Today’s Thrifty Tip is to give allowance to your children! Giving children allowances helps to teach them how to be thrifty and manage their money wisely.
I don’t know about your children, but I find that my kids are always asking for things when we are out shopping, not realizing how much things cost or if it would be even wise to spend my money on it. They just have wants. By giving your kids an allowance you can let them decide if they want to spend their money to buy something. Its a big time lesson learner. By making money spending choices, whether right or wrong, they are learning important principles.
Here’s why its a good idea to give your kids an allowance:
- When kids have a regular amount of their own money they learn to manage it.
- They need to be able to make mistakes when the cost is minimal.
- They learn to think about how much things costs, and to make spending choices between the many things that they may want.
- They have more appreciation for the things they buy when they use their own money.
I recommend first making a list of what your children are expected to pay for with their allowance. Once you have that amount, you can sit down with your child and make a list together of all the things they are expected to pay for. This will help when conflicts arise in the store or when they need a new outfit. They will know what they have to pay for and can use their allowance for it. As their needs change so can the amount of allowance – just be willing to renegotiate the amount when needed.
Teaching your children early about managing money will help them be more financially responsible individuals in the future.
Question for you readers: Do you give your kids an allowance? What do you think is a good dollar amount of allowance for little kids starting out? How much for middle school kids? What about teens?
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Amanda says
Growing up my mom and stepdad were strict when it came to allowance and chores. I had two brothers, we had chore charts which needed to be completed and signed daily by our parents. We earned like $.30 per chore completed however if we missed a chore we didn’t get paid for that day. Missing a chore also resulted in starting over on the three day sign off, we would need three days completed in a row to be able to go to a friends house (we lived 15miles out in the country). I understand what they were trying to do, teach us about money management and responsibilty, yet I believe there are more receptive ways to get children to understand money and responsiblities without being so strict.
E.C. says
We give our kids a dollar per their age per month. My oldest is 9 so he gets 9 dollars a month. Youngest is 2 so gets 2 per month. Out of that, they pay 10% to savings, and 10% to tithing. Then the rest is their spending money. We have 4 kids and I do have a saver and a spender, so it is interesting to see that develop. We let our kids know that the older they get the more we expect. That’s why it goes up a dollar each year. My oldest will start helping mow the lawn this summer, while the youngest is just learning how to put toys away. It’s worked really well for us.
Rana says
I give my 6 year old $1 a week and my 10 year old $5 a week. They put away the dishes, keep their rooms pretty clean, put away their laundry, help fold towels, and the 10 year old does a couple more little chores. I try really hard not to buy them “extras” so they have to save their own money for them. I started getting allowance in middle school and it has helped me a ton with budgeting and planning. Also, my 10 year old is getting $100 for her birthday (and a few small gifts to open) BUT she has to pay for her own party out of it. Let me tell you she is seeing how much things cost! The food, goody bag stuff, movie rental, etc. adds up and now she knows just how much even a “home” party costs. She’s hoping to have $50 left over. We’ll see…
Mrs H says
I disagree with this article. Allowance is not something we do here. Chores are a shared responsibility by each member of our family. They also do not get paid for the privilege of learning. We do however include the children when working on shopping lists and figuring out where the best deal is. They understand things in a sense of how many hours did mom or dad have to work to provide their new shoes, soccer ball, vacation expenses, et c. They also have to decide if the items they request are “wants” or “needs”. Frugality is a lifestyle. The children do receive money for work done for other people (babysitting, lawn mowing) & as gifts. They manage their own funds. Children in our household do not incur expenses such as cell phones, internet gaming, or sports fees. We just can’t justify the expenses and are working hard to be sure our children are not raised with entitlement mentality.
Elaina says
This is a great topic which I have experimented with at a few different angles!
When my boys were younger I started out with allowances and found it worked out nicely. Only in time, two distinct personalities emerged 🙂 The “saver” who planned every purchase and the “spender” who regrets his impulse buys and learns later. To be honest, I have enjoyed the differences and have been flexible with this to ensure everyone get a lesson on money. The saver I have actually had to budge him to enjoy the fruits of labor on an occasional purchase; and the spender I have added additional “not so average” jobs for extra pay that he is more than willing to do for money- so he works harder to spend more 🙂 In the end, it is fun to see kids grow and learn..
Lori Horsley-Fricke says
I also believe school is like a job. It works out well for us to give the kids an allowance so they don’t ask for things at the store. They really enjoy spending my money but now that they have their own they manage their money a little bit. For my 8 year old I give her $5 a week and my 13 year old son receives $25 a week. I know that sounds like a lot but he pays for his phone, Xbox Live, internet games, and all the activities he does with his friends. He knows if he watches his money he can save for something really nice. I don’t buy them toys unless it’s a holiday. Before putting them on an allowance I know I spent more than that on them.
LaToya says
We don’t give our kids allowance. Although I do like the argument that it teaches them to manage their money. Our kids never ask for anything at the store though…they know we live on the cheap and they have/get whatever they need – and have plenty of family that their wants are mostly met as well. Might have to think about a little something for chores.
Meri says
My kids also got .25 per year of age per week when they were younger, but over time that morphed into a certain # of dollars per week (just because it was easier for me than trying to find a bunch of quarters!). Now that they’re older (16, 15, & 12), they get $5, $4, & $3 a week. After the oldest has a birthday, they’ll get a dollar more (I picked him because his birthday is right in the middle of his sisters’). Their allowance is not contingent on chores, although they do all have work that they are responsible for every week (each has a “room” to take care of–kitchen, bathroom, and all the work of caring for the dogs–and they rotate responsibilities each week). Allowance does depend on not getting in trouble, however–if they get grounded, or don’t keep up on their schoolwork, they lose allowance. This has been a great system for helping them learn to manage their money and their time, since we don’t buy them “wants” except at birthdays and Christmas (well, every once in a while I splurge on them a bit!). We also just got our son a debit card, so now he’s learning about managing his money when he has instant access to it–this is huge to us, considering how badly much of our nation is in debt!
Brandy says
We have made a chore chart. The kids have one chore a day that they get paid for and 11 chores that are not paid for. My kids receive $1 per day for completing their chores and some daily chores are harder than others. If they don’t do their daily chore they don’t get paid. They have sunday off so they can make$6 per week. Not much but I have 4 kids and it adds up quick.They have chances to make extra money by going to work with my husband at $20 per day, baby sitting $5 per day or going to work with me and then they make what they contribute. My youngest is 8 & oldest is 13 this works great for my family.
Jennifer says
We give our children allowance similar to Erin except we pay them $0.25 per year of age per week. For example, our 4 year olds earn $1.00 a week and our 8 year old earns $2.00 a week. We tell them that they get this money for being part of our family and that they are not paid based on their chores. Chores in our house are also because we are part of the family. We are in the middle of setting up a point system for additional chores, so that may include money.
MaryBeth says
I don’t have any kids yet, but something I’m going to do that my MIL did for my husband was that his allowance was for each day he went to school. He got paid for school because school is your job when you’re going to school. That also included doing homework, reading time, projects, etc. I think he usually got $0.50/day which doesn’t seem like much but it adds up fast (and that can always change depending on the age of the child and how much they are responsible for buying). Plus, I think that children should have to contribute to the household by doing chores without receiving an allowance, so this allows a little bit of both!
Erin says
Our family get one dollar per year of age each week.There are regular chores that need to be done daily for that amount.Then we have extra money earning chores such as yard clean-up,washing car,etc.The limit is twenty extra dollars earned per month as we have a large family.They are also encouraged to work for Grandparents.