Roughly two thirds of parents give their children an allowance, according to a survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants of more than 1,000 parents.
You’re not going to believe the average amount – $30 a week. A lot of parents pay their children for doing chores, helping out around the house. Most folks probably disagree with me but I’ve never thought that was a good idea — children ought to do chores because they’re members of the family.
But that’s not what this post is about.
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Brother Dave was going through some of his papers and discovered an early record of his daughters’ allowances: Paige got 50 cents and Jenni, who is younger, got 20 cents – a week.
That’s not all. Of those amounts, they were required to tithe 10 percent and save 40 percent. That left Paige with a quarter a week and Jenni with a dime a week to spend any way their hearts desired “except for candy or gum.”
How long ago was that, you asked?
Dave doesn’t remember, probably 40 years ago, maybe a little more, but what difference does it make? What if it was 80 years ago? Ten cents a week spending money?
The money they saved could also be spent but “only after 3 months of planning” and the item they bought had to be paid for in full at the time of purchase. Jenni could have saved for three months, planning every day about what to buy, and still only had 24 cents in her piggy bank when the big day arrived.
“Oh, it’s way worse than that. :),” Jenni told me. “In fact, I use that as a story in my classes now. My memory of this must have been later because my memory is that there was a total amount that changed weekly and I had to figure out percentages for each. Like tithe 10% of $3.27 and savings 15% of $3.27….. totally traumatizing and I still can’t do math today.”
“We had to report to the kitchen table on Saturday at night after dinner for this exercise. I arrived promptly with my ceramic orange (savings bank) and ceramic banana (spending bank) and my box of offering envelopes.”
“Also there were rules around the spending of savings. I had to write out a description of my planned purchase along with the price and then give the note to dad and wait… can’t remember how long. Probably 1 month but it felt like 3 months. If I still wanted it after the waiting period then I was free to purchase. I remember Paige wanted to buy sandals once and summer ended before the waiting period … funny now, not so much then.”
“I AM a great saver now… I owe it all to dad and these crazy rules of his.”
Coming Monday: My Free Pass