To decrease the chance for immediate spending and to motivate children to save, give allowances on a Sunday rather than a Friday. To make an allowance system work, parents may want to establish some rules and guidelines. Since allowances shift many spending decisions from parent to child, a written agreement is helpful in determining how the money will be used. Using these guidelines gives parents a way to teach additional money-handling skills. Since allowance money will need to last from pay period to pay period, parents can show their children how to set up a system to plan how they will spend their money.
Parents can also help children set up a system for tracking their spending.
Additional strategies that may help an allowance system work include being creative and tailoring the system to each of your children's unique personalities. Knowing your children and what motivates each of them will help you adapt your approach. There are two big allowance hurdles that may interfere with the success of an allowance system. One is whether to tie an allowance to good behavior. The other is whether to tie it to chores.