Allowance and Blow Money

I was never really consistent with giving my boys an allowance.  I knew how much to give them (though I've now changed that) and that they have to save 25%, put aside 25% for charity, and they can spend 50%.  But I would forget to give it to them or be lax in how they got it.

Now I have it all set up in my Quicken to pay them every two weeks.  They will receive $1 for each year of school they are in.  So my oldest gets $6/week or $12 every 2 weeks because he will be going into 5th grade.  My youngest will get $2/week or $4 every 2 weeks because he will be going into 1st grade.

The other issue we've had is my husband.  He's been upset that he feels like he can never spend any money.  And he's pretty much right.  I've been taking almost everything extra to either save or put as extra towards debt.  I can also see how we should have some blow money for ourselves that we can do anything we want with and not feel guilty about.

So I've set up a beginning point where each of us gets $25 every 2 weeks to do as we wish.  We'll see how it goes and then reevaluate later whether it should be more or less.  My husband seems pretty happy with this and it should reduce any arguments about whether he can spend money on something or not.