Should You Give Your Kids An Allowance?
Here, I share six reasons why you should give your kids an allowance, whether or not their allowance should be tied to chores, when you should start giving an allowance, how often, and how to figure out how much.
So, here I am, a stay-at-home mom. I’m 48 and I do chores to earn money. My husband set it up this way because, in the real world, you don’t get money just for fun. You have to work for it.
It looks something like this:
- Make a meal – $3
- Do dishes – $2
- One load of laundry (folded and put away) – $2
- Clean upstairs floors – $3
- Vacuum downstairs – $2
- Clean one bathroom – $4
- Dust – $1
- Make Bed – 50¢
- Take out garbage – $1
- Take kids to music lessons – $2
You get the idea. At the end of each day, my husband tallies up everything I’ve done. It’s kind of great because then he knows what I do each day, too! Every Friday he makes sure he has the right denominations so he can pay me for my hard work!
Oh. My. Goodness. Can you imagine?
That was all made up, by the way, if you didn’t catch on.
6 Reasons Why You Should Give Your Kids An Allowance
I am a big believer in allowances. Let me tell you why!
1) To Simplify Your Family Spending Plan
With a fair allowance amount in place, you will no longer concern yourself with costs that pop up throughout the month because you have a plan in place.
Each family member uses their allowance to take care of their own monthly expenses. Haircuts, gas, clothing, going out, gifts, or even church camp.
2) To SAVE Money
Wait! Giving Allowance SAVES Money? You Bet!
You’re no longer the money tree. Your kids now have their own money and the confines of their own budget. Because of this, guilt melts away. You no longer feel bad when you tell Johnny no because Johnny has the ability to make his own money decisions!
3) To Give Your Kids Freedom
My son may choose to grow a man bun instead of paying for monthly haircuts and that’s okay!
Our daughter may want to attend church camp and she has the money to make it happen!
We all make choices and our spending habits reflect those choices.
4) To Teach Your Kids How To Budget
If the teenagers spend every last penny, as soon as they get it, they know they may have to miss out on a Birthday party or event later in the month for lack of funds. This can be so hard to watch and it would be easy to bail our kids out but stand strong! These are lessons we want our kids to have when the consequences are small.
Teaching kids about money will set them up for financial success so they can be self-sufficient young adults.
5) To Make Your Life Easier
When your kids have their own money to budget, that means they are empowered to spend how they choose. They won’t look to you when they find something at the store that they have to have because you’re off-limits!
6) So They Don’t Expect Money For Chores
Ack! We tried the pay-for-work method for a very short time. I would come up with a fancy system and they would decide they didn’t need money and weren’t interested. When they did do chores, I had to make sure I had the right denominations to hand out. It was a pain in the rear!
You Guys! My kids do chores! They don’t even complain. It’s just what we do.
I’m so happy I don’t have an open palm in front of me every time I ask the kids to do something. That would drive me bonkers!
Should Allowance Be Tied To Chores?
The biggest opposition to an allowance I hear is that in the real world, you have to work for money. This is true! In the real world, you don’t get paid to do chores around the house, either. Wouldn’t THAT be nice? I could be rich with the payment plan I outlined earlier!
Your kids’ allowance should NOT be tied to chores. They receive an allowance because they are part of the family. They also SHOULD have chores assigned to them because they are a part of the family but those chores should not indicate whether or not they receive an allowance.
When Should You Give Your Child An Allowance?
As soon as your child becomes interested in buying stuff from the store, you should consider giving them an allowance.
My son has always been a spender. When we ran errands there was always something he had to have, even at a very young age. In order to not derail our budget, every time we went to the store, we implemented the allowance system. This way Jack had the freedom to purchase stuff, until his money ran out, for the month. He quickly learned that mom and dad were fair, in giving him money each month, and would not waiver and give him more, when his money ran out.
How Often Should You Give Your Kids An Allowance?
It is important that you give your kids an allowance on a consistent basis that they can count on, just like a paycheck. Whether that’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. The key is to be consistent.
We are a single-income family and payday comes once per month so, to keep things simple, the kids also get their allowance once a month. This makes our family budget easy to handle and the kids have learned how to budget their money to last the entire month.
How Much Should You Give Your Child For Allowance?
The rule of thumb is to give your child the amount that matches their age, each week. That means if your child is 5, they would get $5 each week, as an allowance. What that money is used for is entirely up to them.
If you’d like to teach your kids to be responsible, with the money they receive, I suggest filling out the Monthly Allowance Proposal Worksheet. Recurring personal expenses, which you pay for every month out of the family budget, could easily be incorporated into an allowance. This allows your kids to take on the responsibility of regular expenses, themselves, and gives them the freedom to make choices.
