How Much Allowance Should You Pay Your Child?

First, should you pay an allowance?

I mean, isn’t it enough “payment” for your child to be fed and given a roof over their head?

OK, this isn’t just about making sure your child is fairly compensated for life in your home. It is about teaching kids to know what to do with money.

How much allowance should I pay my kids for chores? Boy making bed at home laughing - Kids Activities Blog — How much allowance is reasonable?

In my house, I really felt like it was an important lesson to make poor purchase decisions when the stakes are low. If a child bought a cheap toy that fell apart within minutes it is a lot less expensive lesson than later in life when that could be a car…or house!

How Much Allowance is Best to Pay Kids for Chores

Today I invited back an expert in this field to help us. This mom of 10 kids has spent years developing a realistic and doable chore system that the entire family will embrace.

Her name is Ashley Buffa and she runs the organization, Freedom Moms. If you missed our previous conversations on Kids and Chores, the 3 steps to getting kids to do chores and how chores teach kids responsibility, then check those out!

Watch Video about Kids and Allowances

Allowances Based On Age

Ashley explains in her house that her kids fall into one of three categories for allowance compensation:

a little
a middle
a teen

The jobs that are assigned are based on the age range and the allowance payment reflects the level of responsibility. So, a teen in Ashley’s house would make more than a little, but the responsibility level is much higher.

Allowances Are Not Automatic

In order to be eligible for your allowance payment, you have to check all of these boxes:

Do your chores.
Do them well.
Do them without being reminded.
Do them with a good attitude.

If all four things are in place, you get paid. If all four things are not in place, you still do your chores, but without payment.

How Often Should You Pay an Allowance?

Most families do a weekly payment of allowances. Ashley has gone to a monthly basis.

Daily it is noted with a checkmark…which brings us to a really important discussion:

Make Sure Your Allowance & Chore System is NOT Complicated

It is so easy to over-complicate this. You don’t need to laminate anything. You don’t need to cut it out. You don’t need to put stickers on anything.

This doesn’t have to be difficult!

Choose the best solution for YOUR home. For you!

For instance, one of the things that has worked really well for Ashley’s older kids is to give them a bonus if they do their chores for an entire month well, without reminding and with a good attitude.

In her house it decreased the complication of trying to keep track of things every day and also the kids tackle it more as a life skill.

Money well spent!

If you are tending toward over-complicating all of this, then you may be interested in…