Allowance

[sblatner]

We have two teenage boys - 17 and 14. If you have kids similar ages, do they get an allowance and if so, how much? I'm not interested in starting a thread about tying allowance to housework or anything like that. Just interested to hear how much kids get these days.

Thanks.

[cooliemae]

While I'm not your sons' ages, I can tell you that my parents gave me about $20 a month as an allowance, which translates into about $40 in 2012 dollars. However, when I started working in the summers when I was 15 they stopped giving me a dedicated allowance and instead might have given me a few extra bucks here and there.

[sblatner]

We give $40 to the 17 year old and $30 to the 14 year old. With movies being $10 and even dinner out with friends $5-10, I'm wondering if this is enough. We do give them an extra $20 every so often to cover entertainment if they have been going out a lot and lunches at school (they take lunch but sometimes feel like they still need to buy) so maybe if I include that, they are getting enough.

With all the ways to spend money these days - iTunes, games, etc. Just seems like life is more expensive than it used to be.

I've been out of high school almost 30 years and seem to remember I used to get $20 per month.

[Wino]

I'm not interested in starting a thread about tying allowance to housework or anything like that.

Then I have nothing to say. I wonder, though: How much money does your employer give you for doing absolutely nothing?

[sblatner]

Our kids do jobs around the house. I just didn't want to have a conversation about that. I just want to know how much kids get these days.

[phantom]

I didn't get an allowance as a kid, and I don't have kids of my own yet, so I don't really have a good point of reference. $30-$40 a month sounds high enough to me, but I think it really depends how much you're supplementing things.

For example, I never needed to spend my own money on music or games as kid because my parents were willing to buy me most of the things I wanted as Christmas or birthday gifts. But, if they had not been as generous around the holidays or if my wants had been greater, I might have needed to spend some money on those things. I doubt the fact that your kids want iTunes instead of CDs, cassettes, or records means that their music wants are more expensive than those of kids a few generations ago. In fact, I remember CDs being $15-20, and I believe a digital album goes for around $5 nowadays.

I would think that 14 should be pretty close to being old enough to start working and that by 17 a kid should at least have summer jobs. So, I would probably start expecting them to cover some of their own entertainment costs by working at this point. But, maybe that a whole other discussion.

[cooliemae]

With all the ways to spend money these days - iTunes, games, etc. Just seems like life is more expensive than it used to be.

I completely understand about how much things costs these days. I know my parents didn't want me to work during the school year so that I could concentrate on my schoolwork, so that's why I worked during the summers. During the school year, I mowed lawns around town, recycled cans, and did any number of odd jobs to earn a little bit extra.

[disneysteve]

My 17-year-old daughter gets $10/week.

[creditcardfree]

My girls get $1 per year of age each month. For example, my 12 year gets $12. They don't have much of a social life where they are out spending lots of money, so this is just for them to buy their wants. We take care of needs and extras that would come up. I can see the need soon to increase it for our 15 year old.

[Bob B.]

Not similar ages, but ...

My 10 year old gets $5/week.

My 7 year old gets $3/week.

[disneysteve]

I think the real question is what do you intend the allowance to cover? That should be a bigger determining factor in how much you give than their age will be. For example, if it is total "blow" money, they don't need very much. If it needs to cover specific things, like school lunch for example, then that needs to be factored into the amount.

For our daughter, it is pretty much "blow" money. There is absolutely no reason why she needs to be blowing more than $10/week. In reality, she's actually very good with her money. Most weeks she probably spends little to none and saves most of it for the periodic occasions when she wants it like youth group trips for example (she just returned from 5 days in Los Angeles for a youth convention). Either that or she saves it toward things like her iPod, money for her iTunes account, etc.

[pretty cheap jewelry]

My kids are close in age. Through grades 1 to 8 they got $1 to $8 per week depending on the grade. This taught them the value of saving, living within their cash means, etc. The allowance also was part of an overall family responsibility program, in which chores were required. Upon high school entry, the allowance program ended. Chores were hopefully, but not always habitual by this time, but I decided to forgo those fights (such as not making the bed) to save friction for the important issues, if any arise.

15 y.o. high school boy = $0 allowance
All his school lunches are prepaid (he does not carry lunch money)
He makes spending money by doing fairly big jobs at grandma's (like fence fixing, painting)
He does not drive yet
Good grades at the end of the school year mean $5 per A up to 5 A's

13 y.o. middle school girl = $0 allowance
She could earn allowance but has been very lax and unmotivated to do chores, so it has been suspended for the whole school year
Lunches are also prepaid
Extra activities are paid by parent (such as girl scout events)
She gets rewards for especially good schoolwork such as $5 ea event, or a particular hair accessory she wanted, or ?? She already gets mostly A's, but garners repeated honors and extracirricular awards

[sblatner]

I think the real question is what do you intend the allowance to cover? That should be a bigger determining factor in how much you give than their age will be. For example, if it is total "blow" money, they don't need very much. If it needs to cover specific things, like school lunch for example, then that needs to be factored into the amount.

For our daughter, it is pretty much "blow" money. There is absolutely no reason why she needs to be blowing more than $10/week. In reality, she's actually very good with her money. Most weeks she probably spends little to none and saves most of it for the periodic occasions when she wants it like youth group trips for example (she just returned from 5 days in Los Angeles for a youth convention). Either that or she saves it toward things like her iPod, money for her iTunes account, etc.

DisneySteve, I think we think alike. Our kids get blow money and then I give them extra for school lunches (not every day as it is $3.50 but I might give them $20 for a month so they can buy 1-2 lunches a week - this is in addition to the lunches they take - growing boys who are hungry all the time). I also have been giving our 17 year old $20 for entertainment because he goes out most nights on the weekends with his friends and I want him to be able to do it. This way he has $40 for allowance that he can choose to spend on games/music/going out and then $20 for a movie or a couple dinner with friends. I got tired of him coming to me for money every time he needed it. He is a saver and I didn't want him to just save his money and not be social especially his senior year.

I'm really proud of our senior. He has started using mint.com and it really annoys him when he doesn't balance with what is in his wallet! I think that is a good thing for college.

[snafu]

We wanted our sons to learn about money management. From school age on they had to make their bed, keep their room picked up and take their laundry to the washer. All the other chores [work] had a dollar value. We developed dollar values for all the common chores. If they agreed to wash the car for example, it was worth the cost of automatic car wash. If neighbors were willing to pay $ 7. for mowing lawn, we paid the same rate. Most chores were priced according to minimum wage and a pre determined time factor. There was a consequence to a job poorly done or a job signed up and not done.

The money earned covered all entertainment, gas for shared car but not clothes or school trips. They were expected to pay differentials for 'branded' jeans [this was a major issue] but parents have to pick their 'bleed and die' issues.

[LuckyRobin]

My daughter is 16 and she gets $15 a week. My son will be 13 in a couple of weeks. He gets $10 a week. They do a lot, including helping to care for the livestock and garden on top of household chores, so I imagine we are in a different situation than most with higher allowances.

Only one of my daughter's friends gets an allowance. None of my son's friends do.