7yo and 5yo earning pocket money - ideas please

[Moondust]

We're going on holiday in August to a campsite that has arcades. We went to a similar place last year and my children loved playing on the 2p machines, 50p whack-a-moles etc and we spent a fortune! This year I'd like them to earn some pocket money on the lead up to the holiday so that they can spend this in the arcades (if they want to) but have a budget and can be more selective lol. Also my 7yo has been asking about getting pocket money recently so is at the age where she's interested in it and I think my 5yo would be mightily miffed if 7yo got some and he didn't!

I'm looking for ideas on how they can earn it. I'm not keen on paying them to do basic household things like making their beds etc as they should just be doing this anyway because they live here! But does anyone have any ideas on other pocket-money earning tasks?? I'm having a mind blank lol 😄

Match up pairs of socks after laundry and delivering them to the correct bedroom!
Wash the car with bucket and sponge
Weed the drive
Clean the shower
Dust surfaces they can reach (I’d probably give mine a chair to stand on so they could do all the shelves in the sitting room!).

Feed any pets
Tidy living room
Light gardening
Help put away gorceries
Write the gorcery list - love a bit of stealth learning
Water the plants
Put recycling out in the evening
Put away the cutlery
Tidy shoes/hallway
Dusting
Hoovering

For my almost 4 year old she gets pocket money if she puts her clothes in the linen basket 5 times, has good teeth cleaning 5 times helps us once and tidies up her toys or room once. She gets a £1 from grandad when she does some washing up for him.

She probably did this most weeks anyway it's more about solidify good habits. For the 5 year I would pick a couple of things daily routine things and a couple of weekly things that they already do some of the time. For the 7 yo I would also add an extra task that you would like them to do that they don't do as often.

Cleaning windows and mirrors
Doing the cutlery bit of the dishwasher
Watering plants
Sorting recycling
Dusting and polishing things

I've just had my six year old step son was the pots (under my supervision) wipe the kitchen surfaces and pick up toys and he earned £2.50 :)

Pick weeds
Dust the bookshelf
Match the socks
Feed the pets
Sweep or vacuum
Help cook- snap the beans, husk corn, peel potatoes or carrots, stir, etc
Organise their toys

DS7 gets £3 per week plus another £1 if he gets 10/10 in his spellings and £1 if he gets over 30 on his number ninja.

He also earns £1 for every bed he strips at the weekend.

I once paid my kids per matching pair out of the giant odd socks pile. They loved it and I swerved a pig of a job - happy days!

Washing the car is always a good one!

Unless they use a pan scrubber!

These are great ideas, thank you!!

I'm looking for ideas on how they can earn it. I'm not keen on paying them to do basic household things like making their beds etc as they should just be doing this anyway because they live here! But does anyone have any ideas on other pocket-money earning tasks??

Totally agree with you that everyone who lives in the house should contribute to the running of it, at an age appropriate level, so we never 'paid' ours for household jobs either BUT I'd extend that to everyone ought to have some (again, age appropriate amount of) money to choose to spend or save as they wish. 'Just because'. This is how pocket money was given in our house.

We gave them pocket money so they would learn the value of coins - as in 'value to them', rather than the "maths" side of it, or the 'theory' when they 'did money' in school.

So they learned the concept of making a choice between spending it when you got it, or putting some aside and saving so you had some when you wanted it later - a bigger toy or holiday money for the arcades.

So they learned that 'when it is gone, it is gone'.

So they learned instant gratification is nice for a very short time, but nothing like the satisfaction of having saved up for that one thing they want.