# As a child, how much was your first allowance? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451 "2013-08-28T23:30:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/1 "2013-08-28T23:30:18Z")
Assuming that you got one of course. I remember getting a dime a week in the late 60’s. When it got raised to a quarter a week, I thought I was rich. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/2 "2013-08-28T23:38:33Z")
I recall getting a dollar a week allowance in 4th grade. It was up to a couple bucks a week by junior high. Then $5 a week in high school. I started making extra money mowing neighbor’s yards when I was 12. I didn’t get much. Maybe $5 a yard at that age. $10 when I was 17. I never had more than three or four yards to mow regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/3 "2013-08-28T23:42:40Z")
I got $1 a week for taking the bathroom trash to the bigger trash. I was 4. I saved for a month to buy a $4 batcave from K-Mart. Boy was that sweet! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/4 "2013-08-28T23:55:19Z")
I remember getting twenty-five cents a week, which was the current price of a comic book. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/5 "2013-08-28T23:58:11Z")
I had a chore chart that awarded me a certain amount of money for certain chores. I seem to recall that I could get between a nickel and a quarter depending on the task and how often it had to be done. I may have had a static allowance before that, but if I did I don’t remember what I got. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/6 "2013-08-28T23:59:20Z")
Back in the mid 70’s I got $2 per week as an 8-10 yr old. Mum owned and ran a Milk Bar. I’m not sure what the US translation of that is, but it was a small mixed business, like a general store that also sold lollies, drinks and did food such as burgers, fish and chips, sandwiches, etc. So, for $2 a week plus all I could eat, I worked there every day after school and on the weekends serving behind the counter, preparing food and stacking shelves. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/7 "2013-08-29T00:01:47Z")
25c a week, starting when I was 5 (1970). I got 5c raises every year on my birthday. When I was 10 or so, my allowance was doubled to $1 a week. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/8 "2013-08-29T00:07:08Z")
i got a wooden nickel and i had to dry the dishes and rake the leaves. when i got big enough to push the reel lawnmower i did that too. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/9 "2013-08-29T00:07:41Z")
25c /week in1956. Thankfully comics weren’t that expensive at that point. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/10 "2013-08-29T00:22:20Z")
In theory, it was $5/month in the late 80’s, but I only got that when my father got around to it. So $10/year was more like what I really got. In practice, I got my allowance by skipping lunch and keeping my lunch money. That was $3 for each day we got lunch money, which was about 4 times a month. (We made our own lunches most of the time.) (My father also promised to pay me an hourly rate for baby sitting my youngest brother during the summer. Not only did he never pay me for that either, but he later bitched about the fact that I didn’t get a summer job.) ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/11 "2013-08-29T00:33:59Z")
35c a week, while my younger brother got 25c. It kept me in MAD Magazine regularly. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/12 "2013-08-29T00:38:30Z")
Oh. Oh my. I didn’t get an allowance until middle school (6th grade) and it was $20/week which included lunch if I so chose. Didn’t increase at all from then until college. College “living expense” was $200/month. Again, if I didn’t want to eat, so be it (except for freshman year where everyone was mandated to get a meal plan). ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/13 "2013-08-29T00:44:51Z")
25c a week starting around 1975. It was enough for a candy bar plus something else. I frequently saved it up to buy something bigger. By age 12 in 1982 I was getting $1.50 a week in theory, but money was very tight so we didn’t always get our allowance. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/14 "2013-08-29T01:03:52Z")
They paid me in dirt. And I was thankful to get it. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/15 "2013-08-29T01:05:46Z")
A nickel a week, 1950’s-early 1960’s. I squandered it all on penny candy. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/16 "2013-08-29T01:11:39Z")
A dime a week in the late fifties exactly enough for a comic then. And it most often went for one. I recall bargaining up when comics went to 12 cents in 1962-3 (?) ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/17 "2013-08-29T01:16:16Z")
A dime a week in the fifties. The cost of a comic book. One July I was so proud of myself because I saved four of them and walked into the drug store, climbed up on a stool and ordered myself a banana split. By the time I was sixteen I had to work if I wanted money. I hoed beans or sugar beets in the early morning with a farm crew, then went to the local café and washed the lunch hour dishes and straightened up. Then I went home and did cleaning and ironing for my mother and in the evening I waitressed at the local drive in. Of that I saw maybe five dollars - don’t remember. The rest my mother put in a bank account for me for a rainy day. She really didn’t do a very good job of teaching me how to handle money by taking it over, I think. But I certainly learned the value of a dollar and later, when the rainy day came, of having some money saved away. And in spite of the fact that I was kept pretty busy in the summer I still managed to get into my share of mischief! ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/18 "2013-08-29T01:21:19Z")
I was a 90’s child. I started at $5 every two weeks when mom got paid. Within 5 years or so I had wheedled my way up to $10 every two weeks - $5 automatically into my savings and $5 into my hand. Never went higher than that. I had a sheet on the fridge that I had to sign to prove I was paid. I often squandered it on Sandylion sticker sheets. By high school my parents would pay me to do things they didn’t like to do and would otherwise have had to hire a contractor for. They didn’t like heights and I wanted money so they paid me $6 an hour to repaint the whole barn. Another summer I got $800 or so to regrout and repaint all the windows (including the third story attic windows). Sometimes about once a year when I needed extra cash I’d offer to wash all the windows, inside and out, for $30 a window. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/19 "2013-08-29T01:29:54Z")
A dollar a week for a while in the mid '70s…I don’t remember when I got a “raise” but when I did, it went up to $3.25. I thought I was rolling in money! I didn’t have much to buy with it, though–my mom kept me in comic books every week and we always had M&M’s (my candy of choice) in the house, so I think I mostly spent it on paperbacks. Got a job when I was in high school working at the library–I think I made about $75 every couple of weeks, which was quite nice. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451/20 "2013-08-29T01:45:21Z")
I didn’t actually get an allowance, per se. My dad used to give us 25 cents on the night Laugh In was on TV and my mum went 5 pin bowling. Typically if I needed money for something I was given it, but I really don’t recall having an allowance. In Canada, back in the day, parents used to get a child allowance cheque from the government. I think it was in the $20 - $25 a month range when I was a kid. When I turned about 13 my mum decided she would just hand this money over to the kids. So in my teen years I always had my $20ish dollars a month care of Pierre Trudeau. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-child-how-much-was-your-first-allowance/667451.md?page=2)