Autopay Allowances Based on Chores Completed

After reading Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children, I felt like I have been making my son’s lives too easy. One major premise in the book is to stop saving your kids from the inconveniences and consequences of their decisions. There’s true empowerment in holding them responsible. However, I didn’t want to teach this punitively. Instead, we opted to incentivize responsibility around the house. While the app ties financial gain to their chores, we make sure to verbally reinforce how grateful we are for the kids doing their fair share around the house. The allowance for chores is more for them to learn to manage their finances than to thank them for their work. For these reasons, we felt Greenlight was the best option for us to try, especially given how crazy our school year and soccer seasons get.

Membership Plans

We decided to go with the Greenlight Core $4.99 plan. This way we can get a good handle on earn, spend, save before trying to tackle more complicated finances, like investing. I like how everything is managed by an adult in the parent app, but visible to the boys in the kids app. The app also have Level Up challenges that teaches them about managing their finances.

Their Allowance

• Any amount can be used, but we opted for a weekly allowance of $5, $20 per month.

• Their allowance is based on % of chores completed for the week, which is automatically tracked in the app. Both the child and the parent can mark/unmark chores on their list.

• Their allowance is automatically sorted into 3 categories: Spend Anywhere (70%), General Savings (20%), and Giving (10%). Permission is needed from the parent to move money from savings to spending. These amounts can be adjusted.

Daily Chores

• Pick up the playroom

  • Jacob is assigned Monday, Wednesday, Friday

  • Jonah is assigned Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays

• Brush your teeth - AM & PM

• Feed the dog (each boy has a dog he is responsible for feeding) - AM & PM

• Read for at least 30 minutes

• Empty the dishwasher (Jacob)

• Take out the trash (Jonah)

• Clean visible marks on slider (Jacob)

• Vacuum the common areas (Jonah)

• Homework

  • Set for weeknights they do not have practice

    • Jacob practices Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, so his homework night is Tuesdays.

    • Jonah practices Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, so his homework night is Thursdays.

  • Responsible for knocking out all homework for the week on their assigned night.

Weekly Chores

• Sort your laundry (Wednesdays and Sundays)

• Clean out the car / pull weeds (alternates every other Sunday)

• Clean their bathroom / Clean the powder room (alternates every other Sunday)

• Clean your bedroom (Sundays)