I had my first Paper Route when I was nine or ten. Did that for a couple of years but it started to affect me getting my Homework done.
I always did something to make a buck. One day my best friend tells me that he gets a weekly allowance, so I go to my Dad and ask him for an Allowance. (up to that point if I needed money I had to ask and be very specific on who, what, where and why).
My Dad proceeds to look up at the ceiling. I ask him what he is looking at. He says, the roof over your head. LOL
He then tells me if I want an “allowance”, I will have to work for it, so he got me up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to go to work at his Gas Station.
I was there 15 hours every other Saturday, from opening until closing. (Child Labor Laws?, HAHAHA). I think he paid me a buck an hour.
Did that for a couple of years. He wanted me there EVERY Saturday, but my Mother talked him in to letting me have a Life. LOL
I have to admit it was kinda fun, even if he was the Boss from hell. Mopping the Lube Bay was soooo much fun.
As a matter of fact, I ALWAYS had "chores" to do, even when I came home from college, on vacations. No chores done, no allowance!
My father had me working at his business too, but at first for no money at all and later for almost nothing and THAT was combined with "jobs" I had, starting when I was a teen. Until I had my own apartment, after college, I had to hand over the salary, from outside jobs, to my mother, unless I was paying for prom stuff, books, and the like, which was all on me.
It's not as though my family needed my wee salaries and when I did move into my own apartment, my mother used my money, which she had saved for me,to pay for stuff involving that move...such as deposit, first month's rent, etc.!
It certainly taught me the value of a dollar ( not that I really needed such a lesson, because I was always a saver [ I did get to put some of my allowance into a bank account, from very early childhood on ]and never a big "spender" ) and it's stood me in good stead all of my life long.
I don't over spend, have never been in debt, don't buy what I can't afford, and never buy something I don't need/just to have another or the newest thing.