Did You Get An Allowance?

[Flivver]

When I was in high school in the late 60s I received an allowance of $2 per week. I seem to recall that most of my friends received $5 per week...a ridiculous amount to my depression era parents.

I supplemented this "income" by shoveling snow, mowing lawns and waxing cars. I also earned $1/hour washing windows at my high school.

I spent this vast weekly sum on old magazines, old radios, 78 rpm records and car models.

 

[Cacklewack]

I received $5 a week to mow the lawn.

Matt

 

[Jovan]

When I was in high school in the late 60s I received an allowance of $2 per week. I seem to recall that most of my friends received $5 per week...a ridiculous amount to my depression era parents.

I supplemented this "income" by shoveling snow, mowing lawns and waxing cars. I also earned $1/hour washing windows at my high school.

I spent this vast weekly sum on old magazines, old radios, 78 rpm records and car models.

About how much would that be equivalent to now? 10x that amount?

 

[Lincsong]

I used to cut the man across the street's lawn and do other yard work. He would pay me in crisp, brand new, never touched $10 and $20 bills series; 1969, 1973. This was in 1986. He hoarded loads of cash in his house.

 

[Joie DeVive]

About how much would that be equivalent to now? 10x that amount?

I was taught that a rough rule of thumb for inflation is to double the figure in question for every decade.

So, $2 in 1967 would be roughly $32 today!!

It holds true better for some figures/prices than for others..

 

[oswulf]

When I became a teenager, from my 13th birthday, I got a bigger allowance of about 100 dollars pr. month. (Very difficult translate money from one country to another and from one decade to another.) I thought it was a lot, but then it had to cover about everything except for food and roof over my head: I had to buy school supplies, clothing, shampoo, cinema tickets, and everything else a teenager needs.

That was the system my parents used on all us four kids. We had to do chores around the house, but never got paid for them. We just thought of that as everybody having to do their part in a family.

I think it worked well, and taught us how to handle money, and the value of it. It also taught us how to negotiate: I remember my sister and me negotiating and winning a small raise to the monthly sum to cover feminine hygiene products- so we got a little bit more money than the boys. Hey, it's only fair!

I think that's actually a hell of an idea. I may steal it for my girls. They just don't get money yet (they are only 5 and 11 now), but this might just be the thing to teach them that money comes in finite amounts. As it is they think Dad's an unending fount of cash.

 

[carebear]

My sister and I did age-appropriate household chores as we grew up and got all our needs provided for, but for spending money, once we hit the double digits, we had to work for other people if possible. (not that we couldn't get a little cash from the 'rents if needed, they weren't miserly)

She babysat and such things while I did manly yard-type chores, mowing, shoveling snow, weeding, cleaning garages.

My dad would also pimp me out to help with inventory and such things at his and his friend's businesses when I got a bit older. A common conversation when he got home from work when I was in my early teens was,

"Guess what you did today."

"Ummm, volunteered for a job?"

"Yep, you're (insert task, usually involving dust and climbing) on Saturday and Sunday."

I love my dad. I ended up getting a regular job at 16 just so I'd be in control of my own schedule. :eusa_doh:

Though I still got volunteered for stuff, my dad's opinion was that he didn't have children to be doing such work by himself.

 

[Flivver]

I was taught that a rough rule of thumb for inflation is to double the figure in question for every decade.

So, $2 in 1967 would be roughly $32 today!!

It holds true better for some figures/prices than for others..

Gee, I was better off than I thought! Given that I was buying 78s back then for between a nickel and a dime apiece, that $2 really did go pretty far.

 

[Helen Troy]

I think that's actually a hell of an idea. I may steal it for my girls. They just don't get money yet (they are only 5 and 11 now), but this might just be the thing to teach them that money comes in finite amounts. As it is they think Dad's an unending fount of cash.

Go ahead! It worked for us!

 

[Pilotguy299]

$5 a week

In high school I used to get $5 a week to supplement what I got from working part time. 25 years later my wife allows me the same amount

 

[Rosie]

I was a rather spoiled child. I didn't receive an allowance per se, I just asked for money and got it. I didn't really have to do anything in particular for the money, my parents, and brother just gave it to me. [huh] Being the greedy kid I was, I would very often ask my dad, mom and brother for money before going out.

A friend of mine has a 12 year old step-son, she and her husband give him an allowance of about $15 a week, he can add to that amount by doing extra chores (not the ones assigned to him) during the week.

When I have children, I probably won't give them an allowance. I think my parents did an okay job with me.

I got my first job at 18 and I took it more ror experience than for acutal money. I got my first "on my own" job at 21.

 

[hotrod_elf]

Reminds me of when I was a kid; "Dad I want this" to which my Dad would give it the once over and say; "You don't need that". lol

My dad was very pron to saying that when I was in high school. Then it turned to "What are your needs? and What are your wants?" How much money do have? This was in college.

I did not have an allowence, however when my parents split (i was 15) my dad gave me $20 a week. That was lunch, clothes he did not approve of, and fun money. My mom was suppose to send $100 a week for child support, but it was never enforced. When I turn 16 a got a paying job and have been working since then. I found that fine line of balancing paying for education and making enough money to live on. I had atleast 2-3 jobs from sophmore in high school all the way through college.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I got 5 dollars every time I mowed the lawn. You'd think I would have tried mowing the lawn more often ... instead I probably made about 5 bucks a month.

Besides that, my parents had a very strict rule. Never ever buy your kids anything.

