Did you get pocketmoney as a child, was it handed over readily or did you have to work for it?

I worked my @$$ off for it!
My dad owned rental properties and us kids were put to work.I was painting walls at the age of 10-among other things.
Why he did that,I’ll never know! It looked like I painted them with a hot paintbrush. ;)

I had several methods of gaining petty cash. Either i’d do little jobs around the house. Or flash my eyes, Mum used to call me saucer eyes because apparently they were quite big! On the odd occasion i’d stamp my feet & generally throw my toys out the pram. Ahhhh, nothing’s changed there then :¬)

I grew up on a dairy farm. I worked for food.

This is something my friends never understood about my family. Our parents had it set so that our education was Priority Number One (not in the “we’re going to push you to get straight A’s sense but in that they nurtured our education over other things.) This meant we had a compromise: we were not obligated to do the chores most kids end up doing in order to earn an allowance, but we had to make sure that we completed our homework each night and earned good grades. We did not have to clean dishes, or vacuum, or tidy up the house, or anything—(though they tried to make us keep our room in respectable condition… looking at it now, that didn’t really go any where.)

On the flip-side, we never had an allowance. Ever.

We earned $5 for every A from middle school to university (but that’s ceased recently as they cannot afford to do this. I’m not about to complain.) If we wanted something new that we didn’t have money for, it had to go on a Christmas or birthday list. If we wanted a simple thing (a relatively old book or a kind of toy but nothing specific) our mum would keep an out for it at thrift shops.

I’m quite happy with the arrangement. I never felt the need to have money in my pocket when I was a kid. It only became an issue when I was in high school and friends didn’t understand that I couldn’t go places that required money (I refused to ask my parents for extra money and I felt awkward letting other people pay for me.)

I’ve also been told that I’m spoiled because I never had to do chores. It annoys me.

Sort of in between for me.

I got a lot of it by being the family errand boy. I was generally allowed to keep the change any time I was sent to the store to pick something up. I also was paid for the usual family chores like mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, etc…

When I was an older teen I made most of my money with summer jobs ranging from being a YMCA camp counselor, to loading hay (a darned hard job), to teaching guitar lessons at a local music store.

I should put that in context. My grandfather that started the farm started with nothing. When they bought the farm, the banks wouldn’t touch them so it was all owner financed, which is nearly impossible to make work. My grandparents did all the farm work during the day, and after they were done, they went to a neighboring potato farm and dug potatos for $4.00 a bushel. My father went to work ASAP and busted his butt. That’s how they made it through the first few years. Think I was going to get to sit in the house and not do anything? It was a nice family upbringing and I don’t regret any of it.

I had a paper route from the age of 8. I guess this came about when my father opened his own business and ceased to bring home a regular paycheque. My mom arranged for me and my older sister to run one route and then my mother and my two younger sisters ran the other route.

For four years I was up at 5am to stuff those papers and deliver them rain or shine by 6am. I can’t tell you how often I walked face first into a spider’s web. I hate spiders. But what I remember the most about those early mornings was the sounds of the birds waking up. I love, to this day, the calls of chickadees. They were my companions every morning.

My sister and I got most of the money from doing the routes but when things became dire in my parent’s finances we pitched in. We paid for food, mostly, when my mom had to pay the electric bill or the gas bill.

My mother never handed me any money. Any money I needed I had to earn and I did. It taught me the value of a dollar but it also made me a tad paranoid of not having enough money.

I got allowance irregularly and for chores.

My brother and I were quite spoiled. We had chores to do, but it amounted to either doing the dishes or running the vacuum once a day. Sometimes I’d have to pull weeds in the garden, and as my brother got older he was supposed to help mow and take care of the dogs. We usually managed to avoid the chores until the last possible second and only did them under threat of bodily harm. We were also given money for grades. Straight A’s on a report card earned me $50 and was something I didn’t even have to work at most of the time.

For this, we had an allowance. We were also handed whatever money we wanted, within reason, pretty much just for asking. Sometimes my dad would add on an extra chore. When I was in grade school, I had enough of my own money to walk to a local shopping center and buy a book or a record. Gah, I’m OLD! When I was older, if I went shopping with my mom I could talk her into buying me almost anything I wanted in the way of books, CDs (OK, I’m not that old I guess), clothes, or just random crap. I was literally given every single thing on my Christmas or birthday list.

When I turned 15, I got my first job at a pizza place. I worked part-time through most of high school and spent all of my money on myself. :) If I wanted something else, I’d ask my parents. In college, my dad insisted I only work during the summer so he supplied me with spending money while I was at school. The money from my summer jobs, which were usually full-time, paid for gas, time out with my friends, and weekend trips or concerts. When fall rolled around and I headed off to school again, I was broke and would hit my dad up for money.

He’s probably amazed that since I graduated and moved away I haven’t asked him for a dime! My husband was raised in very much the same way. We both know we were spoiled and didn’t learn to be responsible for ourselves until pretty late in life. Our kids are expected to do certain chores but they don’t get an allowance for it. They can earn an allowance by doing extra things around the house. We mainly avoid buying them things unless it is Christmas or their birthdays (except books, which I’ll happily buy for them any time), and we don’t go crazy like my parents used to. So far they seem to be learning better than I did. They don’t expect to be handed everything they want or sit in their rooms and pout until they get their way like, um, some people may have done in the past (cough cough).

I did all of the housework from the age of 8, and from about 10 added caring for my disabled stepfather on top of that.

No allowance. If ever I wanted a new book, or even a ride to the library, there was usually begging and serious negotiating involved. I was not allowed to have a job.

To begin with we had to work for our pocket money but after a while we seemed to automatically get £3 a week. However, the privilage was taken away from us if we didn’t behave.

Never did a spot of work, got £5–7 a week, a good deal if I do say so myself.

I didn’t get any and wouldn’t have even if I worked – my parents didn’t have enough to spare. If there was anything I wanted to have, I had to wait for birthday/Christmas (and even then I would only get it if it was something cheap).

I couldn’t even get a local job, I lived in such a rural isolated place there weren’t any jobs, not even a paper round.

I was always taught from a very young age that nothing is free. We worked for our money.

I got no allowance. We were too poor for that. When I was 12 I started babysitting for the money I needed until I was old enough for a work permit at 16, then I started a part time job in food service until I went off to uni.

I had lots of chores and little allowance – I remember being giddy when my parents agreed to give us five dollars a month! When I was around 9 I got a paper route, boy did that money burn a hole in my pocket..