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[appaws]

I was thinking about this while reading the thread about chores. For me at least, completion of a chore list each week made by my mom was a condition of me getting my "allowance." Basically, if you don't know, it was knock around money provided by your parents.

Dad= "But those dishes better be done and that lawn looking sharp or you won't get your allowance!"

For me, completing those chores to Mom and Dad's standards was the only way to get money in my pre-16yo stage. I think when I was young it was a buck or two that immediately went into candy like Alexander the Grapes.....maybe 5 bucks in later grade school. High school they bumped it up to 50 a week which seemed amazing....but I had to pay my own bus fares and lunches at school.

So did you get an allowance? Was it tied to doing work around the house? How much? Is this a common thing everywhere, or a US thing...?

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

I did daily/weekly chores but did not get a weekly allowance of cash. I did, however, get money from my parents no questions asked whenever I wanted to go to a movie or do something with my friends or whatever.

So it balanced out.

 

[JaggedSac]

No. I also did not get money for doing chores.

 

[BocoDragon]

I think I got $20 a week if I did my chores.

Got, that would barely buy me a bottle of rum and a gram of weed these days... how did I survive??

 

[bennywhatever]

I got $6 every other week until high school, in which I got $20/week, which included lunch money. Got a job the summer between sophomore and junior year, and paid for everything after that outside of rent and insurance untilife college.

Had to earn it though. Parents have 5 acres and I had to mow 2 + trimming, plus various household chores.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Nah, we were dirt poor so that never really happened. I did get cash for good grades on my report card at least. Something like 10 bucks for every A and 5 bucks for every B.

 

[Indelible]

I got ten bucks a week, just enough to rent a game and see a movie at the theater.

 

[-GJ-]

I got €0,50 (first it was 1 Gulden) a week when I was a kid. I could buy 1 pack of Pokémon cards if I saved it all for two months.

 

[Ray Wonder]

At one point there was a calender on the fridge, with little tabs of paper that had $ amounts on each one and a task needed to complete to earn the money.

ex.

Fold Laundry - $0.25

 

[MilkyJoe]

Nope

 

[wenis]

Lol no

Too poor.

 

[maquiladora]

lol no

 

[entremet]

Yes. 5 bucks per week! 80s kids, btw. I was rich, biatch! It stopped at 14, when I started getting part time jobs.

Jk. We were lower middle class.

But that was everything, nothing more. Parents were generous. I would buy comic books, Mad Magazine, trading cards, and candy.

My younger brother actually saved up his funds. Very impressive.

 

[FuuRe]

Zero

My parents gave me money only when needed.

Chrono Trigger for the SNES was not considered as a necessity.

 

[Boem]

Never got an allowance. They just told me (and my brothers/sister) to get a job.

 

[old]

No. I had to get a job 14 to afford my own lunches at school.

 

[Seesaw15]

Nope. But I did get random amounts of cash after my parents gambled.

 

[RumblingRosco]

From ages 4 through 15 I was given $0.75 weekly for every year old I was, rounded to the nearest dollar. My parents made me figure out the math even as a little kid. when I turned 16 they stopped giving me an allowance and I started working at a grocery store 2 weeks after turning 16. I also did a reasonable amount of chores as a kid including mowing the roughly ~1 acre yard with a gas push mower, helping walk our dogs, cleaning the cat's litter box, water plants they had in a back sunroom, watering the garden/flowers, and some house cleaning.

 

[Usobuko]

Yes, I get allowance all the way till 20.

And my allowance is usually 2x my peers.

 

[eXistor]

I did, my brother and I used to pool them together to buy videogames. But if my dad happened to be in the shop with us, he'd usually buy the game for us.

 

[woolley]

No.

"Why would I give you money for shit that your supposed to be doing anyway."

Is the argument that I got when I asked about an allowance.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Nope, I did get some money irregularly though if I asked to go see a film or something.

 

[faridmon]

No

but i did get gifts here and there throughout the year from my parents, especially after achievements (School, Clubs, etc)

 

[Jzero]

I grew up poor, so hell no haha.

 

[appaws]

No.

"Why would I give you money for shit that your supposed to be doing anyway."

Is the argument that I got when I asked about an allowance.

I tried the reverse argument to that on my parents once. I was like "I don't really need any money this week, so I am not going to do my chores."

The explained that the chores were not optional, so I may as well take the money and save it.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

I did not.

If I wanted something, rarely my parents would give me money for it but generally if I wanted something, I would have to buy it with my own saved money.

Mainly, I got money from Christmas/Birthday/Communion/Confirmation gifts. Generally relatives would give €20 for Christmas and birthdays (until I was about 17 or 18 after which point that stopped and it was through working). For my communion and confirmation (when I was quite young) that would be generally €50 each. I basically saved almost all of my money, and rarely spent it. In particular, for my Communion and Confirmation I saved a great deal. I don't buy many games, and try to be savvy purchasing things, so I was able to live off gifts and still save considerably as a child without needing any additional income.

 

[random25]

I only got money for paying fares as a kid. I only started getting allowance during my senior high school days when I no longer got packed lunch.

