Part Two of Chores or Service Opportunities?
As parents, we want our children to have wisdom, faithfulness, and diligence. They need to be able to handle money wisely. They also 
need to learn how to work. We combine these two goals; we pay our children for a portion of their work around the house.
The bible clearly links work with material gain. It also links work to our very sustenance (2 Thes. 3:10-12).
God does not give allowances to those who won’t work (although He does provide for those who can’t). We are living in a time when some believe that they are “entitled” to something for which they did not work.
“What do your children do with all of that money?” you may ask. We divide earnings into seven categories:
- Charity
- Tithe
- Living expenses
- Discretionary spending
- Short-term savings
- Long-term savings
- Dowry
Each category has a portion of the child’s earnings assigned. A spreadsheet allows us to quickly calculate the amount going to each category by entering the number of Service Opportunities completed during the previous week.
Spending money is given to each child. Savings (the last three categories) are spirited away to a savings account. Tithe and charity money is placed into an envelope to give away.
The folks at Doorposts have a publication that explains the concept in detail (complete with bible verses to help you instruct your 
children). It is called Stewardship Street, A Road to Financial Faithfulness. It was our guide as we started teaching our children about how to handle work and money.
Our children now earn their spending money, understand that God expects faithfulness in giving, and know that they have money saved for a “rainy day”.
Click here for a copy of our Service opportunities template to track your child’s earnings.
Hodgepodgedad also adds technical validity and Daddy savvy to his personal site, yourbesthomeschool.com
This is awesome!! We started an allowance just this year for our kids but it was not for doing the chores but for doing them with a (mostly =) pleasant attitude. We divided the money three ways: giving, savings, spending. I think it’s time to go in a new direction. So thanks for this wonderful idea!! Angie
I really like this idea. I have been trying to figure allowance/chores/money etc for our kids and I have never seen THIS type of idea. I am wondering how you came up with the percentages (I looked at the template already). Also what you define short term and long term savings and dowry as? Such as, is dowry to pay for the wedding, used as a traditional dowry, to help furnish a new home, to help pay for a home, pay for honeymoon? So curious! And what type of things the savings go for as well. Thank you!
The percentages were adopted from the Doorposts Stewardship Street. The dowry pays for an eventual wedding, setting up of a household, etc. The parents and the young lady/gentleman can decide when s/he “comes of age”.
Short term savings would be used for things like clothing, school supplies, and other necessity type things. The long term savings is for things like their first car when they reach driving age, setting up a business–things that are a little more expensive to do than the items that the short term savings would be used for.
The spending category is for all of the “want” items. Things like leisure reading materials (books, magazine subscriptions, etc.) Our younger children also use this category for buying the occasional new toy.
The template link is no longer valid – if you have a copy of the file would you mind emailing it to me? Thank you 🙂
I agree the template isn’t available. I love the idea and want to see how that would fit in our house. We have a 7 and 9 yo girls and one (oldest) loves to do chores and has saved her money on own accord for homeless shelter; while her younger sister decides to spend all hers like it is water. Not sure how to motivate youngest, she has seen us open a bank account at credit union who is willing to give Lu $5 extra for every good report card that she gets throughout the year! Still no incentive, so we also decided to match Lu’s $100 by adding our own $100 to her account, and again no incentive for sister who loves to buy!
Dear friends, Hodgepodgedad updated the service opportunities template. Thanks!
On Living Expenses what do you put in this category?