An Allowance System for Kids and Giving Back to the Community

Allowance System for Kids

Teaching my daughter to give back to those in need is very important to me. I want to raise her to be kind and understand that sometimes people need help and if we can help them, we should. Recently Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company asked me to share how I’m teaching my kiddo to give back to the community.

On the playground the moms and I often chat about what we do to “reward” our kids good behavior. Three years ago, when my daughter was 3, I had a good jar and naughty jar system to help me get her to listen (please put your pajamas on when I ask, please). Eventually she grew out of caring about the rocks and realized money is pretty amazing, so I changed up our reward system. Our new system has a “Fun” jar, “Bank” jar, “Donation” jar, and “Allowance” jar.

The “Fun” jar can be used however she wants! When we first started the money jars she wanted to use her fun money to take us out to lunch (very sweet), but she’s since changed her mind and likes to use that money to buy toys, or cool bug eating plants.
The “Bank” jar is the money that goes directly into her savings account. We set up a savings account in an actual bank and when that jar is full, we deposit the coins in there.
The “Donation” jar is used to give back to our community. My daughter gets to choose where the money goes, as long as it helps someone. Once we bought toys for kids, and another time we bought food for a local food drive.
The “Allowance” jar is like the bank. This is where my husband and I dump our change and we grab money from here for my daughter’s allowance. When she cleans her room, or makes her bed each day during the week: we grab a small handful of coins and she spreads them evenly between the “Fun”, “Bank”, and “Donation” jars.

It takes her a couple months to really fill these jars up and I’m always surprised by how much money is actually in those tiny jars. If my kiddo isn’t listening we do threaten to take away some allowance (we would only take from the “Fun” jar), but we’ve never really had to take any away.

If you love this allowance system, feel free to download these free printables I made for you! You can print them, cut them out, tape them to some popsicle sticks, and attach to your allowance jars. Download the blue here. Download the pink here.

From July 11th – July 31st you can check out the Jewelers Mutual “Band Together” campaign to help them decide how to disperse a $2 million record-breaking donation by voting for one of the following nonprofits: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, and Feeding America or Food Banks Canada. The cause that receives the most votes by the end of July will receive a $1 million donation from Jewelers Mutual. The runner-up will receive $700,000 and $300,000 will go to the third-place winner. That’s an amazing donation for all three causes and on top of that voters will be entered for a chance to win weekly jewelry prizes from STACKED New York. Each week, one lucky winner will receive a set of 3 stacking bands ($450 retail value). You can vote daily to increase your chances of winning! It’s easy to vote, check it out!