is really not to reward our kids for helping with housework, but to teach them money management. We have 3 jars – 10% goes into a savings jar, 10% into a giving jar and the other 80% is theirs to spend. I hope that by teaching saving and giving, it will be 2nd nature as an adult. I am always amazed by how much wiser my kids are with their purchases when they’re spending their own money. 🙂
My husband really struggled w/ the importance of learning to manage money at home because his parents really didn’t do that (he worked summers through high school and college and the money he made went towards college, but his parents seemed to kind of “manage” it. While he’s a wonderful steward of his money, I still feel like there’s something for our kids to learn while they’re at home to manage their money. Love the giving jar too!
We use the Accountable Kids program. You sit down with your kids and define what chores they are to do – just to be a productive member of the family. These usually include making their bed, getting dressed in a timely manner, brushing their teeth, getting homework done, clearing the table and so forth. They turn their cards everytime they complete the chore/task. They get rewarded tickets based on the completion of these chores. The tickets they earn give them privileges such as T.V. time, Wii time, and stuff that they like to do. They have to redeem the ticket in order to do those things. If they do extra chores such as laundry, dishes, bathrooms, taking out the trash and so forth they can earn a Bonus Buck (You determine the value of that based on age… ours are $1 each). They can save them or redeem them as they choose. My eldest likes to just save them on the board so he can turn them in for money once he has a large amount saved. Automatically, half of that cash goes into savings. The other half they can do what they would like with. It’s usually spent on stuff they really want…. Legos. : )
My boys also recycle and they get the proceeds from that. The savings rule still applies to that though. They split the money between the two of them since they both do it. Then half goes in savings and half can be spent. Savings goes into the bank and can’t be touched.
Hope that helps.
Here is the link to Accountable Kids….
http://accountablekids.com/
I hadn’t heard of that program before Tammy – what a great idea! I also love the idea of half going towards savings – my kids do have savings accounts and most of what they earn goes there (because I think they’re watched us penny-pinch too much!) As my son’s getting older I keep hinting that one day he’ll want a car 🙂 (Love the Dave Ramsey idea of them paying for half!)