How much commission/allowance?

[SFM]

We just recently started doing "commission" which basically means our children work and if they work we pay them and if they do not we do not pay them. They have a set amount of chores and check them off each day when they are completed.

 

Here's the dilemma, the cost to actually purchase a toy, or game, or book are most than what I really pay. Perhaps, I am not keeping up with the rate of inflation. :laugh:

 

We make our children save 15%, give away 15% and then they are free to spend the rest or save for something larger.

 

My son (8) gets $5 a week. He does chores not on the list but those are chores that are the "BECAUSE I SAID SO AND YOU LIVE IN THIS HOUSE SO YOU HELP!" chores.

 

He walks the dog, cleans the yard, feeds the dog, vacuums, clears the table, cleans windows (T/TH) and cleans toilets on (T/TH). Basically, that's what I remember for now. My husband thinks I am cheap (I was only giving him $2/weekly, so I bumped it up but now I am starting to realize that maybe even $20 a month BEFORE giving and saving isn't a lot?

 

Or, do I chalk this up to a life skill and learning to conserve if you really want something.....hm....

 

So, what is the average for children this age? His sisters make $2.50 a week, they are 4 and 2 so it's just not the same.

 

Thoughts?

[Arcadia]

My 7 and 8 year old gets a quarter (25 cents) a day so I am a Scrooge. They don't have any chores though and all goes to their "toy fund". We also pay for books that they want if it is worth buying. Those books that we won't buy, they will borrow from the library. Last year they had more than $40 at the end of the year. They have their savings account for monetary gifts from relatives. They know those go straight to the bank.

 

My mum let me bargain for my allowance. I would calculate for inflation and ask for a raise whenever I want. My mum will see if it is reasonable and adjust accordingly.

[SFM]

My 7 and 8 year old gets a quarter (25 cents) a day so I am a Scrooge. They don't have any chores though and all goes to their "toy fund". We also pay for books that they want if it is worth buying. Those books that we won't buy, they will borrow from the library. Last year they had more than $40 at the end of the year. They have their savings account for monetary gifts from relatives. They know those go straight to the bank.

 

My mum let me bargain for my allowance. I would calculate for inflation and ask for a raise whenever I want. My mum will see if it is reasonable and adjust accordingly.

 

 

Score. Now I feel like I am too generous. :)

 

We also purchase books and since we live in Japan these are for books that he would want for his own personal reading pleasure (some I purchase) so I require he purchase.

 

Thanks for your insight.

[Laura Corin]

Hobbes' allowance is not linked to chores: he does those anyway. His 'pocket money' is £2, about USD3.20. He occasionally (about once a month) is paid for an extraordinary garden task, so his monthly income is probably about USD17.

 

When he is thirteen it will go up to £3, 14 £4, 15 £5. After that, if he wants more money he needs to do man-style jobs in the garden, substituting for his father, as Calvin does now.

 

Laura

[5wolfcubs]

Does he want more money? Is there a big purchase he won't be able to afford for a year? Is the money for activities as well as stuff? What is the savings for? The giving? Are they things he cares about? Just things to consider.

 

What I've learned in the year we've been giving allowance is some children are natural savers and/or misers. Some will choose to spend their money on food treats and their siblings. Some will say they don't want to do a favorite activity just because it would require them to spend money. Some just save because they really don't want anything.

 

We have ended up splitting a lot of things -- for example, to make a dozen wooden arrows for archery costs $50, each girl paid $25. Want to play the same online monthly subscription game as dad (and they all do!), boys pay $5 and dad pays $10, since it is something they do together.

 

What is hard for me is when one child is getting something free, like the two in Pizza Hut's Book It. I'll buy a third mini-pizza for the others to share.

 

Anyway, it has evolved that I pay for activity things and they pay for stuff. They don't buy a lot of stuff. And really, we don't do many activities either!

[Laura Corin]

 

 

Anyway, it has evolved that I pay for activity things and they pay for stuff.

 

That's how it works for us too.

 

Laura

[UrbanSue]

We give a quarter per year of age, weekly. So an eight-year-old gets two dollars, a six-year-old gets $1.50. They also have set chores. If they don't do their chores they have to "pay the maid" (me, usually) a fine which is generally twenty-five cents. They have fairly unlimited opportunities to do extra work for extra pay. My dd6 loves to spend and be generous with her money and often earns two or three times her standard allowance through extra chores. That's fine. At the rate she works, it comes out to $3-5 an hour which is cheap help for me and excellent wages for a six-year-old. My ds8 never spends money and would rather eat tacks than do extra chores.

 

We don't make our children buy books with their allowance money. If the book is worth buying, we will usually buy it for them or they think themselves of checking the library first. If they want a toy or something and it's not near a birthday or Christmas they have to buy it. But we generally assume that they will be saving for several weeks and/or doing extra work to buy things like that. Our goal at this point is to show some vague correlation between work and money and "stuff".

 

I have considered giving older kids a lot more allowance and also making them responsible for more necessities but we're not there yet.

[historically accurate]

My kids, ages 10, 7 & 5, all get a dime for each chore they do every day, up to 50 cents. So, $3.50 a week. If they choose not to do the chore, they don't get paid (they still have to do the chore, just no payment if not done by start of school/breakfast). I also have a list of paid chore options if they want more money. And I sometimes randomly assign chores if needed with no payment.

