[katiecat]

For those of you that give your child an allowance...how exactly do you handle it? Do you just give them the cash and they carry it themselves (in a wallet?)? Do you put it directly into a bank account? If so, then how does your child access the money (debit card?)? Just wondering. I am thinking about starting an allowance with my 4 year old but not sure exactly how to handle the actual money part of it.

 

[mamalisa]

Ds gets his age in dollars every Saturday. He has to save half of it but doesn't like giving the bank his money. So he keeps all of it in his wallet. He says once he has $100 saved he will put it in the bank.

 

[skybluepink02]

My mom used to have us keep our allowance in our teapot. She had a huge collection of teapots and we each chose our own for our allowance. We had a production where she would give us our money and help us count out half of it for the bank. The other half went into our teapots for our "funmoney".

She gave me my teapot when I got married. I hope to do something similar with my family.

 

[sehbub]

Our girls (6 and 4) don't get an allowance persay, but they do get money for doing chores around the house...usually $.50 per chore. All of it goes right in to their piggy bank until they've saved up enough to buy something they really want, and then we go to the store.

 

[velochic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skybluepink02 My mom used to have us keep our allowance in our teapot. She had a huge collection of teapots and we each chose our own for our allowance. We had a production where she would give us our money and help us count out half of it for the bank. The other half went into our teapots for our "funmoney". She gave me my teapot when I got married. I hope to do something similar with my family.

That is SO COOL!! I love the idea!

I'm like the OP... looking for a way to do allowance. Right now we empty all of our change into a jar every evening. Dd knows we do this to save money for her and that she will get it all when she graduates from high school (of course, she has no clue what "graduate" means, yet

). I need to figure out a way to get her to save money HERSELF. Right now she sees that we are saving FOR her, so I'm not sure how she would react to having her put a portion of her allowance aside. I'm reading a good book right now called "Financially Intelligent Parents" which talks about how to relate money matters to your children.

 

[LynnS6]

Our son has 3 jars -- one for saving, one for giving, one for spending. He has to put a portion of money into each jar each week (he gets $1 - so 50c for savings, 25c for giving, 25c for spending). If he gets money for Christmas or birthdays, the same proportions will hold. He's 5, and we'll raise his allowance by $1 a year (his idea!).

"Savings" means that it's something larger or long term that he wants (right now he's coveting a $30 garbage truck, which I refuse to buy because he already owns 3 toy garbage trucks!), or put it in the bank. "Spending" means he has complete control over when it's spent (candy, balloons, etc.) He's only ever bought 1 candy bar. Mostly, he just looks at it. He's finally got enough in his "Giving" jar (about $3) to do something with it, so we're going to talk this week about what to do -- does he want to buy school supplies for kids who don't have any? Does he want to give it to the class at school that's collecting to send money to the WWF to save the Black Rhino? Is there another idea he has?

 

[hellyaellen]

we're not doing an allowence right now due to not havingthe dough to spare but when we were i just handed it over to dd. i did get her to keep it in her wallet though. whateever went in savings went in her piggy bank. she really enjoyed putting $ in her piggy bank. she was/is a good little saver too. at 4 she got 4$ a week w/ 1.50 going into savings. at 5 she got 5$ w/ 2 going into savings.

i let her dip into her savings when it reached enough to buy whatever she was saving for w/out totally depleting it

 

[katiecat]

Thank you everyone. This is great! It's giving me some ideas. The teapot is such a lovely idea!

He does have a train bank that his aunt made him so that is where savings can go. And maybe we will get him a wallet. He will think that is very cool.

Please post if anyone has anymore ideas.

 

[Lisa Lubner]

What about a children's bank account? I know the bank in the last town I lived in had a kid's savings program... My kids LOVE going to the bank and talking to the tellers, so I was thinking of doing something like that with them.

I love the teapot idea.

 

[faythe]

The girls have piggy banks (actually, castle banks, what else would a princess have

).

We have been talking about starting an allowance for the last few months, but are stalled out on it. The plan is savings will go in the piggy bank and their money will go into their wallets. Our savings are through an on-line bank, so once they can read I will open them their own child accounts and let them watch their money grow there.

 

[appifanie]

lynn, i like that idea! i'm going to share w/ DH for DSS

 

[flyingspaghettimama]

My daughter also has a piggy bank, and a small pocket-change purse we got at an international market. We give her a dollar per week, no matter what (not tied to anything). She has put most of it into the bank so far - and we will also take her there to put money in or take it out. She's spent a few dollars here and there, and sometimes borrows money from us and pays us back if it's something she really, really wants.

 

[sunshinesmommy]

My DD was doing some "chores" regularly for a while when we decided to ask for the important ones to be done daily and she gets $1.00 per week. she makes her own bed has to dress herself and fold her pjs on her bed and put her dish in the sink after meals. if she really helps out around the house we will give her some extra change. she keeps it all in a jar and is saving for a trampoline.(her idea)

 

[*Lisa*]

We started by giving DD the cash for her allowance, but it didn't work out very well. She's always want to buy something/do something with the money when it wasn't on hand (because it was in her piggy bank), and then we'd have to sort out what money of hers was spent. We started doing a bank of mom... I have a small notebook that I carry with me, and we record her money in there. We add her allowance in every week, and she can make "withdrawals" any time she wants (assuming the money is in the "account"). I just write down what she purchased and the amount. This also gives us a record of what she's done with her money, so we can talk about the choices she's made. She can think about which decisions were good ones, and which choices she might make differently next time.

 

[angela&avery]

My kiddos get 2 or more dollers from my Dad on Saturdays as we go to see them every saturday. The kids put that money in their piggy banks.(I add money here and there and sometimes the kids find change or take mine and put that in their banks too). When they have saved enough money we go to the bank and buy them savings bonds. Usually I wait until they have enough that there is 10 - 20 dollers left over for them to spend. The kids have quite a few savings bonds at this point!! As a family we have a change jar too, and I usually just put that money towards the kids accounts.

eta: the kids also have savings accounts with money in there. Im thinking of buying bonds with that money too.

 

[katiecat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisa_and_Sarah We started by giving DD the cash for her allowance, but it didn't work out very well. She's always want to buy something/do something with the money when it wasn't on hand (because it was in her piggy bank), and then we'd have to sort out what money of hers was spent. We started doing a bank of mom... I have a small notebook that I carry with me, and we record her money in there. We add her allowance in every week, and she can make "withdrawals" any time she wants (assuming the money is in the "account"). I just write down what she purchased and the amount. This also gives us a record of what she's done with her money, so we can talk about the choices she's made. She can think about which decisions were good ones, and which choices she might make differently next time.

This is a good idea. It's one of the reasons that I ask how people handle it because I can see ds wanting to buy something when we don't have his money on hand. I can't see him carrying a wallet everywhere and, realistically, he is out with dh much more than me as dh is a sahd so I also can't see dh carrying around two wallets or keeping ds's money separate. Thanks!