More than a Chore Chart: Our Household Economy

To go along with the iPad Pizza blog I posted yesterday, I thought I'd show you our household chore chart as well. :)

I tried to make something a little more than a chore chart. I wanted to give the kids an allowance, but to be honest, I don't want to give them cash (there's little enough of that to go around as it is!). All they can really buy with cash at their age is toys or candy. Having more of either of those things in our house doesn't make me excited (unless the candy is for me). So I decided on creating our own family dollars. This way they can earn dollars doing chores, I don't have to keep a ton of cash on me, and they can "buy" a wider variety of things with their money.

This is our chore chart. So the top listed "Every Day Chores" are the chores they are expected to do without reward. I believe in teaching children that everyone in the family works in order to make the family run smoothly. Sometimes we take care of ourselves (put our own clothes in the hamper) and sometimes we take care of everyone (Mommy does the laundry for everyone to have clean clothes, and Daddy cuts the grass for everyone to enjoy). I explained to them that they get privileges as part of our family team and are expected to do their share of chores as part of that family team as well. If they chose not to do those basic every day chores, they would lose those basic everyday privileges. So at the end of the day, as part of our bedtime routine, we go through and stick check marks on the everyday chores they have completed or not. It's ok to forget once in awhile, or to have a busy day and miss something, as long as it's not a consistent problem, I'm not too strict about it. (The kids LOVE sticking their check marks on the chart, and it makes them more excited to complete their chores- bonus!)

Next we have the list of extra chores they can do to earn money. My kids are only 6 and 4, so they cant do a huge variety of chores, but you could of course tailor yours to your kids' ages. Each chore has a value, and depending on what they want to buy, they can figure out which chores will add up to the right amount of money for them (hooray for sneaking in some math skills!)

Next we have the list of things they can purchase with their hard earned dollars. As you can see, over time we've changed the price on some things. What can I say? Gotta learn about inflation someday! Kidding, what actually happened was that we found they were earning money so fast, that it was appropriate to up the costs of some things. Obviously the privileges are very specific to the family, and you'd want to make your own. Extra "minutes" means lay down time with Mommy at bedtime. Lots of people disagree with laying down with their kids at bedtime and that's cool if that's how you roll. Maybe I'll write another blog one day on why I do it. But for now, all you need to know is that we time the lay down time they get, and they can buy some extra. They can also buy extra pizza slices (one slice equaling 15 minutes) of iPad time. There's a subsequent blog about the iPad Pizzas here somewhere if you're interested. (One day I may learn how to link you to it from here, but not today, you're on your own for now.) We also have established "hang out time with Daddy" for weekday nights. My husband works late a lot and the hang out time became one on one time for the kids with him. They each get 15 minutes of his undivided attention and time per weekday night, no matter what else is going on. It may not seem like a lot, but when you set the time and keep it, it makes a difference. It's usually squeezed somewhere in between baths and bedtime. So they can buy more of this time. They can also buy staying up late, iPad in bed, a trip to the dollar store to pick a toy, and if they both save up enough (we made a rule that we don't go until they've BOTH saved enough to go- no one gets left behind) then we go to Playtrium (our local indoor playground). I'm sure there will be more privileges we can add as the kids get older and their interests expand. Right now I'm very pleased with how it's working to teach them the value of a dollar earned, and to save their money up for bigger and better items.

These are our home dollars. Never underestimate the value of having a good crafting cutter for the busy DIYer mom! I'd recommend this one, if you're interested (I love everything Fiskars related!):


One last note: beware of forgers! I found this (bottom left, in case you couldn't tell which one was the forgery!) in the packet of money one night. Seems legit. ;)