Comments on: Starting an Allowance

By: Explaining the Recession and Teaching Financial Literacy to Kids | PhD in Parenting

Sat, 23 May 2009 03:36:00 +0000

[...] wrote about allowances in my post Money, Money, Money and I also love Amber Strocel’s post on Starting an Allowance and Raising 4 Boys Allowance [...]

By: Barbie on the Nature Table? | Strocel.com

Barbie on the Nature Table? | Strocel.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:07:42 +0000

[...] Perhaps she will even be joined by the ever-loving Barbie styling head that Hannah purchased with her allowance. Or a My Little Pony. The non-Waldorf-approved toy options are rather plentiful here at Casa de [...]

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:51:40 +0000

Are you planning on asking Hannah to do chores in order to earn her allowance? Our first son (almost 4) helps out here and there … I suspect that were we to start an allowance, we’d *require* him to do certain chores in order to earn it.

By: Lady M

Lady M — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:53:38 +0000

We’ve haven’t gotten to an allowance yet, but Q-ster’s been given very small money gifts from grandparents and allowed to choose a toy. Thanks for the prompting – it’s about time to think about it.

By: shonda

shonda — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:14:05 +0000

You guys are basically taking the same route as we are. Ridge really loves powdered donuts, so he has his splurge allowance for that. But, we make him save some for his cowboy big buys. You are such a good momma.

By: Allison

Allison — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:50:09 +0000

I always liked the ‘three jars’ approach, but now I totally agree with what you’re saying about it sort of short-circuiting the budgeting lesson. Damn, I have to stop being so suggestible. Or read fewer blogs.

By: pomomama aka ebbandflo

pomomama aka ebbandflo — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:55:47 +0000

Very timely and great food for thought. We’re just starting to think of an allowance for the wee guy and wondering why/how much/what to do with it? etc.

By: Maria@Conversations with Moms

Maria@Conversations with Moms — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:54:08 +0000

I didn’t grow up with an allowance. Mainly because my parents had to support 6 children and we hardly ever had extra money.

I like the idea of an allowance because when I finally did have my own money from working, I made a lot of mistakes (credit card debt). I was into instant gratification.

If an allowance can teach my children about budgeting and the value of money, I’m all for it. I probably wouldn’t put rules on it either so that they can learn their own lessons.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:25:31 +0000

Emma hasn’t gotten an allowance yet, but Mckenzi has for many years. We chose to start Mckenzi off with the 3 jars….I was never good with money as a kid and this just appealed to me. Once every few months we would make a trip to the bank to deposit her ‘savings’ jar or if there was a big ticket item she wanted to save up for, this is where we did it. The spending money was for toys or the book fair or the ice cream truck. The charity jar was used mostly around the holidays for the Salvation Army bell ringers…or church on Sunday. Mckenzi used to watch Steve and I plopping money here and there and wanted money of her own. I remember in grade 1 they had a penny drive and all her charity money was exchanged for pennies and she was thrilled. As she has aged we have also taken her charity money and used it to buy presents at Christmas for children who have none. It has been a good learning experience for Mckenzi, and it has become and intragural part of who she is.

We don’t expect Mckenzi to shell out for her own clothes or toiletries yet…most of the time. Designer, big name things she chips in for and she likes very expensive shaving razers that she has to buy for herself. She is currently saving for a new phone (the one she bought on Dec 26th ’08 is apparently soooo last year) and her own digital camera. We have always done 1/2 of Mckenzi’s age each week for her, but we did bump it up to 10$ a week when she turned 13. Now she baby sits though and has more money than me sometimes.

By: CJ

CJ — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:29:52 +0000

While Em is close in age, she’s not developmentally ready for an allowance. But what I do is allow her to pay for things when we buy them and involve her. I show her the bill or the amount due, we count out the money, she hands it over and she takes the change. She knows I get the dollars back (which she sometimes tries to snag!) and she gets to keep the change. For us, it’s all about the life skills. I’m hoping she will “get” what an allowance is soon, she rocks at doing her chores….most of the time!