Strollerderby

My parents started giving me a monthly allowance around the age of 11 (10 years ago, for inflation computation purposes ;P) on a Visa Buxx card, basically a debit card for kids that allows supervision by the parents. They would buy me the bare essentials like school supplies, and the big occasional necessities like a winter coat or running shoes. Other than that, all clothes, activities, and food that wasn't eaten at home or school needed to be bought out of that allowance. It raised to 125 in high school - which sounds like a lot but truly isn't when you consider that it includes all clothes. I'm a senior in college now, and at least through the end of undergraduate, they use a similar system - they pay my tuition, and give me 1500 a month for rent, food, books, clothes, and anything else I need or want. This has remained constant as I've moved apartments, which is relevant because my rent has NOT been constant, but they expect me to choose my location based on my own financial abilities. At this point they don't really pay for any extras, with the exception of maybe an extra hundred when I'm buying books (maybe a third or quarter of the total books cost) at the beginning of a semester. For what it's worth, I'm extremely well organized with money, and am acutely aware of finances at all times, in ways that some friends whose parents pay their credit cards, for instance, are not. I'm currently overloading on classes and so am not working during the school year, but when I do have a job, the amount they give me decreases enough that I still get some benefit but am not being completely subsidized. It's certainly a privilege to be able to afford this kind of arrangement, but it keeps things balanced and predictable, and eased me into managing my own money extremely well. YMMV.

I never got an allowance in my life. (well except now that I am married, but thats more for groceries and other essentials) My mom would occasionally give us money for doing a chore when we made a deal with her first. And the money was going towards something we decided we wanted. We never just got anything, even when we were little. My dad never gave us anything, everyonce in a while i got $10 to go to the movies. but that was it. When I turned 14 I worked in a tabacco field during the summer (i wirked for only two weeks because that was how long it took to clear the fields) I made a little more than $5 an hour. And then i had to save that money and use it to buy my school clothes, so i had about $200 for clothes for an entire year. I did that until I moved out of his house when i was 17. When i started college i had a job and lived at home, i had to pay for everything by myself (i got grants and loans for tuition). And when i quit college after a semester i had to pay rent. I even payed for my own car. I take pride in the fact that i was never handed anything.