Welcome to this week’s teaching children about money post which is all about paying children for doing jobs around the house.
Personally I believe that children are a part of the family and should therefore be helping around the house doing some basic chores. Pocket money isn’t given to them for doing their designated jobs but it is taken away if they don’t do the jobs that we give them!
We have a chore chart on the front of the fridge which includes some basic jobs like setting the table, clearing the table, tidying rooms etc and on Saturday and those are the jobs that we expect to be done on a daily basis but there’s also a few jobs that can be done to earn a little bit of extra pocket money but even then the payment isn’t particularly high for each job otherwise I’d be bankrupt wouldn’t I?
(Just to clarify, I don’t make them clean actual toilets like it says for Sunday’s jobs – they just wipe the sink/bath and tidy and mess.)
The jobs can be as basic as you like but in my experience, children love to earn money of their own so by giving them the opportunity and encouraging them to do this you’re teaching them a great lesson to prepare them for when they’re older.
It’s great to give them a way of tracking the money they make as well – Master Frugal saves all of his and likes to empty his money box and count it all whereas Miss Frugal keeps track of hers using an app on her phone. The app she uses is called Savings goal free and it allows her to set a goal and then add and subtract money from the savings pot and it really seems to be keeping her motivated!
What do you think – should children be paid for chores or should they be expected to do them?
