Paid Chores

Ella and I have had a few conversations in recent months about her opinion that I never buy her anything. It's true that we don't buy them things every time we go to a store, or even most times. It's pretty rare that we buy them anything outside of the normal gift giving occasions. She has everything she could possibly need and most of what she wants. She doesn't need, or really even want, whatever piece of junk toy strikes her fancy in the toy aisle. I typically handle these requests with a simple, "I will put it on your list for your birthday or Christmas." I keep a list for both of them in my phone so they can see me add to it while we stand in the store.

She also really has no concept that it takes money to buy things. We've taught them from the time they were able to feed whatever change we bring home or money they are given to their piggy banks, and they LOVE feeding their pigs. They don't even realize they could take that money to the store and bring home some piece of junk in exchange for it. They know that we go to work to get money to pay the bills and buy the things we need, but that's really the extent of their understanding.

One of the things that is so important to us that they learn is money management and all of the things that go along with it - check writing, reconciliation, saving, planning, tithing, debt retirement - all of it. We want them to be smart about their money by the time they leave our house. We needed to provide a way for them to earn money so that they can learn how to tithe, save, and spend it. Dave and I have talked about how to approach it, consulted Dave Ramsey's web site, our own experiences, and how other parents plan to or have taught these lessons. Neither of us were comfortable with just giving an allowance, and we weren't comfortable paying them for things that we expect them to do anyway - like keeping their rooms neat and putting their stuff away instead of leaving it in the living room. We finally decided on an approach that we hope will work in our family. It's a commission system, similar to what Dave Ramsey suggests.

I talked to Ella about it a few months ago and she loved the idea. We told her we would start it after she turned five, and I finally set it up for her this weekend. I had to put a lot of thought into what chores I am willing to pay her for because I expect her to be responsible for herself and her stuff without payment, and because I had to figure out what she is capable of doing mostly unassisted. The things that I previously set out for her in her daily lists will remain unpaid, and we settled on seven possible jobs that she can do or help with each week. Some of them are daily and some of them are just once or twice a week. I wrote them all out on a piece of scrapbook paper and framed it so we can mark them off with a dry erase marker.

Ella's Paid Jobs

She has the potential to earn $7 a week and of the $7, she will tithe $1 and save $1 (we've set the expectation that she's saving for a car, so it's a long-term savings project). We will pay her on Saturday morning so that she has money for the offering at church on Sunday and money to spend at the store when we do our shopping, if she chooses.

She is very enthusiastic about it right now, and I'm hoping that that will continue as she learns about spending.