[Guest inoubliable]

We haven't been consistent with allowance here because of financial reasons. However, my kids do keep a spreadsheet of what we owe them. LOL.

 

That being said, we don't give allowance based on chores. Chores are expected to be done and done right because they are citizens of my kingdom. Period. You don't grow up to be an adult and get an envelope under the front door every Friday for vacuuming and doing your dishes. That's just life. We also don't give out handouts. Allowance does have to be earned, with hard work and responsibility. Both of my olders (because, really, as brilliant as my 5 year old is, he's not going to be able to fully grasp the concept of hard work equaling pay and how to manage it just yet - I have a couple of years before that comes) have opportunities to earn extra money. It's things like vacuuming out the van or yard work of some kind - big stuff. Nothing that has anything to do with normal living in the house, like dishes or cleaning out guinea pig's cage or cleaning the bathrooms. DS12 has enough opportunities available each month that if he completed every one of them, he'd make $48 for the month. ($12/week) DS7 works the same way - if he took advantage of all the opportunities, he could make $28 for the month (it'll be slightly higher next month when he turns 8). They understand that it's hard work, and showing up to work, that gets you paid.

 

The amounts may seem large, especially if you're tight financially as we are most of the time, but any less than that doesn't give a kid much to work with when you're teaching them to save, invest, and consider charitable contributions along with whatever spending goals they have. IMO, anyway.

 

Each kiddo tracks their money, too, so they can see where it's going. DS12 has started using BudgetSimple this month. DS7 still likes tykoon.com.

A typical month for DS12 looks like this: $48 earned, $14.40 to his Kiva funds, $14.40 to general savings, $19.20 to spend.

Neither child is expected to purchase their own clothing, books, or food. They actually don't buy much at all, now that I think of it. Their latest obsession is Gogo's Crazy Bones. A 4-pack at Walgreens is $2. I've been tripping over those little things for months now.

[Pawz4me]

I think you just have to find what works for you.

 

We've never tied allowances to chores. Pitching in is just what you do when you're part of a family.

 

The allowances we give our boys, even now as teenagers, are very small. Tiny even. But the money is totally discretionary, theirs to do with as they wish. We cover all their needs and most of their wants. For example, we provide oldest DS with a vehicle, including all the maintenance. We fill it up with gas whenever he needs it and don't question how much he drives. But if he chooses to go out to eat with a friend when there's a perfectly good meal being prepared at home, then he's got to cover that out of his allowance. This method works for us, but it might not be right for anyone else.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

We do allowance here and it is not all based on earnings for chores. It is to give them some money to learn how to use it (save, spend, give). They do have a set of chore and extras when needed. They get paid when hubby gets paid....it use to be every other week and they got half their age, now it is monthly and they get their age in allowance. However my ds 16 does get a little more since his brothers left and he now has their chores to do plus his, he gets $20 a month. The money they get is theirs to do as they wish. We are in a position to buy them most of their wants (we approve of) and food and snacks.Usually they are expected to buy things that benefit just them...a game only they will play, or a snack item they want just for themself, or see a movie the family isn;t going to see, things like that.

[Cera]

My 6 and 8 year old each get $5 a week. It is not tied to chores but to schoolwork. I decided that since you don't get paid for doing chores in the real world I wouldn't pay for them. My expectation is that they clean up after themselves and help with household tasks in a reasonable amount of time when asked. They get paid for schoolwork because that is their equivalent to a job right now. I want them to take it seriously so at the end of every week if everything is completed to the best of their ability they get their allowance (they are in public during the year and homeschool over the summers). They do get paid when they don't have school because in the real world you get vacation time.

 

If they want extra money they can do chores that I would hire out (major housecleaning or landscaping stuff) but there isn't much that they would want that would cost more than $260 a year.

[J-rap]

When my children were young, we didn't give allowances. They all had certain chores that they were expected to do, both daily and weekly, simply because they were part of the family. The chores weren't anything outrageous. The daily chore might be to clean the kitchen thoroughly after dinner, including sweeping/mopping the floor. The weekly chore might be to clean the bathroom thoroughly.

 

If they wanted to earn money, then we had a list of extra chores they could do for money, which changed depending on what needed to be done around the house/yard. Each was worth a certain amount, anywhere from 10cents to $2.00. They could do as few or as many as they wanted.

[Farrar]

I'm a real meanie - I only give $1 a week. ;) However, there are two things... that's not tied to chores at all. For special chores, particularly grunt yardwork, I pay extra. Also, I pay interest on savings. 5% weekly along with the allowance. So the more they save, the more they get.

[2squared]

My kids' allowance is equal to their age, and it is paid monthly. So my 10yo receives $10 per month. The money is theirs to spend as they want, and it all goes to wants. If our family bought free reading books, I would cover that either by buying them myself or by increasing their allowance to cover that expense. My kids use their allowance to buy toys, electronics, and treats - things that I won't buy for them.

 

If my kids are saving for big ticket items, we give them chances to earn more money. They usually babysit or do hard labor outside.

 

We've tried different reward systems in the past, and none of them led to better behavior. And...I had to track it all and keep appropriate money on hand. It was all too complicated and annoying. Our system is much simpler now. You do what I tell you to do. At the beginning of the month you get your allowance. Easy peasy. :)