Did you get an allowance as a kid?

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I think I got $5/week in the 80s. Didn't have to do chores really, but was expected to mow the lawn. Took forever to save for NES games.
 
I am not going to lie.....I was a spoiled rotten kid so when I moved out of mom and pops house I was official fucked because I didnt make shit from working at my job :(
 
i never had a steady allowance as a kid. id get a pay per job type thing. id get 10 bucks for mowing the lawn one week, 5 bucks for washing the car the next week and then do no work and get no money the week after. my number one motivation for having kids in the future is the cheap labor.
 
$10 a week for doing chores. I cleaned the house and mowed when it was just my dad and I. When I got older I would watch my younger sister during the summer so that they could save a shitload on day care, getting $30 for my troubles. Then my then step mom convinced my dad to up it to $20 when I was 16 or 17.
 
Nah, I didn't get an allowance.

In about 3rd grade, my parents started this thing where they gave me $1 for an A on every test. Little did they know what a test was. I started showing them my A's for everything, and the $1's rained down.
 
I got $2 a week from 8-11. Then I got $5 a week from 12-14. Then I got a job and haven't looked back since :\
 
No allowance. I passed papers for anymoney I had. I didn't know how much money my parents didn't make until I was out on my own. I always thought they were just cheap.
 
No allowance here, though my dad would occasionally give me $5-$10. Nothing on a steady weekly basis though.
 
[quote name='utopianmachine']Nah, I didn't get an allowance.

In about 3rd grade, my parents started this thing where they gave me $1 for an A on every test. Little did they know what a test was. I started showing them my A's for everything, and the $1's rained down.[/QUOTE]

lol
 
I forget how much I got, but it was something like $5 every two weeks. Anything I wanted, besides food and clothing, I had to pay for out of my allowance (or wait for birthday/Christmas presents). It was my parent's way of teaching me to have a budget.
 
In my sophomore year in high school, I got $20 a week for food. Most of the time I would spend $10-$15 on video games or CD's and the rest I would spend on really cheap food. Usually had a pastry and snapple for lunch, then ate a bunch as soon as I got home.

I got a job the summer after sophomore year, and never got allowance again.
 
My mom just gave me money whenever, and usually in fairly large amounts ($10-$15 out of nowhere). As a kid I was really good at saving up money. A lot of the games I owned I bought from the cash she gave me and accumulated over time.
 
From ages 10-15 I got $0.50/week and it went up $0.25/year so when I was 15 and allowance stopped I was getting around $2/week. I mowed the lawn every week and did other chores around the house (dishes, set the table for dinner, shoveled snow, etc.). Looking back it really wasn't a lot of money (equivalent to about $1 in today's money) but I think it taught me some responsibility which is probably part of the reason I'm in such good financial shape today.
 
$5 a week in elementary.
$10 in middle school.
$20 in high school.

Fair IMO, but it was still never enough. I've had a job since I was 16.

I plan to give my kids the same allotment.
 
I got twice my grade every two weeks. So in 7th grade I got $14 every two weeks, 8th grade I got $16 every two weeks, etc. No specific requirements, although I was already sort of helpful around the house and got good grades, so I think that was good enough.
 
No, on a rare occasion I talked my mother into buying me a video game if I did something like loaded the dishwasher for 2 months. God NBA Inside drive was not worth those 2 months.
 
Never had an allowance, but was an only child till the age of 15. My aunts and Uncles, cousins all spoiled me like crazy.

Even do we where from a lower/middle class family, I was a lucky kid.
 
[quote name='Brownjohn']In my sophomore year in high school, I got $20 a week for food. Most of the time I would spend $10-$15 on video games or CD's and the rest I would spend on really cheap food. Usually had a pastry and snapple for lunch, then ate a bunch as soon as I got home.

I got a job the summer after sophomore year, and never got allowance again.[/QUOTE]

Sounds kinda like what I did... except I would pack a lunch in the morning and take that. Use the money to buy whatever random shit I bought as a high schooler, and didn't get a job until senior year. Man I miss the lazy life... :/
 
I was lucky, and my dad spoiled the shit out of me. He gave me money when I wanted it, providing that he had any to give. Luckily though, my spoiled ways haven't followed me. I can't say the same about my sister though. I can totally see her not moving out until she's 30.
 
