Allowance & Chores

{I'm taking a little break from unpacking, ok?}

So I thought I would do a post on our system of allowance. Tons of people have asked me about how I do things. Seriously, it's nothing earth shattering but I'm astounded about how well it works for our family. Here are the details:

- The big kids get $1 for every year old they are, each week. Kenna gets $4 and Carter gets $6.

- We pay their allowance to them using quarters.

- They are required to pay tithing (10%) and save (40%), leaving 50% to spend. We round up using the quarters. It never hurt anyone to pay a little bit extra tithing anyway ;). The saving gets transferred to a bank account every couple months. {And when I start running out of quarters, I transfer things into dollar bills} These are the jars that we use to divide up their money:


- Allowance is NOT tied to chores. I want my kids to help around the house because they are part of our family. My kids do have chore charts and are expected to complete them every day.

Their daily chores: Make bed, pick up toys, empty dishwasher, take out trash/recycling, set the dinner table, plus one varying chore every day (wash windows, wipe down bathroom, dust, wash off appliances, clean baseboards, take trash out of car, etc.)

- However, allowance can be lost for complaining about chores or not doing them. We usually give one warning and then they lose a quarter out of their SPENDING money. The kids can also lose quarters for back talking, breaking a rule, having to be asked several times to do something, etc. I'm big on giving them a warning before taking it away. And it almost always only takes one warning.

- The kids have 24 hours to earn quarters back by doing an extra chore. After that, it's mine.

So that's the gist of it. I especially love it because it is giving them great lessons about money. I love that when we go out shopping and they ask for things I tell them that yes, they can buy it, with their allowance money {right down to the candy in the gumball machines - I'm a hard nose!!}. I can almost ALWAYS tell them yes but then it is up to them to decide if they really want it. Sometimes they go for the silly, frivolous dollar spot toys but they're doing that less and less. Carter is saving up his spend money for a new Wii game. He has worked hard and I am really proud of how he has stayed focused on his goal.

So that's it. Hopefully that helps someone. Let me know if you have questions about our system.

{Oh, the jars are from Dollar Tree and I just used scrapbooking rubons for the lettering. You could also order cute vinyl lettering for them.}