 

[UrbanRats]

No.
If me or my brothers wanted something, we would talk it out with my mother, see if it was possible etc.
She was usually pretty good at explaining why we could or couldnt, and i dont remember us bitching about it too much, either.
We were aware of our financial situation anyway.

 

[vern]

Got 5 bucks per week for chores like dishwashing and vacuuming until I was around 12. That's when I was old enough to operate machinery apparently as that's when I started mowing the lawn and edging it (that thing was so fucking dangerous can't believe I was allowed to use it). When I started doing the lawn I was bumped up to 10$ per week, also I started mowing my neighbors lawns and my uncle too, so my early teens I was bringing in 40$ per week and wasting it all on N64 and PS1 games. At 15 started working fast food and also did the grass and other chores so kept the 10$ per week in addition to my sweet $5.15 per hour salary flipping burgers. I thought I was rich.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

None. I once got paid 5 bucks from a friends uncle after spending all day picking up all the manure on his farm, and I thought that was awesome as hell.

 

[Fliesen]

yes. But i can't remember how much.

Maybe it was 200 Schilling a month? (before the Euro), so ... around ... $ 20 adjusted for inflation and exchange rate.

It certainly increased as i grew older, no idea where it was before i started making my own money.

 

[Jake.]

Lol no

Too poor.

this, i also had to miss out on some social stuff (movies etc) as my parents couldn't afford it. thankfully their financial situation improved when i was about 14.

 

[RoadHazard]

Yeah, a few hundred SEK/month I believe. Guess it started out lower and increased as I got older, don't remember the exact amounts.

 

[kahboomkin]

For a while I was getting $5 a week for basic chores but that stopped sometime in middle school.
Then I started getting $20 a week for lunch in high school. Which of course means I pocketed most of it and bought video games. Who needs terrible school lunches anyway

 

[thestopsign]

If I did all my chores, I got the money we got from recycling bottles that week ($0.05 for normal cans and bottles and if I was lucky $0.15 for wine). It'd normally net me up to $2 a week. I'd actively search the neighborhood for ones on the side of the road when walking the dog to add to my allowance.

Other than that if we had a bigger yard work or snow shoveling thing my dad would give me a lump sum like $10-$20 to complete.

 

[True Savior]

No. Money they gave me was for food.

 

[Gravy Boat]

I didn't get an allowance, but I also had a job when I was 14 so I was making my own money from a pretty young age.

 

[MisterR]

I got 5 bucks a week.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

I did, as did my siblings.

My Dad implemented a pretty incremental system when we were growing up. Think it started at like, £1 a week, and then it got bumped up each year as we got older. Eventually by A-Levels (16-18 years old) it became £20 a month which he paid direct into my bank account. Now it's £250 a month while I'm studying at Uni, my brother having gotten a similar bump when he went, and my sister having gotten such starting this year. Expectation and hope is that it will become unnecessary if/when I get a job.

My family is solidly middle class, so I realise that sort of thing is a sign of relative privilege.

 

[Pankratous]

I think I got £3 a week up until the age of 12.

My older brother got £5 a week "because he was older" but then when they stopped giving him money, they stopped giving me money too. I was short-changed as fuuuuuuuuuck.

After the age of 12 I got £2 a day for lunch at school. I could either spend it on food, or don't eat and save up.

 

[trixx]

I did daily/weekly chores but did not get a weekly allowance of cash. I did, however, get money from my parents no questions asked whenever I wanted to go to a movie or do something with my friends or whatever.

So it balanced out.

Yeah same with me but I never asked really.

 

[HardRojo]

Yeah I did, but only from my parents. Some friends received money from their aunts and uncles, grandpas and even their godparents. They were the "rich kids" in school lol.

 

[sixteen-bit]

intermittently

 

[GKSilKamina]

I got $5 a week as a kid.

Spent most of it on Lion King toys.

 

[MrS]

£20 a month

 

[Epsilon-delta]

I grew up poor, so no.

 

[Pagusas]

yes, $20 a week as a kid. Was extremely good at saving it. Bought my first car with money I had been saving sense I was 7 years old.

 

[Glass Shark]

No, but there was hardly ever a time when I didn't get something if I asked for it. I was really spoiled and I honestly think it hurt me in the long run.

 

[Sapiens]

No - but I did deliver papers from the age of 8 or 9. That job doesn't exist anymore, but I never made any money of my deadbeat delivery route. Fucking morons never wanted to pay for their paper when I did my rounds. No one taught me to be aggressive with these poverty drug addicts. Even when you're a kid, people want to screw you over.

I always wanted stuff and looking back, I could have purchased most of the stuff I wanted with a pretty basic salary of 5-10 bucks per week (and saving that money to hit bigger goals). If my kid wants something expensive, it would be an amazing opportunity to say, "Yes, and I'll help you earn it." Instead, as a kid, I would just waste time wishing I had something by looking at pictures over and over again in magazines.

My kids are going to have light responsibilities from a young age (bed made every morning, toys put away each night, feed the cats, etc) and will be paid weekly to teach them that if you work hard you get money. And if you want something bigger, save your money and get that sweet payoff. Simple as that. Not work hard and get no money. And garbage goes in the garbage can.

 

[Applesauce]

5 bucks a week either spent on baseball cards or saved up for SNES games