Our Chore System & Chore Chart Printables

We’ve had our new chore system in place for about a month now and so far it’s working well for us. In the past we have tried to use the chore system from Managers of Their Homes…but cards started getting lost, the younger ones had trouble getting them in and out of the pouches and overall it just didn’t work as well for us as I had envisioned.

I also want to explain a little bit of the ‘why’ behind our chore system and how we’re implementing it in our household. You may {or may not} agree with our reasoning…and that’s ok, but this has developed after a lot of talking and merging of different ideas. The full page chore chart goes along with our Weekly Workbox System Grid and is the same size, so it fits as the top page of the set and hangs on the wall.

The Basics of the System

In life there are things that we do on a day-to-day basis that are unpaid and things that result {generally} in a paycheck. Rick mows the lawn, does upkeep on the house, takes out the trash…but other than a thanks from me, it’s an unpaid job. :) He has a paid job that involves him showing up to work on time, completing certain tasks, etc… Neither of us want our children growing up thinking that money is just handed to them. We want them to develop a good work ethic and understand the balance between work and pay  ~ if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. If you DO work, there are benefits to that. We also want them to learn how to budget their money and manage it before they are in their teens or 20’s and don’t have a clue what to do.

The system that we’re using has two parts: expected chores and paid chores. The two sets go hand in hand though. The expected chores need to be done in order for the paid chores to get paid out. That means that no money is earned unless the basic chores are completed {and Mommy checks to make sure they are done!}.

There are certain things that we expect our kids to do around the house because they are members of the household ~ making of beds, picking up of rooms, etc… Those are the basic chores. Each of our kids has a set of 3 morning expected morning chores and 3 afternoon/evening chores.

Our chore charts are attached to our Weekly Workbox Grid and hang on the wall so the kids have easy access to them. They are laminated and have check boxes next to each of the chores so I can check off with a Sharpie when they have completed a chore {and remove the Sharpie marks later with nail polish remover}. The last column is the “Today I Earned” column where we they can see how much they earned that day. Payday is Saturday and Sunday is a day of rest and no earning. :)

Laurianna’s Chore Chart

Each of the kids has 3 additional chores a day that will earn them money. The money varies from child to child ~ the older they get and the more ‘responsible’ the chore is, they earn a little extra…but we’re still cheap!. They cannot earn the money unless they complete their daily chores {i.e. if they miss one of the daily chores, no cash even if they complete all of the ones they can earn on}. It might seem a little harsh, but the kids are quickly learning the importance of completing what has been put in front of them!

The Chores

Here’s a list of the daily/expected chores that we have for the kids on their charts. They obviously have other things they need to do during the day, but these are the key things we chose to focus on and they may change out if we are having difficulty with certain things being done. For example, oral hygiene is high on the list for a certain 5 year old....

Laurianna {age 9}: make bed/pick-up room, water plants, devotions, pick-up school stuff, clean up basement {family room}, shoes/jacket away, clean off dresser and under bed

McKenna {age 7}: same as above

Zachary {age 5}: make bed/pick-up room, brush teeth, devotions, pick-up school stuff, clean up basement/family room, shoes/jacket away, clean under bed

Kaleb {age 3}: make bed, pick-up room, devotions, wipe table/chairs, pick-up basement/family room, shoes/jacket away

The paid chores change daily, and again there are things that the kids are still expected to do {like put away their laundry}, but these are the extra paid chores by child.

Laurianna: Clean out bathroom sink, start load of laundry, vacuum basement and spare room, clean toilets, dust living room, and yardwork {25 cents a chore, max of 75 cents day}.

McKenna: Wash breakfast table, laundry from washer to dryer, vacuum bedroom, wash bathroom mirror, clean bathroom counters, and yardwork {20 cents a chore, max of 60 cents day}.

Zachary: Load the dishwasher, clothes out of dryer, clean out the van, vacuum bedroom, wash patio door, wash bathroom mirror/clean walls, and yardwork {15 cents a chore, max of 45 cents day}.

Kaleb: Help sort dirty clothes & help start laundry {with Laurianna}; vacuum living room & kitchen; empty bathroom trash; wash patio door; help with dishes; and yardwork {10 cents a chore, max of 30 cents day}.

Payday

Saturday is payday at our house because there aren’t any chores that earn money on Sunday. When we pay the kids for their chores, we also divide out the money that they have earned as follows: 20% giving {we want them to be generous from the start!}, 40% savings and 40% spending.

Rick and I are huge fans of Dave Ramsey and have led his Financial Peace class at our church several times because we have experienced first hand the importance of being debt free. We were deeply in debt {not including our house} to the tune of almost $65,000 around the time Zachary was born. We got serious about paying off that debt {gazelle intensity as Dave would say} and paid it all off in 19 months! We made many dumb money mistakes over the years and really want to teach our children how to deal with money now while we can ~ so they don’t repeat the same mistakes that we made. If you are interested, I would highly recommend the book Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. That was a bunny trail, but I think it’s important that you also understand a little more of the why behind what we do!

The Charts

Obviously your house and chores may not line up with what we have listed, but if you’d like to use the grid that I made, you can download the blank chore chart templates, write in your chores and then laminate them to use. The Chore Chart printables have 5 pages, all the same format, just different colors ~ purple, pink, blue, green and white.

I’m revamping Kaleb’s a little bit, since he can’t read yet. His will be a picture version of the chore chart and I’ll be sharing that soon with you all too! It’ll be more ‘preschool-style’ when all is said and done. :)

You can download the Chore Chart printables pdf file by clicking on the image below.