Random poll on allowance

btaylor19 · August 2011

My coworker just informed me that growing up she would get $10 a week for allowance, with bonus money if she did chores. My parents on the other hand, gave me $1 a week and I had to clean half the house to earn it.

What did your parents give you?

NovOwl · August 2011

We never got allowance, chores were expected to be done without pay. Stick out tongue

ricecakes1216 · August 2011

Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

newlywedfarmgirl · August 2011

CDoll84:
We never got allowance, chores were expected to be done without pay.

Same here! And I'll expect the same from my kids too!

megemoney · August 2011

I honestly do not remember. I don't think it was a set amount though. I think it was based on which chores I completed and how well I completed them.

happilyeverafterxo · August 2011

We never got an allowance. We just had the chores

mamalongarms · August 2011

CDoll84:
We never got allowance, chores were expected to be done without pay.

This.

Although when I turned 12 my mom let me take a couple "clients" to teach swim lessons to in our backyard pool. I was able to keep half of what they paid my mom.

imimahoney · August 2011

I never got an allowance. I was expected to clean my room and do the dishes (ughhhhh I wished we had a dishwasher!).

As I grew up I would babysit and keep any cash that I earned. If I needed extra money for things, I would ask. My father was pretty strict with money but once and awhile he would be in a good mood and slip me 20 bucks.

KLN1179 · August 2011

ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

This exactly!

BearWombat · August 2011

We got paid for doing chores. Some chores paid more than others. Mowing the lawn paid the most, so I did that every week. $20 for the whole lawn, and it was a big lawn. Some weeks, that was all I would do, and other weeks, I would do other chores, too. I also got a daily lunch allowance of $5 in high school, and we had open campus lunches, so I saved a lot of money that way, too. You can get a lot for under $5. I also didn't have to pay for my own gas, so that was pretty awesome. I was pretty spoiled.

baker916 · August 2011

I think my brother and I got $10 a week for doing chores.

For our kids, I think we will do an allowance (no clue what the amount will be), but not tied to chores. Doing chores is just being part of the family and working together.

mlynb · August 2011

By the time I hit middle school it was $5 a week. I think the luxury disappeared in high school when I turned into a "real"(aka b*tch) teenager.

Nikko Blue · August 2011

ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

This.

cbbsn2008 · August 2011

KLN1179:

ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

This exactly!

same here! my "allowance" was being able to play outside and with friends after I did my chores (making my bed, cleaning up my room -- chores/responsiblities increased with age... and haven't stopped! haha!)

dalandrea · August 2011

cbbsn2008:
KLN1179:

ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

This exactly!

same here! my "allowance" was being able to play outside and with friends after I did my chores (making my bed, cleaning up my room -- chores/responsiblities increased with age... and haven't stopped! haha!)

Yup, never had an allowance, and definitely did a lot of chores. Every once in a while my mom would give me money for doing things, but it was by no means a weekly occurance.

jess9802 · August 2011

I didn't really get an allowance. In middle school I did get $1/day to do the dishes after dinner.

DH and I give his son a $10/week allowance and he has a chore list that he has to do. DH will take money back for any chore that SS doesn't do.

eikome · August 2011

Another no-allowance kid here. Chores were just a part of life.

I remember asking for an allowance once, and my mom said sure, but I'd have to start paying for room and board and amenities etc. She even rattled off costs. I never brought it up again.

MrsBlindLove · August 2011

Nikko Blue:
ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.
This.

Same. I didn't get any money for report cards either and I was also jealous of my friends that did. Good grades and chores were expected.

tennisanddance · August 2011

CDoll84:
We never got allowance, chores were expected to be done without pay.

Same here.

ILoveHelloKitty1982 · August 2011

$10??? sheesh!! we got 10 cents a chore and a few of the hard ones were 25 cents like cleaning the entire bathroom. We were lucky to get $1!!

Oceanbabe2012 · August 2011

5 dollars a week

orangedaisy85 · August 2011

Haha what's allowance? I vaguely remember them saying they were going to start the allowance thing, and it'd last a couple weeks and that was it lol.

Shayliz · August 2011

I never got allowance. Although, if my mom lost something she really needed - she would offer a finder's fee.

TerraCotta210 · August 2011

$10 without having to do chores?????? WOAH!

Growing up we got $3 per week IF we satisfactorily completed ALL of our chores...and there were many. If we failed to do our chores we didn't get the $ AND got privileges taken away.

jp0129 · August 2011

We never got paid for chores. We did paid for grades. $1 per A and .50 cents for a B on our report card.

mcromer · August 2011

I just had to do chores - but I got money whenever I asked for/needed it.

