Name: ICHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-07T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Bourbonnais, IL

Tagged: allowance, chores

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by Katrina in AK.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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September 6, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Katrina in AK
Participant
What have you used to teach about money management to younger kids? My boys are 4 and 6.
September 7, 2012 at 10:56 am
Lesley Letson
Participant
My boys are 7, 5 and 5 – so we are right there with you 🙂 I don’t know about yours, but mine still don’t have a good concept of the value of money, even the 7yo who is pretty advanced in his math skills. They get birthday money from the granparents and really don’t value $20 over $3. We have the Dave Ramsey kids products. I have not used the “curriculum” with them yet, but I do like the storybooks and I think reading those is in the vein of a CM approach. One thing we “do” is that our boys get “chips” (bingo chips) for their chores and they can “spend” them for watching a show or playing iPad games. They have to save these up to have enough to “buy” thier tickets (we put a value to the chips – 15 minutes). So even though this is not real money, it is the same principle.
September 7, 2012 at 11:48 am
meagan
Participant
We use real money 🙂 My kids are older (12 and 13), but we’ve been using money with them sine they were little.

We use an envelope system – they have an envelope for giving (tithe – 10 percent); saving (20 %) and spending (whatever is left over). This has worked tremendously for them because we do not buy our kids toys and things for the most part in between holidays. They get gifts at Christmas and their birthdays, and they get some small things at Easter. Other than that, if they want it, they buy it. Every once in a while we have the boys start to save for something big they really want – and make an extra envelope for it. They have to make choices about where their money goes.
As they’ve gotten older, we’ve increased the amount of money that the kids get and they’ve become responsible for more things. For example, we go to the beach every summer, and we go to another big event each year. Normally, we would give them money for that. We raised their allowance and made them responsible for setting aside that money. We pay for our oldest’s cell phone bill, and we are soon going to start adding what we pay into his allowance and make him responsible for paying it. If he doesn’t alot his money properly, he looses his cell phone until he can pay for it.

I do think that even at young ages that using money can work. If nothing else, our kids are in the habit of tithing and saving.
September 7, 2012 at 1:06 pm
missceegee
Participant
We paid allowance for a couple of years and the kids used a piggy bank with 4 compartments (giving, saving, investing, spending) that I found online. Each kid received 50 cents per year of age per week. Dd11 got $5.50 and ds8 $4. We just gave dd5 $1. Each week (actually each month at our house) when paid, the kids would put a % into each compartment. It worked very well to teach them to manage money. They had to buy items they wanted – drinks at a restaurant, candy, toys, etc. the savings was for their short term wants like a bigger toy, etc.
Now that they’ve gotten the concept of money and how to manage it fairly well, we are switching to a hybrid system of chores. All chores are expected, but we’re willing to pay for some. To earn the $ for the paid chores of the day, the unpaid ones must be complete, too. They have the opportunity to earn several dollars per week. For our older two kids, we’re paying 50 cents per chore and $2 per room cleaned top to bottom. The 5 yo earns 25 cents per chore and th 2 yo is just learning. We may tweak the system and adjust the payment amounts, but it’s a good start to a new phase of the system for us.
Christie
September 9, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Katrina in AK
Participant
Thanks so much, ladies.
We are instituting a sort of commission system. Certain expected chores are to be done, with a good attitude. At the end of the week, they will be paid with real money (ds4, 50 cents, ds6, 1.50), with two categories of give and save/spend. I want to also come up with a list of extra chores they can do for pay.
I have wondered about the Dave Ramsey kid books, and may pick them up when another sale comes around. Thanks, mjemom.
We are planning on building a tree house with the boys, and having them sell some toys and books to start a savings fund, AKA a jar with a picture of a tree house on it. Random pocket and found change will also go into the jar, to provide some “growth” to the account.