Heck no. I rarely got Christmas and birthday presents either. Got $20 a week for lunch my senior year, which is a whole $4 a day. Once I started working, my mom stopped giving me any money for food.
 
I think in elementary my dad gave me $20 a month, and then for middleschool + highschool he gave me $40 a month. And I never got anything for christmas and birthdays from either of my parents.....except a cake from my mom every year.
 
No official allowance, but it always sounded great. Shit, five dollars is a ton of money for a kid, like fifty dollars to me now. I pretty much just put candy I wanted in the cart and asked for anything else I wanted, never expecting much - my single mom raised five kids, so I knew money was tight. Luckily I was really into RPGs, and RPGs are great for replaying.
 
[quote name='celegus']Heck no. Birthday and Christmas, that was it.[/QUOTE]

This. I guess you could say I got a semi-annual allowance? And we're only talking $20 at the most...in total.
 
a couple bucks a week for doing chores, my parents also let me know when they had extra work and i would get paid extra. This was until like 5th grade then I would mow the lawn and get $5 on to of the few bucks I got a week.

In high school with lawn mowing it went up to $10 a week, but if I needed money for something like the movies sometimes I would get it. I also had a paper route from 6th grade until freshman year of highschool....nasty mornings netted me $120 a month and later $150 a month or so

Then I got a real job during high school and good bye paper route
 
I never got one.

I grew up on a farm so I did work as a kid because it was expected, not because I got paid to do it. It was just how it was, I didnt really think about it anyother way.
 
I don't remember a set allowance type thing, but my parents pretty much bought us whatever we wanted within reason. It's not like I was spoiled either since helping out with the cooking, cleaning, etc. was just part of everyday life.
 
No regular allowance and my family went through bankruptcy when I was 15 and we didn't have a home of our own for a while. That's part of the reason I am about saving money and not trying to start a family without a sound financial plan. I don't want to put anyone through what I went through.
 
I got 50 cents a week starting at age 8. It went up 25 cents a year. There were a few bumps at certain ages, but it maxed out at $5 when I was in high school.
 
$20 a week during high school, but I had to buy lunch if I wanted to eat. But I had to do some chores around the house, such as clean the cat litter daily and take out to the garbage weekly.

But I was making $100 a weekend working for my parent's business.
 
Nope. And I did chores and helped out around the house. Honestly, I was an odd kid and didn't expect money from my parents. I even paid for college completely on my own and didn't get money from them during that either. Relatedly, every year I give my parents either something worth ~1k to ~5k as a gift, or simply give them cash in that range. For example, this year Dad got a SLR camera, and my parents are going off on a eight day cruise.

My tendency to not ask my parents for money honestly seemed to bother my father now and then. Carribbean pride is a delicate and extremely nuanced thing, and he seemed to take it as an insult towards his earning power that I didn't feel the need to waste his money.

I also avoided buying a car until they forced me to buy one. (Used my own money on that.) This also bothered my father. :roll:

Every now and then my father would toss 20 dollars at me and COMMAND that I leave the house and find something to spend it on.

... Disturbingly, looking back at those times, I am thoroughly convinced that was my parents' way of getting me out of the house so they could... bang.

Anyway, having said all that, I think giving a child an allowance is normal, and I don't think my experience should be used as an excuse not to give a modern day kid an allowance. Learning to handle money, experiencing the bite and sting of a few poor purchasing decisions, finding happiness or the lack thereof in things you buy; that's part of good upbringing.
 
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[quote name='utopianmachine']Nah, I didn't get an allowance.

In about 3rd grade, my parents started this thing where they gave me $1 for an A on every test. Little did they know what a test was. I started showing them my A's for everything, and the $1's rained down.[/QUOTE]

My parents did the same thing. Giving rewards for high grades in school. We were studying for the money, but I guess every little thing helps. lol
 
My parents treated me right

Elementary School: $5
Junior High School: $10
High School $30

When i got to high school my parents stopped giving my two older sisters allowance and i got everything they would have gotten. My sisters were pissed and i Had alot of money in Highschool. My Parents Rocked!!!
 
I didn't. My parents were pretty nice about buying candy and toys on occasion though. They would also offer me money anytime I went out with friends.

We lived in a town house so many chores such as mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, and raking leaves, were taken care of by hired workers.
 
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