ChloBub · August 2011

We didn't have an allowance; we had to do chores without getting paid. However, there were certain special jobs that we got paid for: pulling weeds, grading papers, cleaning baseboards, etc. We didn't have these assigned to us daily/weekly, but we could do them if we wanted the money.

lycih · August 2011

We never got an allowance.
And we had a chores list that was printed out landscape format with the days of the week across the top and the chores listed on the side. We sat after Sunday dinner and passed it around the table, from kid to kid, filling in one box at a time until the whole thing was full. We used to joke that my parents had 6 kids so they wouldn't have to do any household chores. Seeing their house after everyone moved out, I'm not so sure we were wrong... Stick out tongue

byrne15 · August 2011

At 1st we did it for free...

once we were older, we would get $1 per choice. (empty garbages, clean all the glass, dust, vacumm, etc). I would get about $3-$4/week since my sister and I split the chores.

Then, when I was even older I got to mow the lawn....my dad paid me $5 for the entire lawn. When I left for college, my sister refused to do it. My dad offered her $20 for the same job I was just doing for $5!!!!!!!! I should've asked for a raise!

JHunt28 · August 2011

My brother and I never had to do chores. We would get $20 a week for being good though.

closure17 · August 2011

No allowance for me. I didn't really expect it either.

RedSoxGal23 · August 2011

We got allowance weekly but only if we did what we were supposed to. We had to keep our rooms clean & complete our weekly assigned chore. We also had to keep our grades up to get our allowance too. We got $15 a week.

I don't think we will give our kids allowance just for doing what they should do, but maybe if they do extra stuff there will be an added incentive.

Pablaida · August 2011

I didn't have a set allowance, but I always seemed to have cash, so I guess that my dad gave me something every once in a while. As far as chores went, we never had any, because mother had a hard childhood and swore that we would be able to enjoy our youth.

Jetta83306 · August 2011

Never got allowance

Mrs.Slick · August 2011

They gave me a roof over my head. I was not rewarded for expected behavior (chores and good grades) but that being said, if I needed $20 to go to the movies with friends then I got it. I didn't overuse the privilege of asking and receiving money so it always worked out for me.

gberg1331 · August 2011

NovOwl:
We never got allowance, chores were expected to be done without pay.

This. My parents did generally give us money (within reason) whenever we asked for it for something special, like to go to the movies, the mall, etc. I preferred this system, it instilled in my family that chores and work were expected. And we probably made out better in the long run!

mamaloaf · August 2011

I think I got 20 a month but I had to work for it

SchruteBucks · August 2011

ricecakes1216:
Free room and board. I didn't get an allowance. We had to do chores and not ask questions or ask for anything in return. I remember being so jealous of my friends that got allowance.

This. I babysat to make money and got a job as soon as I was old enough.

My kids do chores as contributing members of the family. There are things, however, that they can earn "commissions" for which are above and beyond their expected responsibilities.

PurpleSnapDragons · August 2011

We got $0.25/wk* years old so at 8 you got $2/week, etc. You were expected to do regular chores. When my sister and I were in junior high we got contracts were we earned money for various less desirable chores (mopping, bathrooms, mowing) but if you didn't do all the chores for the week you got $0. So it was closer to $10/week but then we only got a small amount of money for back to school and any extras we had to use our allowance to buy.

eatdrinkstretch · August 2011

A question for all of you who did not get an allowance - how did you get money for things (movies with friends, etc.)? I am guessing a lot of you will say you had a job, but what about earlier than most people have jobs (12, 13...). Did you parents give you money for specific activities?

I am just curious, because while I really agree with the whole "chores are part of being a family" thing, I also want to teach my kids to budget and save their own money, too, which I think is harder if they don't get an allowance.

FWIW, I got an allowance, but it wasn't that much and I had to satisfactorily complete a boatload of chores to get it. If I wanted to do anything (buy lunch, go to the movies, buy a new Lip Smackers), I had to use my own money. My parents never gave me money for activities or whatever. I also never got cash - I had to enter my allowance into a faking check book as a deposit and write my parents a check if I wanted cash. They wanted me to know how to use the banking system and balance a checkbook. I thought it was completely lame as a kid, but I think I will do this with my kids.... if people even still have checkbooks by then.

btaylor19 · August 2011

eatdrinkstretch:

A question for all of you who did not get an allowance - how did you get money for things (movies with friends, etc.)? I am guessing a lot of you will say you had a job, but what about earlier than most people have jobs (12, 13...). Did you parents give you money for specific activities?

I am just curious, because while I really agree with the whole "chores are part of being a family" thing, I also want to teach my kids to budget and save their own money, too, which I think is harder if they don't get an allowance.

FWIW, I got an allowance, but it wasn't that much and I had to satisfactorily complete a boatload of chores to get it. If I wanted to do anything (buy lunch, go to the movies, buy a new Lip Smackers), I had to use my own money. My parents never gave me money for activities or whatever. I also never got cash - I had to enter my allowance into a faking check book as a deposit and write my parents a check if I wanted cash. They wanted me to know how to use the banking system and balance a checkbook. I thought it was completely lame as a kid, but I think I will do this with my kids.... if people even still have checkbooks by then.

That was going to be my follow up question, but I got distracted. My parents gave me an allowance, but they also made me pay for things I wanted such as movies, new toys, makeup, etc. I would get new clothes once a year before school, the rest of the year was on me.

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