Any Rules for Allowances?

OH MY. You will get a lot of answers with this one! I have kids from 26 down to 5 and through the years the amounts have changed. First of all, what can you afford? If the going rate for allowance for a child her age is $20 a week that may be too much for your budget or be just right. In my opinion (I have a 13 year old) a child that age will do fine with $10 a week. No, it isn't enough to go to the movies every weekend, it shouldn't be! If you just give it to them enough to do whatever they want they won't know how to save for it. The adult world definitely doesn't work that way, right?
I always tell my kids, put 1/3 away for something big, 1/3 away for something small and the last spend now. It has worked for me, and them. Good luck!

I used to always hear that the rule was a dollar for each year of their age (per week) but personally I think that's too much unless maybe they have to pay for some actual expenses. I have been giving my son $10 a week and part of that goes to savings acct. but now that he's turned 14 he is negotiating for more. I guess it partly depends on what the allowance is for. I don't make him pay for lunches or anything like that out of his allowance. But he defintely is getting to have more incidental expenses now.

My kids are still small, but when I was your daughter's age I got $20/wk which was for school lunches as well as regular spending money. I had enough to go to a movie or go to the local pizza place with my friends. If my allowance ran out early, I would have to brown bag for lunch. We were paid on Monday rather than Friday so that we had to budget all week if we wanted money for the weekend.

I have a 15 yr old son and an 8 yr old daughter. My son also helps out alot with his sister and does chores. We do give him an allowance of $10.00 a wk, but he needs to put $1.00 of that in his savings each wk. He uses his allowance to pay for his cell phone (we got him a pay as you go phone) and he saves money for video games. I do pay for him to go to the movies with his friends or for a game he may want, every once in awhile, but his grades have to always be good to get something extra.

It sounds like your daughter really is great! I don't have kids that age yet, but when I was that age I received enough money per week to cover my small expenses (like my school lunch) plus some extra. It gave me practice in budgeting to cover some expenses and splurges and to save up for other things I wanted.

That's so great to get your (already responsible sounding) daughter to budget. I can totally see a difference between me and my husband, he was given allowance and I was given money as i needed it. He's a great saver, our budget is never over, he's realistic in what we can afford and not, he even avoids using credit cards so we have barely any credit debt. I, on the other hand, was given money whenever I needed and never really did learn (until my early 30s) how to really budget, how to save up for what I wanted. My credit tanked out prob by age 18 :) Though I was responsible in other ways, putting myself through college for example, I'd have given anything to have learned earlier that budgeting and saving up are the way to go. Good luck w/ your allowance program! You are a good mommy! :)

My kids get $10 a week, but $3 of that goes to the bank. Sort of a 'savings lesson'. I also don't think any of the chores should be tied to the allowance. The chores should be expected of every family member - kids need to learn that.

Hope this helps,
M.