Pocket Money and Chores Record

Who this is for

The jobs your family has agreed, written in by your family, with a tick box for each day of the week and the amount you agreed beside them. The ticks and the amounts add themselves up, so payday is arithmetic instead of an argument.

Households where pocket money is tied to jobs and households where it is not, parents keeping a fair record between siblings, and older children who would rather see the week written down than be told what they did.

What this helps you track

• The jobs your household has agreed, in your own words
• Who each job belongs to this week
• A tick for each day it was actually done
• The amount your family agreed against each job
• What the week comes to, and what was actually handed over

How to use it

1. Write the week and the children's names at the top, and put the currency in so the columns read the same way.
2. Fill the job column in yourselves — the sheet arrives empty on purpose, because what counts as a job is a household decision.
3. Put a name in the who column, and change it week to week if the jobs move around.
4. Tick the day columns as jobs are done, by whoever is doing the ticking.
5. Write the amount your family agreed for each job; there is no rate on this sheet and never will be.
6. Use the second table for what was actually paid out and when, and compare the two totals at the end of the week.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How much pocket money should a child get?

That is a family decision and the sheet takes no view. There is no suggested amount, no per-job rate and no age anywhere on it. Every figure is one you agreed and wrote in.

Should pocket money be tied to chores at all?

Plenty of households do it both ways, and the sheet works either way. Leave the amount column empty and it is a chore chart; fill it in and it is a pay sheet.

Why is the job column empty when it prints?

Because a list of jobs we invented would fit nobody. Write in the ones that exist in your house, in the words your children already use for them.

Do the ticks add up?

Yes. Each day column totals the ticks in it, and the summary counts the jobs listed and the ticks across the week. It is counting and nothing more — the sheet has no view on what a good week looks like.

What is the second table for?

What actually left somebody's pocket. Agreed and paid are two different things, and keeping them in separate tables is what stops an argument three weeks later.