 

[scotrace]

I got lunch money, and a little here and there for chores like lawn mowing. I was a lazy kid.

My own daughters get the same - lunch money and a little pin money now and then. But the rule is:

When they get money, either through gift or earning, 50% goes to long term savings (college), 25% goes to short term saving (iPod, etc.) and the remainder they can blow on any thing they please.

My oldest caught on fast. She gives it all to me to bank for long-term savings.
I'll help all I can, and will try to keep them out of the workforce as long as possible. When they were born, we decided that they would have the best, longest childhood we could give them until they came of age. School comes first at this point. Sure, they can earn $25 in a few hours at McDonald's. but if their homework suffers, or they have to give up soccer to do it, it's a bad choice, I think. I'd rather give them the $25, see that the homework is done and they get to enjoy school activities. You only get to be a kid once. Having to go someplace all day to earn bread comes soon enough.

My parents taught me nothing at all about money or what to do with it, in fact, dad was a terribly harmful advisor. He encouraged me to buy a brand new car at 18. That stupid car owned my entire paycheck until I could finally sell it off and get a cheap used car, what I should have bought in the first place. I think it is critical to help children understand how to manage money.

 

[MissHuff]

When they get money, either through gift or earning, 50% goes to long term savings (college), 25% goes to short term saving (iPod, etc.) and the remainder they can blow on any thing they please.

I think that's a very smart deal to make about the gift money. My birthday is at the end of November so Christmas was always right around the corner. My parents always made me put away half of my birthday money into a savings account but the same deal never applied to Christmas so I always had this large sum of money at the end of the year that I would blow on pointless teenage stuff. Wish I had done better with saving. I still have issues with it even though I know what needs to be done.

 

[carebear]

We (my credit union) have these little cardboard banks we give away at trade shows and such. Three parallelograms that rubberband together into a "whatever a six sided figure is called".

One is marked Save, one is marked Spend and the third marked Share.

Get the kids in the habit of saving and also thinking of others. Personally I think it's socialist indoctrination, but I'm no more allowed political discussions at the trade shows than I am on here. lol

Seriously, I think it's a neat idea. And the kids like them.

 

[Lincsong]

Lunch Money??? What's that?

I got lunch money, and a little here and there for chores like lawn mowing. I was a lazy kid.

My own daughters get the same - lunch money and a little pin money now and then. But the rule is:

When they get money, either through gift or earning, 50% goes to long term savings (college), 25% goes to short term saving (iPod, etc.) and the remainder they can blow on any thing they please.

My oldest caught on fast. She gives it all to me to bank for long-term savings.
I'll help all I can, and will try to keep them out of the workforce as long as possible. When they were born, we decided that they would have the best, longest childhood we could give them until they came of age. School comes first at this point. Sure, they can earn $25 in a few hours at McDonald's. but if their homework suffers, or they have to give up soccer to do it, it's a bad choice, I think. I'd rather give them the $25, see that the homework is done and they get to enjoy school activities. You only get to be a kid once. Having to go someplace all day to earn bread comes soon enough.

My parents taught me nothing at all about money or what to do with it, in fact, dad was a terribly harmful advisor. He encouraged me to buy a brand new car at 18. That stupid car owned my entire paycheck until I could finally sell it off and get a cheap used car, what I should have bought in the first place. I think it is critical to help children understand how to manage money.

I think I'm the only guy here who took lunch to school???????[huh] I bought lunch once a week.

When I was 16 there was a '68 Caprice for sale up at the corner. It had 96,000 miles on it (this was 1985) and was in good shape except for a small tear on the corner of the drivers seat. The people were asking $975. I had a whopping $125 in the bank I had just turned 16 in April and got my license on my birthday. They put it up for sale at the end of May so when school got out I got my first job at Ole's Home Center picking up carts for $3.85 an hour. When I got my first paycheck, Dad said "let's go open you another bank account, here you drive and he handed me the keys to his truck". As we drove to the bank he told me; "I know you got this job to buy that car. Forget about it. You don't need a car right now, save your money and when you go to college you can get a car then" So I worked that summer, then quit to be on the Cross Country Team in the fall. Turned out, I went to college out of state and didn't get a car until I graduated from College.lol

 

[jamespowers]

I think I'm the only guy here who took lunch to school???????[huh] I bought lunch once a week.

When I was 16 there was a '68 Caprice for sale up at the corner. It had 96,000 miles on it (this was 1985) and was in good shape except for a small tear on the corner of the drivers seat. The people were asking $975. I had a whopping $125 in the bank I had just turned 16 in April and got my license on my birthday. They put it up for sale at the end of May so when school got out I got my first job at Ole's Home Center picking up carts for $3.85 an hour. When I got my first paycheck, Dad said "let's go open you another bank account, here you drive and he handed me the keys to his truck". As we drove to the bank he told me; "I know you got this job to buy that car. Forget about it. You don't need a car right now, save your money and when you go to college you can get a car then" So I worked that summer, then quit to be on the Cross Country Team in the fall. Turned out, I went to college out of state and didn't get a car until I graduated from College.lol

You didn't mention that you drove that truck to school and everywhere else most of the time though.

 

[Paisley]

I think I'm the only guy here who took lunch to school???????[huh]

I brown-bagged it. Still do most days.

 

[Lincsong]

You didn't mention that you drove that truck to school and everywhere else most of the time though.

That was the only car he'd let me drive.:eusa_doh: