Did you / Do you receive a monetary allowance from your parents for spending money?

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Obviously you know your life better than I would, but I can't imagine anyone who's broke being able to afford to give a highschooler $40 a month. I wouldn't have considered my parents broke, but they definitely didn't have an extra $40 to just throw at a teenager every month. I didn't get any allowance, they bought me what I needed but I knew better than to ask for stuff I didn't need, like an Xbox or something.

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Suppafly@reddit

If your parents couldn't spare $10/week, they were broke. Mine were broke too, I know how it is. I didn't even realize how poor I was growing up until looking back at it later.

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Spooky_Tree@reddit

I'm 30, I know my parents financial situation and no I still wouldn't call them broke. $40 a month is a decent amount of money to throw away on a teenager.

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Bright_Ices@reddit

Wild that you’re getting downvoted. My parents did okay and I got $15/month allowance as a 15y/o. After that, I had to get a paying job for pocket money.

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Spooky_Tree@reddit

Thank you, I was confused waking up to that being negative. And for extra context, I lived somewhere where the kids didn't have anything to do except hang out or go on hikes or something.

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Unfair-External-7561@reddit

Well I am pretty sure I have never met anyone with a networth of 10s of millions, I meant like, people whose parents are doctors or something.

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Mixture_Boring@reddit

This. When I was a kid (1980s) I got $5 per week. That was enough to buy one to two paperback books and maybe a candy bar. $5 would also pay for a movie ticket + maybe a snack at the theater back then. If I wanted something more expensive, like an album on cassette tape, or a pair of earrings at Claire's, I would have to save up for a couple weeks.

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sanesociopath@reddit

"Allowance" is definitely a middle class thing with the occasional upper class that wanted their kid to learn some financial responsibility early.

But yeah, upper class they just kinda get the items and not the money to get said items and lower class there's rarely anything left to give the kid an allowance and we're doing what odd jobs around the neighborhood to earn some spending cash while making birthday/Christmas money last

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Unfair-External-7561@reddit

My parents were definitely living paycheck to paycheck and in a lot of debt/zero retirement savings but we never went hungry, so definitely not in actual poverty. But yeah, my friends whose parents had more money just got money to buy lunch or a new outfit if they wanted that, which was extremely foreign to me.

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trashlikeyourmom@reddit

I didn't have a scheduled allowance, I just got money whenever I asked for it. Honestly I kinda wish I had gotten an allowance instead bc I think it would have helped me learn about saving money/delayed gratification much earlier in life, instead of just getting anything I asked for when I asked for it. I realize this sounds extremely privileged and it absolutely was, but it was not without its downsides.

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Unfair-External-7561@reddit

I definitely think an allowance helps with money management. I had to scrimp and save if I wanted to see a movie or buy a cool shirt or whatever.

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Uhhyt231@reddit

When I was in like middle school or elementary I got $4 for doing my chores on the 1st and the 15th.

Later I got $20 if I was going to like the movies or the mall or something.

I got a debit card end of junior year with $50 a month on it for the rest of high school.

SO overall just janky and inconsistent

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AliMcGraw@reddit

I got to tell you man, paying allowances means I have to go to the physical bank to get physical cash, and it makes me a little janky and inconsistent. I don't use debit cards or ATM cards, and I basically haven't paid for anything with cash since I was like 20. Some weeks I know I'm out of $5 bills for allowances, but the week just gets away from me and I don't have time to go to the bank.

(My kids get $5 every other week, because $5 a week seems like a lot, but there ain't no way I'm keeping enough quarters and dollar bills around to pay $2.50 a week!)

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MrsNightskyre@reddit

I have 3 kids and we're committed to give them allowance every week. I have it scheduled in my calendar to go to the bank at the beginning of each month now, and I do the calculation for how many Mondays there are in the month (the day I aim to give allowance) to figure out how many $1s and $5s I need to get.

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Uhhyt231@reddit

I do think this is a thing to with the changes.

I would suggest just getting cashback places instead of the bank.

I also used to steal all my dad's change growing up for the train lol

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Grouchy_Factor@reddit (OP)

So not something regular you can count on, to teach you to save and accumulate it for a "major" (relatively speaking) planned purchase.

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Uhhyt231@reddit

Well kinda. If I did my chores I would get my money. I could keep any money I didnt spend when I was out and then by high school I had that $50, any outing money and any leftover lunch money.

I never had planned big purchases tho that I would spend my money on.

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todo0nada@reddit

This is pretty similar to my experience

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MrsNightskyre@reddit

I did. It wasn't a lot (when I was 17, my parents finally raised it from $5 to $17), but it was every week, and not tied to any specific chores or work.

My husband and I instituted the same idea with our own kids, but with more guardrails on it - they're required to split it into thirds - "spend", "save", and "give". It's always easily divisible by 3, but we increase the amount as they get older; and once they're teenagers, they are allowed to split it up how they choose (as long as SOME of it still goes towards saving & giving). They have opportunities every week to "give", and I take them to the bank every few months to deposit their savings.

—Vacuum all carpeted floors

—Dust all the cabinets and clean all mirrors

—Deep clean my own room

—Mow the lawn

And I was supposed to do them all once per week.

I lived in a LCOL area at the time, $35 biweekly went a very long way.

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BrainDad-208@reddit

I got a small allowance for doing chores. Like $0.50/week in the 60’s/early 70’s.

Not enough to finance my lifestyle!

Got a paper route as early as I could and started living the life.

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1d0n1kn0@reddit

Family was too poor. Then my parents got divorced and dad both didnt want to give mom child support and wanted to flex he has spare money, so me and my sister got cashapp and 20$/week.

Then he had all 4 of us completely on his own over spring break a few years ago, he now sends my mom gas (sometimes more, sometimes none) and sends us 40$/week.

Before you say were spoiled, or its alot. It goes to caring for the cat or getting house things. Getting allowance right when inflation was rising really sucks, thrift stores aren't cheap anymore so theres no point in going to them and the Chinese place in the mall triples their prices and barely put a scoop of meat.

He also doesn't have us over for more than like 3 maybe 4 days. Doesn't accuse my mom as often of lying about how expensive kids are, especially when 2 are special needs.

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MunchAClock@reddit

I did, $5 a week

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BradleyFerdBerfel@reddit

You got twice you age a week, in cents. Nine years old? 18 cents. And you busted your ass to get even that.

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Candriste@reddit

In high school I received a weekly/monthly amount of money meant to pay for lunch; it was an average cost of the lunch options so if I did my budgeting right I could eat anything. I was allowed to keep whatever money I didn’t spend.

I spent 4 years eating the cheapest lunch option so I would have spending money lol

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Adorable-Pudding-958@reddit

We did but it was like $5/week and we did our chores for it

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Legitimate_Error_550@reddit

No. To have to bother my parents for money would be shameful. The supported me through childhood and during my darker moments. I am an adult, and if I can't pay my own way, I should get a better/another job and reasses my spending.

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nevadapirate@reddit

If I did my chores like washing dishes and some yard work every week I got 5 bucks. My dad has embraced capitalism as long as I can remember... if you work you deserve some pay.

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minneyar@reddit

I did when growing up, even though I was in a very poor family, and that was also dependant on doing enough chores. My mom kept a list of chores that needed to be done on the refrigerator, and as long as they got done, my sister and I got paid our allowance, which was $20/month.

Remarkable_Table_279@reddit

I got a $1 a week it was an experiment in saving. If we had the dollar the next week we got another dollar. I didn’t last long.

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LtKavaleriya@reddit

Starting from around age 8 me and my brother got a small amount monthly, $1 per year of age. So at age 8, I got $8. This continued until I started mowing my Grandparents lawn about age 11 which I got $10 for, later bumped up to $20. I also mowed my parent’s lawn most of the time, which they occasionally gave $10-15 for, maybe once every 3 mows.

Doesn’t sound like a lot but during the late 2000s/early 2010s this was pretty sufficient to buy toys/etc. On the rare occasions I went somewhere without my parents in my tweens, they usually gave me money to pay for something specific (movie tickets, food, etc) and if I was with them they always paid for it themselves.

By 14 I was mowing 3-4 lawns for old people in the neighborhood and “raking in” $60-80 weekly. I thought that was a lot of money.

My parents were lower middle class at the time. We were never hungry or anything, but we lived on a single income. My mom stayed home to homeschool us and my dad made, I would guess, maybe the equivalent of around $50-60k a year in 2025 dollars, and they had a significant amount of debt. The area we lived in had a relatively cheap cost of living so that’s not as bad as it sounds, but I remember them sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out which bills they could skip that month all throughout the recession.

pisachas1@reddit

Everyone I knew as a kid had an allowance. Us poorer kids had an allowance tied to doing chores. I can’t speak for the rich kids. I got home from school a few hours before my parents got done with work. We had to keep the house relatively clean. Same with dishes. I got $5 a week. Was just enough to rent a game for a week.

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Mr_MacGrubber@reddit

I didn’t have a set allowance but some of my friends did.

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Rarewear_fan@reddit

Haha no, and it will be interesting to see the clear divide in comments between who grew up with parents with means and those who did not.

For me my dad made pretty good money (above average for the time) but did not believe in giving money just for doing chores....you're just supposed to help as a member of the household.

But when I really wanted a game or toy or whatever my mom would give me $5 per week for doing what I always do so over a month or two I would have enough to get it myself. Usually through that time I either stopped caring or I got it and didn't ask to keep getting paid because I got what I wanted and was happy with it for a while.

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anonymouse278@reddit

This is my take on it- you don't get money for chores because chores aren't a job, they're just part of being a functional person, and teaching my kids that taking care of our home and belongings aren't negotiable parts of life is my responsibility. I also don't want them to get the impression that they can get out of chores by voluntarily foregoing their allowance (which is absolutely something they would extrapolate from that arrangement).

Rarewear_fan@reddit

I agree. My dad is an immigrant from the middle east and grew up in a farming family with nothing after coming here. Classic American "by the bootstraps" stuff into success. My mom also grew up poor in rural VA but she believed it's ok to splurge once in a while lol

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meils121@reddit

Yeah, chores were definitely a "you are a member of this household and this is part of that". But I did get an allowance - half my age every week, starting when I was like 8. My dad also made a deal with me that he would match any money I put into savings up to a certain amount per year when I was a teenager, which was a very effective way of getting me to realize the importance of savings!

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Rarewear_fan@reddit

Now i actually like that idea! Definitely want to find a good way to educate my kids on all that in an easy to understand way

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meils121@reddit

Yeah, looking back at it as an adult I really appreciate him doing that. It taught me a lot about the value of money and really made me think about when I wanted to spend money vs. save it.

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_thalassashell_@reddit

I had to earn my allowance through chores. The rates were abysmal because my dad was paying similar to what he earned 30 years earlier. But the silver lining was that I learned very early how to save money. I wasn’t allowed to borrow or get advances, and only on very rare occasions did toys go to parent-closet-layaway. So I got in the habit of cashflowing all recreational purchases, and as an adult don’t really use credit cards or loans.

So I guess it worked out, even if $0.25/wk to clean and maintain chemicals for the pool is ridiculous lol

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Yankee_chef_nen@reddit

I did not get an allowance but knew plenty of kids who did.

As others are saying whether or not you did often was dependent upon the social-economic status of your family. I grew up poor moving into lower middle class and when the tooth fairy was leaving some of my classmates $1.00 per tooth, the tooth fairy left my brother and I $0.25 per tooth. Getting an allowance was not something that happened in my family.

I am curious though OP, why would you think that getting an allowance was something made up for comic books? It doesn’t really make sense that American media would make up things that don’t exist to portray a character’s life as a normal American life.

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DrBlankslate@reddit

I often wonder why people who aren’t American assume that things they see in American fictional media must be just made up. Yellow school buses come to mind.

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Thick_Description982@reddit

Because some of them are false. How many times have you climbed into bed with your shoes on, or just handed a taxi driver a random handful of cash without counting anything?

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forestfairygremlin@reddit

Honestly, back in the day before uber and such, the habdful of cash was pretty normal. Most people carried cash and if you lived somewhere that taxis are a regular part of your life you usually had enough 1s, 5s and 10s to get you where you needed to go. And nobody, like seriously nobody waited around to get change from a taxi driver.

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meewwooww@reddit

I mean, the random handful of cash is usually just for convenience of the movie. Similar to how you never see people fumbling for condoms or worrying about the after mess of in sex scenes.

DerekL1963@reddit

As others are saying whether or not you did often was dependent upon the social-economic status of your family.

Not just socio-economic status... How the parents felt about it matters too. We got an allowance, but only if our parents found our performance of that week's chores satisfactory. (It was usually the sib responsible for washing dishes that week that got dinged.* It was hard to screw up taking out the trash.)

When I was 14, I came off the weekly chore rotation and was given responsibility for yardwork/helping my dad with yardwork and household repairs. At 16, when I got my first actual job, I was relieved of those responsibilities and no longer received an allowance.

I got a $1.00 per week.

No-Function223@reddit

Me personally no. I got lunch money which is similar ig but different imo. But tbf I also didn’t have chore’s which is usually the trade off for allowance. I did know many people growing up who did tho, so it exists outside popular media.

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Or0b0ur0s@reddit

No, but in my area / culture / social class (lower middle class whites in Northeastern U.S.), that was somewhat unusual.

My parents didn't give me a single cent - aside from money to run errands, for which they expected receipts and exact change - until they left it to me in their wills. The single exception was $200 Dad gave me to buy a present for Mom when another family member paid for me to take a class trip.

Oh, and they tended to strongly disapprove of anyone else who tried to pay give me money for any reason, including legit work-for-hire, like mowing the neighbor's lawn. To the point that several jobs like that evaporated after they talked to my "employer".

Don't get me wrong. I'm great with money now because I appreciate it deeply. And they did leave me a shocking amount for how poor we were. They also helped me get a job the same month I turned 16, and let me drive a hand-me-down car they would've gotten rid of if I hadn't needed it until I could afford my own.

But, yeah. I was not allowed to have funds. Anything relatively modest which I wanted badly enough, they'd give me a chore list and then go buy it when I handed it in, complete.

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GingerTea69@reddit

I had an allowance as a kid, miss getting a little more for good grades and behavior. I would immediately buy either games or things for my parents.

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Kirbylover16@reddit

I was expected to do my chores, or they would not get done, because both of my parents worked.

I did get money for my report card grades in elementary and middle school: A 5$ B 1$ D -1$ even one F then no money and I'm grounded. But only if my parents had money. In high school, I was expected to get a job.

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GenXer, and I never received an allowance, though my mom would occasionally give me 50 cents or a dollar for the corner candy store. My kids are teens, and I give them $20 every payday, which is every two weeks.

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Dalton387@reddit

It’s a thing. It’s just never how I grew up.

In my family, I didn’t have assigned chores. If anyone saw a chore that needed doing, they just worked on it. Cutting the yard, cutting the pastures, washing clothes, cleaning windows, etc.

No.

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More_Possession_519@reddit

No. They helped me when I was in college though. Plus after college when I moved home they didn’t charge me rent and I was allowed to eat their food.

In high school they would pay for things, like prom tickets or filed trips. Occasionally if I asked for a couple dollars they would give me like $3 or $5 or $10, what they had on hand. That wasn’t a regular thing though, I usually babysat if I wanted spending my money.

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KennyM6622@reddit

Yes, but also no. I always had access to money if I asked. However, it was not something that was set up as a weekly or monthly thing.

I grew up in the 90’s. My sisters and I had a chore list for the week and when we completed it we were paid our allowance. As we got older the chore list became more complex (like mowing the lawn when I was old enough to do it safely) and the allowance amount increased. Parents also opened bank accounts for us and helped us balance our check books.

Parents would also give us money here and there for like events and stuff like that. I will also mention our allowance money went to fun activities for us and fun purchases. Clothes, food, etc. they already provided.

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Bad_wit_Usernames@reddit

When I was a kid back in the 80/90s I had an allowance. My parents gave me actual cash though.

My kids now, both in their teens earn an allowance from me, but I gave them the option of opening a debt/savings account for them to put the money.

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Yep; started with $7 a month when I was like 8 (though I only got $5, $1 went to the Church and $1 went to savings, allegedly). Topped out at $20 a month by the time I was 14.

No. And my kids aren't going to either. Want money? Earn it by doing extra things beyond the bare minimum of being a member of the family. Oh man, you're expected to put your laundry away and put your dishes away and clean up your own mess. What a horrible thing. No, you don't get money for existing.

I used to go wash dishes for my mom (who owned and ran her own commercial bakery making wedding cakes for many years). Would ask my dad what things I could do for him for some cash. If I needed money for doing something, they'd frequently just give me money for doing those things even; but a regular allowance to pay for just existing? Nah. Unnecessary.

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shelwood46@reddit

I did not, but my single mom was very broke. I got money by request when I was little, though more often by doing specific tasks (but sporadically), and by about age 10 by hiring myself out to neighbors to do stuff (cleaning, babysitting, snow shoveling, etc). It wasn't a myth though, I did know other kids who got allowances, although usually it was tied to house chores, like nightly dishes and such.

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I did not have a formal allowance. I had chores I had to do regularly - like mowing the lawn and cleaning my room. If I did those chores, made good grades, and generally behaved, then my parents would give me spending cash when I asked. Usually it was $20 to go to the movies or $10 to go to sonic on a Friday night. It was pretty rare that I asked for cash, maybe 2 or 3 times a month.

The real allowance was a car when I turned 17. My parents bought me a nice used car and paid for gas & insurance. Again, I only got to use it if my chores were done, grades were good, and I behaved. Also, I ran a lot of errands for my parents. Picking up groceries, dry cleaning, taking my sisters to soccer practice.

The deal was that if I graduated college and got a real job, then they would sign the car over to me free and clear. It was an awesome deal!

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DummyThiccDude@reddit

I didn't get an allowance, but as a teen, i did get paid if i helped out on the farm. My parents did give me money if i needed it, though, like giving me $20 to spend on concessions at basketball games to make sure i got something to eat.

Kind of.

I was given money for doing chores above what I was assigned. Assigned chores were expected because everyone lived in the house so we all contributed. But if I did extra chores I got paid. I figured out really quick my dad would pay me to mow the lawn and I would do ours and then go door to door and ask the neighbors if they wanted theirs done.

I would get money for any As received in school each report card, since that was also above and beyond.

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I don't think I would call it an allowance anymore but you gotta live somewhere, you gotta eat something, you gotta be able to get around, and ideally you need to be able to go to the movies every couple weeks. If parents can afford it and/or are super invested in their kid focusing on that education... I know one family that went into massive debt to send their kid through architectural school in style and then basically retired as soon as she graduated and were like, "Now we live in luxury and you pay our debts," lol.

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gonyere@reddit

Yes . My dad paid for housing and gave me a couple hundred bucks for food every month. I got a job for anything else I wanted.

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kirstynloftus@reddit

I paid my way through college, but my parents paid for most necessities (food, clothes, etc.) since they felt bad they couldn’t help with tuition. I just worried about paying for school, gas, and anything I wanted but didn’t need.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

Yeah. I worked three jobs while in undergrad, and worked full time through grad school. I was just taken aback, I guess.

Good for you.

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o93mink@reddit

I realize not everyone is like me, but is this genuinely the first you’ve ever heard of someone like this?

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I got lunch money and could keep the change

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NarrowAd4973@reddit

Didn't get an allowance. If there was something I wanted, I asked for it. Then my parent's decided whether or not they wanted to buy it. Results varied.

It helped having a birthday in summer. If necessary, I could just ask for it for my birthday or Christmas, as I'd only have to wait half a year at most. Results still varied.

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Thick_Description982@reddit

No allowance ever, just the occasional soda or bag of chips

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Froggirl26@reddit

We received money for chores. It was $10 per month in elementary school then it went up to $20 per month in High School.

Once my kids hit age 12 or so, I will increase their allowance quite a bit and give them more responsibility. For school lunch, for gifts for friends, for clothing, for gas, etc.

By the time they leave the house, I want them managing 100% of their budget

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Rich-Contribution-84@reddit

I did but it was tied to chores like mowing the lawn and cleaning the house.

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BobsleddingToMyGrave@reddit

Not in my home. I was a farm kid and you did chores. The closest thing was the first 4-H chickens were bought for you. You raised them, showed them and sold them. Money from that bought your next year's chickens or rabbits.

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chooseausername5280@reddit

No, I just asked for reasonable amounts of money when I wanted it. I did my chores and stayed out of trouble. For the most part.

I didn’t but I know one or two that did.

No... I might get $20 as a birthday gift from my grandparents and sometimes I'd find change in their chairs that they would let me keep, but there was nowhere near enough money for my parents to go giving it to us kids. We ate from the food bank and paid at the grocery store with food stamps often enough. I didn't have regular spending money until I got a job.

trustingfastbasket@reddit

I did until i got a job at 15. Then i paid my own way.

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Cruitire@reddit

When I was very young I did, but I was expected to do extra chores for it. That stopped once I got out of elementary school. Then it was just expected I would some whatever chores I was asked to do and if I wanted spending money I would have to get a job. Which I did.

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Dry-Tough-3099@reddit

No allowance.

They would give me opportunities to "earn" money if I wanted to go above and beyond my normal chores, but the pay was so low, it was better to mow the neighbor's house for $5 instead of pickup rocks in the garden for $.25 a bucket or some nonsense.

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Quirky_Commission_56@reddit

I got paid for doing the chores my parents didn’t want to do.

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SquidsArePeople2@reddit

My children each have a debit card that I deposit their monthly allowance on. It's earned by chores, behavior, schoolwork, etc.

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gomichan@reddit

My grandma gave me $5 a week allowance!

My parents would give me money for doing chores outside the regular like washing the car, mowing the lawn etc. It was usually $5 or $10. They'd also give me a fresh $20 bill if I got all A's on my report card. I remember being so jealous of my friend who had a lot more money than us because she would get $20 per A, so each report card she would get over a hundred dollars, which was an insane amount of money to me.

I was not. Most in my religious group do get it though. My parents though are not in our religious community.

Basically what I mean to say is It’s pretty common in my culture, but I personally didn’t have it

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lesbianvampyr@reddit

It exists but only for rich people. My family was around middle class and I could do chores for coins but I would literally make like a nickel for doing a pretty large/time consuming chore so it would never add up to much of anything, and I definitely didn’t get money just given to me

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crafty_j4@reddit

I didn’t get an “allowance”, but my mom did bribe me to read books growing up.

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mostlygray@reddit

I used to get $3/week but only if my parents could afford it. They didn't always have $3 so it was hit or miss.

That money always went to food. Usually lunch tickets at school. My parents didn't have the money to buy a whole book of lunch tickets so I'd trade for them.

I lived in a farm area. if I wanted money I worked... A kid can muck a stall before they are big enough to throw hay. More difficult for city kids, but some mow lawns or shovel snow.

I did get an allowance in exchange for doing chores. My siblings and I had a list or separate tasks/ rotated lists each week.

For instance, I had to clean my room each week and the rotating tasks woyld be things like clean one of the bathrooms, vacuum the whole house, clean the kitchen counters, etc.

We never picked up after my parents or cleaned their room. Aside from keeping my room clean, the chores were more for the general household.

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sammiemo@reddit

I'm an older Gen Xer. I received an allowance from about the time I started grade school until I was old enough to work part time and make my own money at around 14.

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Alternative-Law4626@reddit

I got an allowance as late as high school (grades 9 & 10). $3.50 per week.

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TheCarzilla@reddit

Not so much as a regular allowance but “I’m going to the movies, can I have some money for the ticket and candy?” Or “Sarah’s mom is bringing us to the mall, can I shop for a couple new things?”

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eddituser1980@reddit

No. But one of them gave me a choice when I asked for one. They said “Allowance or I take you out to eat wherever you want multiple times a month”.

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit

I didn't get anything, I started working when I was 12.

I gave my kids money for things they wanted to do, like go to the movies with friends, or the book fair at school, or whatever. It was never a lot, and not on a regular basis. They never asked for money for material things, they started working at 14 when it was legal. I also paid for certain chores when they did want something frivilous.

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Pitiful_Bunch_2290@reddit

I never did. If I needed something, they got it. If I wanted something, I asked.

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PowerBeanie@reddit

Yes, as a child I got $5 a week for doing my chores. And then when I got older I got $10. I don't remember when that stopped, maybe highschool? At some point my dad would just give me money whenever I needed it, like for gas or to go to the movies.

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baalroo@reddit

My mother didn't have the money to give me an allowance. I started working at 14 so I could buy myself food/clothes/etc.

shoveling snow

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donnacus@reddit

I got a weekly allowance for doing simple chores, making my bed, washing dishes, etc. I also got extra money for getting good grades in school. $3 per A on my report card. I could earn up to $15 4 times a year.

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Fireberg@reddit

Yeah. $3 each week.

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Weekly_March@reddit

No, I was so surprised this was a thing.

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BowTrek@reddit

I got 20 dollars a month from like 10-16. Then at 16 it shifted to 20 dollars a week because I was driving and needed gas and was going out more.

Late 90s.

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Odd_Interview_2005@reddit

Kinda. My parents allowed me to keep 17% of my earnings money I was given by other family members.

I had to pay 33 % of my income as 'rent" to my parents. They gave this money to my sister as go free money.

50% of my income was saved for my sister to attend a university or start a business.

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meg_c@reddit

I got an allowance as a kid 🤷🏽‍♀️

My kids get an allowance each week -- as many dollars as they are old. The goal is to teach them to save and budget, so I buy them school clothes each year and basic necessities, but if they want anything extra like to go to the movies with friends or jewelry or whatever they have to use their allowance money.

When my kids graduate from elementary school they get a phone. I tell them that I'll pay for a cheap flip phone and the phone plan, but if they want a smartphone they have to save up. We're 3 for 3 -- my youngest is 11 and the refurbished iPhone they saved up for is waiting in a drawer for graduation next month. It'll still have a bunch of parental controls, and until they're in high school the phone lives in my room at night, but you can't video chat or play games on a flip phone so all of my kids have been pretty motivated.

Sometimes my middle kid complains because his friends' parents give them money to go do stuff 🙄 Then we get to revisit the idea that they don't get an allowance and he does. I've offered to stop giving him an allowance and instead make him ask me for everything he wants, like his friends, but it turns out he prefers the allowance 🙄

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anuhu@reddit

No. But I did get paid for good grades on my report cards. My parents instituted that for my brother to try to incentivize him to be a better student. It didn't work for him, but I sure profited.

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Diasies_inMyHair@reddit

My Dad didn't believe in the concept of allowance. When I asked as a teen, he said "If I want you to have money, I will give it to you." I also was forbidden to get a job (even after I turned 18 he wouldn't allow it initially). My mom was generous with spending money when there was something I wanted to do, and she tried to make sure I was given some cash at Christmas and birthdays so that I didn't have to ask them for money all the time.

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timotheusd313@reddit

They’d “give” me money if the class was going on a field trip and getting lunch at McDonalds or something. Got “tooth fairy” money, and gift money but not just on a regular basis.

My parents weren’t rich, they kept their heads above water by being very careful with money, couponing, shopping loss leader sales, fixing cars/changing oil ourselves.

They did “pay” me for chores. It was $5 to mow the lawn (this was mid 90’s in a suburban subdivision. They also paid for the gas.)

While the subdivision was being built up I made friends with the drywall finishers and they would pay me like $6-8/hr sanding seams and screws, and busting up the scraps to toss into the truck, occasionally fetching water with my wagon.

There were a few things they wouldn’t buy for me as well. I went halfsies with my brother for my neighbors NES, (she was getting married and her husband already had one)

Niisakka@reddit

Never. When I asked for a few bucks here and there, they gave it to me, sometimes, but that's it. Chores were chores and everyone pitched in, and we didn't get paid for it.

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stiletto929@reddit

Theoretically I got an allowance. But I was always losing it for getting it trouble so it was more theoretical than actual.

All I wanted was books anyway, and we had a good library, so NBD.

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JackYoMeme@reddit

I'd get like $5 to mow the lawn

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_TheRealKennyD@reddit

I did but I had to do some chores around the house to get it. I think I had to feed the outdoor cats/dogs we had at the time. Been about 3 decades though so memory is a little fuzzy.

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AliMcGraw@reddit

My parents gave me an allowance, and I give my kids an allowance, to teach them about money management and to let them begin to step into the world of buying things. My formerly profligate candy-spender child is now saving his weekly allowance diligently so he can buy a Switch 2.

I pay for anything they need for school, and for clothes, and for experiences that I think will be educational. (My middle child has gotten very into ham radio so I have driven him back and forth, paid for his tests, and bought him his first two radios and one antenna; now it's down to him saving his allowance for further gear.)

They pay for little things they want, or feel they need. My youngest likes to buy friendship bracelet making supplies. We are starting to introduce the idea of picking out presents for others and buying them with your own money.

We do not pay our children for chores. Chores are something they do because they're a member of this household and family and everybody has to pitch in to keep the household running, and they have to learn how to do chores to be functional adults that other humans will want to live with.

Allowances are related to a totally different lesson which is learning to manage money when it is extremely low stakes. And if you make mistakes you can't buy candy that week, you're not going to lose your apartment. And just that part of our job as parents is scaffolding children to independence, and part of independence is being able to spend money in ways you want to spend money, and learning what happens when you're responsible with it and when you're irresponsible with it.

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3catlove@reddit

My son is 14 and we give him $5.00 a week for an allowance. We also pay him $20.00 to mow our lawn (it’s a small yard.) He also makes another $35.00 a week currently mowing a couple other small lawns.

It’s not much but it’s enough for him to start managing his money and saving a little. We give him money if he goes to a movie or something with friends at this point.

I’m 50 and received a small allowance as a kid.

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heyyouguyyyyy@reddit

I received allowance if I completed all of my chores to the level expected.

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AtlasThe1st@reddit

I did not get money I did not earn. Want $20 for a game? Better do some stuff around the house to earn it. Helped cement that money is to be earned, not given.

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I got $1 - $5 per week based on household and yard chores, and getting my homework done after school. This started around age 6. A lot of the chores were taking care of my own things, like keeping my bedroom picked up, putting my laundry away, etc. Harder chores like doing the dishes after dinner and mowing the lawn came later, maybe by age 9, but I was always involved with helping with everything.

My grandpa took me to open a savings account at a credit union when I was 6. The whole goal of allowance and the savings account was to learn about money and learn how to take care of myself. I enjoyed going to deposit my money even if it was $1. I liked watching my savings get bigger. If I earned $5, I learned to put at least $2 in savings and not spend all of my earnings. I would stash money in my sock drawer to save up for a special toy independent of the money I put in the credit union. Waiting weeks or months to buy something I made a goal to save for was satisfying.

As I got a bit older, I started doing errands and odd jobs for neighbors for more money.

At 14, I got my first real job. Just before turning 16, I bought a car with my own money, and it was a car I wanted and not a total beater. It was pretty solid.

My family was blue collar and lower middle class. I was being taught to “adult” and not everyone is. Handing a kid some money isn’t just for wealthy people. Teaching kids about money is responsible parenting. Teaching kids to do laundry and prepare meals is responsible parenting. In my hometown, a car was needed for independence, and they contributed to my car fund a few bucks at a time over 15 years. Of course, my actual job helped more with that. But I had developed a routine of saving money and setting goals, and that was a great habit to have.

I got a basic small allowance just for doing my chores, not much, like $10 a week.

But they paid me will for my grades in high school. $30 per A, $10 per B, nothing for a C and anything below a C and I got grounded for 6 weeks.

Good incentive for straight As and got me into a good college.

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Available_Hippo300@reddit

It’s normal enough if your parents have enough money to do it. Mine didn’t.

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NWYthesearelocalboys@reddit

Yes but it was very little and my parents were very controlling. I dont do allowance with my kids. Except grades, we pay for grades because it directly relates to adult life.

We provide our kids with all of their needs and a lot of their wants. They all do well in school and do a lot around the house. Cooking, cleaning and other chores. This allows for us to capitalize on time together. It's common for us to blow a few hundred to a thousand on the weekends. Riding ATV's, shooting, hunting, boating.

Yesterday cost a couple hundred dollars for target shooting. Spent $800 on camping equipment for a boating trip in June.

If they play varsity sports and get strait A's we cover their cost of having a vehicle when the time comes.

Instead of giving them an arbitrary amount we collectively celebrate hard work and good character. If they want to do something on their own we just pay for it. I want them to enjoy childhood and adolescence.

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kippersforbreakfast@reddit

The standard was the cost of a movie ticket per week. I think they were trying to get me out of the house.

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mrpointyhorns@reddit

Every once in a while, I would convince my mom that I would do XYZ chores to earn some money. It would usually last about a month, and then I would stop doing them. I did have chores that I had to do that didn't get an allowance, so it was extra things.

I had an allowance until my first job. My parents made me get a part-time job as soon as I was eligible, which was 14 in the state I grew up in. I worked 18 hours a week at a restaurant.

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FineUnderachievment@reddit

I didn't. I'm the 2nd oldest of 5 kids. I worked ASAP when I was old enough, and did odd jobs like raking leaves and shoveling snow before that. My parents weren't poor exactly when I was young, but money was definitely tight. As I got older, and they became more financially stable, they gave allowances to my younger siblings. I don't think any of them worked until after college. Not only were my parents giving them $$, but they also had me and my older sister spoiling them a bit too. I'm not bitter about it, I developed a habit of earning my own money, and not depending on handouts. I'm glad my younger siblings had the opportunity to focus on school without worrying about $$ too. Is it fair, no, but life isn't fair. My parents did the right thing and spent money when necessary, and saved up to provide when needed. I'm sure if for some reason I was strapped for $$ now they'd help, but they raised me to be responsible with it.

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Felis_igneus726@reddit

Yes, my parents gave me one that started at a few cents when I was little and gradually increased up to $10 as I got older, until they stopped it when I turned 18. I don't remember the schedule, but I think it was either once a week or once every 2 weeks.

But how much, how often, and whether you get one at all completely depends on your parents and their financial situation. I knew kids who didn't get any allowance, whether because their parents couldn't afford it or chose not to, and others who got like $20 a week.

$20 a week for lunch. How i spent it was up to me.

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North_Artichoke_6721@reddit

As a small child, I got a little bit for doing chores.

By high school I was expected to have a job.

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Careless-Ability-748@reddit

no

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stellalunawitchbaby2@reddit

I had basic chores (clean room, load/unload dishwasher now and then, etc) but not a real set allowance. If I wanted to go to the movies or the mall or something I’d just ask for money.

Allowances were not unusual though.

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elvenmal@reddit

I could do yard work for spending money, but I didn’t have an allowance. We lived on an acre of land (4,047 sq meters,) and if I mowed and trimmed the whole yard, I could earn about $20. The entire process took about 4.5 hours and needed to be done every 2-3 weeks during the spring-fall.

We could earn $5-20 doing the chores no one liked to do, like hand washing the floor trim throughout the whole house or washing windows (cause my mom hated doing them.) but again, we’d get $20 for washing about 30 windows (two story house with basement and two glass doors,) or like $10 for all the floor trim.

It wasn’t that lucrative, though in the late 90s/early 2000s, $20 went a lot further than today. This did teach us how hard you had to work to make money and how much more you appreciate what you earn.

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DeliciousMoments@reddit

My weekly chores were mowing and weeding the lawn (summer), dusting, ironing, helping with the dishes, cleaning my room (obviously), and helping with whatever random projects my parents were up to (like organizing the garage.) For this I got $20 a week.

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CountChoculasGhost@reddit

I got $5 per week for doing chores. Cleaning my room, cleaning the bathroom, mowing the lawn, etc.

That lasted about until I got my first job.

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Downtown-Culture-552@reddit

I never got an allowance, but we would get money when our report cards came in! The better the grade the more you got.

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NoRecommendation9404@reddit

No.

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I got an allowance through college, (I payed for college), except when I worked in the summer. My parents were not rich

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maxman1313@reddit

I had to make a budget and present it to my parents once a year. If they approved of it, I got the allotted amount each month.

If they didn't then we would discuss it and I'd have to present it again until they agreed with what I was presenting.

We then got paid in cash and had to split our allowance into each of our allotted categories (fun, savings, charity, etc.).

Shockingly my and my siblings all ended up getting the exact same amount each month.

In hindsight it was a great way to teach us basic saving and budgeting from a relatively young age.

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ms_rdr@reddit

I earned an allowance that was contingent upon finishing my chores. My parents told me to a get job while a freshman in high school and then I stopped doing my chores because I earned way more at work and didn't need a stinkin' allowance any more.

I started getting an allowance sometime around age 10 or 11, a whole 25 cents per week. About a year later it was raised to 50 cents a week. Not long after that, I started earning my own money babysitting, and allowance stopped.

This was back around 1970, so 25 cents was worth a lot more than it is now.

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Open_Bug_4251@reddit

My parents occasionally covered the cost of things (going to the fair as a family or if I and bunch of siblings went to a movie together), but I never had an allowance.

They also bought beginning of the school year clothes and shoes for anything that was outgrown.

But I started working and babysitting at 11 so most incidentals were my own responsibility.

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curious2allopurinol@reddit

every month my parents give me an allowance alongside my brothers so yeah

No. My sibling & I really wanted rollerblades, so our mother put them on layaway & had us do extra chores for 6 months to earn the money to pay them off so we could get them for Christmas. Knowing what I know now about labor law, we were horribly exploited. The work we put in was worth at least 6 pairs of rollerblades each. The audacity of wrapping them up & putting them under a Christmas tree. Who rollerblades in late December in New England!? Me & my sib, c. 1992, that's who.

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Kestrel_Iolani@reddit

I received exactly $1 a week, nominally to buy milk at school. I drank water and used the money to buy books.

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bmadisonthrowaway@reddit

I give my 7 year old an allowance.

I do it for a few different reasons:

1 - It works as basic bribery. There are various conditions he has to fulfill to receive his allowance each week. Homework completed, chores at least attempted/cooperated with, etc. While sometimes he will say that he's fine not getting his allowance if it means he doesn't have to feed the cat, at the very least it teaches him cause and effect and understanding those types of consequences. (Also in this case it's like paying myself to feed the cat, since I then save $10/week if he balks at doing it.)

2 - Setting a framework and limit for when he gets toys, treats, and the like. My kid has a fall birthday, which means his only 2 obvious gift receiving occasions are in October and December. That leaves a lot of the year for zero new toys, books, Pokemon cards, etc. While we used to just say yes to the occasional request throughout the year to make up for it, now we say that if he wants something, he has to spend his allowance on it.

3 - Gets him used to the idea of having control over his own money and managing discretionary income with low stakes. He gets $10 a week and can choose to buy whatever little item, candy, etc. or save up for something bigger. If he buys Pokemon cards and trades them all away for bad trades (common with him), chooses some plastic junk that breaks, gets something good quality but breaks it out of not treating his things with respect, etc. it's his money. If he wants another, he has to wait till he gets more allowance. If he chooses one thing, he has less to spend on something else. Etc.

I knew people who did but I never did. My allowance was the roof over my head and the food in the fridge. Thus struck me as unfair as a kid but now I know we were solidly lower middle class and there wasn’t extra money to be given. This did incentivize me to get a job earlier than some - I taught swim lessons when I was 15. My sister also started working around that age.

Surveys show that somewhere between 65%-80% of American parents give their kids an allowance, so, yes, it is very common.

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ImaginaryProposal211@reddit

Definitely not. Allowance was a very foreign concept to me.

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Jack_of_Spades@reddit

My family was too poor to afford it.

If we did all our chores and schoolwork without fussing my mom too much, we got $10 dollars a week.

My chores included washing the dishes after every meal, putting away laundry, cleaning the guest bathroom, vacuuming the living room every day, and keeping my own room tidy and vacuumed.

We also homeschooled for much of my pre-highschool tears.

My brother had to clean the upstairs bathroom, take all dirty laundry from all bathrooms to the laundry area, do the mowing, vacuum the upstairs hallway, run the snowblower in the winter, and keep his room tidy and vacuumed.

They started when we were 8 and 6 and stopped when we became older teens with jobs. We were still expected to do the chores, we just didn’t get extra money because we were getting paid from our jobs instead.

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Courwes@reddit

No. I got money when I asked for it. It wasn’t a weekly thing my parents gave me. I still had chores I just didn’t get paid to do them.

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Bourbontoulouse@reddit

I got $10 a week for lunch (school lunch was $1.50). Anything I wanted to buy, I would have to do labor, usually yard work for extra cash.

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untetheredgrief@reddit

I asked my dad for an allowance sometime around 1976. He thought he was being generous giving me $.25 a week (yes, a quarter) for sweeping the porches. When I complained that I wouldn't be able to buy anything with that he said, "Well, you can sweep them for free if you want."

On top of this I was always his helper every weekend with loads of yardwork.

In 1977 the Atari 2600 came out. It was like $200, as I recall (equivalent to about $1000 today). Dad said he would buy me one if I saved up half the money.

He ended up having to buy it for me because at $.25 a week it would have taken 400 weeks or 7 and a half years to raise $100.

Did when I was a kid, but only if I did my chores on time. Started with like, $1 a week (this was 1996) and then $5, $10, etc.

If I did more chores around the house, I got a bit more. If I over-spent, then the next allowance would go to paying my folks back.

Sure. Back in the 70s I got $.25/week just for existing. Ultimately rose to $1 before I started high school, then it stopped but I got paid for doing a fair load of chores (lawn mowing, wood chopping, laundry, cooking, gardening, babysitting, etc.) that peaked at $5/week before I got a "real" job.

As a kid I did. In 1972 I got $5/week, half of which paid for school lunch. That’s about $32 in today’s money.

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FiddleThruTheFlowers@reddit

No, unless you count a few bucks for my birthday. Any money I had came from birthday money until I hit middle school age. Middle school and high school added babysitting and tutoring to my income streams.

Starting around 12 I got $4/week spending money; my folks said they'd double my bank balance at my 18th birthday to encourage me to save it, I bought comic books, football cards, baseball cards and the occasional candy instead :D

jluvdc26@reddit

No, but we were really very poor. I didn't even get lunch money from my parents in high school after they finally made enough to no longer qualify for free/reduced lunch. I basically skipped a lot of meals until I could get a job and buy my own lunches.

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jeffgrantMEDIA@reddit

nope. Got a paper route when I was 12 and never stopped working.

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holiestcannoly@reddit

No

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Spending money? Never heard of her. We were so poor we only ate food from food banks a lot of the time, so there was definitely no money for stuff like allowances. My rich friends did though.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

My parents would pay me small amounts to do some work around the house. (Some chores were not paid.) That ended when I got an under-the-table job at 13.

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an0n__2025@reddit

I’m from an immigrant family and the idea of giving allowances to kids is not part of my culture. In fact, as a child, I’m expected to give my parents an allowance instead once they get older.

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Diabolik900@reddit

I got an allowance at times as a kid, but it was dependent on me doing chores around the house, was something small like $5 per week, and stopped once I was old enough to actually have a job.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

As a kid, yeah, I got an allowance, but I think I came up with the idea based on reading about it in books and seeing it on TV shows. My parents didn't come up with it. I think I asked them for one, and they agreed based on me doing certain small chores around the house every week. Like I had to wash the bathroom sinks and fold the laundry, little things like that, and then I got...I don't remember, maybe $5 a week?

But when I started babysitting regularly when I was 12 or 13 or so the allowance went away.

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sics2014@reddit

No. If I was going out, they'd usually give me some cash to spend. It wasn't on a regular basis.

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Cebuanolearner@reddit

When younger parents generally have allowances for doing chores and stuff like that. Later it's more just parents hand money if need.