how did you spend your allowance?

[sidcharles]

there was a time when i would buy comic books

 

after all, he was the King of the Road Knights

Clint Curtis (Character) - Comic Vine

[Mike C]

On plastic model cars.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Model Railroader, Popular Science, Hot Rod and Rod & Custom magazines, model and electronics stuff...mostly...not that there was all that much to spend, but I did make money washing cars and mowing lawns.

Edited July 31 by Ace-Garageguy

[drodg]

Mine as a kid definitely model cars.  I remember once maybe 1965 I went to the store and instead of getting something for my mom for her birthday I bought a new AMT Stingray kit.   Still haunts me how hurt she was.   

[Calb56]

Hot Rod Magazine, Motor Trend, Marvel comics and definitely Hot Wheels which I wish I still had...

 

[Volzfan59]

I spent my allowance on model kits.

[John M.]

Model cars. When I was a teen years ago, I'd hop the bus to Woolworth's after Christmas and buy model kits that were part of the store's after holiday clearance sale for $2 each. Mostly it was MPCs 

[1930fordpickup]

That was a curse word in my house. Being one of 11 children we did not get one or birthday presents. My parents also did not expect birthday presents as adults when we got jobs and told us we did not have to do that. Maybe that is why my stash is so large. LOL

[JollySipper]

I never really got an allowance........ I learned early that working made money, so that's what I did in order to have spending money. It usually went to clothes and such, and models of course...... 

[Calb56]

39 minutes ago, JollySipper said:

I never really got an allowance........ I learned early that working made money, so that's what I did in order to have spending money. It usually went to clothes and such, and models of course...... 

My "allowance" came from chores.

[iamsuperdan]

I never got an allowance. But there was a direct correlation between the amount of housework I assisted with and how much resistance my parents gave when I asked them to buy me things.

And that's how we did it with our kids. The more they helped out around the house, the more we helped them when they wanted something.

 

Anyway, my parents bought me a lot of Hot Wheels and Matchbox back in the day. And then I discovered models.

 

 

[ksnow]

Hair band cassettes.

Dad bought me all the models I wanted, but wouldn't spend a dime on that "jungle music."

[TonyK]

What I can remember as an allowance was 15 or 25 cents a week. Long time ago and very young. The real  money came when I was old enough to go berry pickin' in the summer and that was spent on models; and save a bunch to last through the year.

[Volzfan59]

51 minutes ago, Calb56 said:

My "allowance" came from chores.

Mine too! My pops worked me like a rented mule, but if he was home he’d be right there beside me. Guess that’s I’ve always had a great work ethic.

[Volzfan59]

5 hours ago, John M. said:

Model cars. When I was a teen years ago, I'd hop the bus to Woolworth's after Christmas and buy model kits that were part of the store's after holiday clearance sale for $2 each. Mostly it was MPCs 

Been there, done that!

[stitchdup]

allowance? i was allowed food and had to be home before dark. my nearest shop when i was little was an airplane ride away so money meant nothing to me

[Can-Con]

Liquor and ho , ,,  OH, wait, you mean when I was a kid, right? 🤨

[meechum68]

No allowance here, but grew up on a farm, so when I worked in the hayfield, or loaded hay in the winter for our landlord, or cut firewood and stacked it for my uncle, I spent it on 3 things all the time:

Models and supplies

Crochet stuff, yarn and needles

Books 

 

Now the "allowance" is model stuff, painting stuff, video games, stuff for my pick up, fishing bits and bobs, books .. lots of books. 

 

[Tim W. SoCal]

  I was another that never got an allowance, but had a BUNCH of chores to do every day after school. I got an afternoon newspaper route when I was 12 and worked it 7 days a week by myself until I was 16. I also bussed tables, washed 50 lbs. of Pinto Beans, peeled and cored 40 lbs. of Brown Onions, washed dished and did closing clean-ups at a Mexican style fast food restaurant when I was 14. (my Social Security statements show me starting to pay into that program when I was 14) Anyway, with the money I saved, I bought my first motorcycle, a Kawasaki G5 100, model car kits (which retailed at 2 bucks a pop back then) and supplies, Hot Wheels cars (still have all of the first three year's editions stashed away) CarToons magazine, Car Craft Magazine ('cause it sold for 35 cents and Hot Rod was 50 cents) Dirt Bike and Motocross Action magazines and, occasionally, Mad Magazine.

[johnyrotten]

Not really an allowance, I'd get handed small jobs in the shop and get a few bucks for it. That morphed into me becoming the "pull this or that out" guy, and more money. That money went towards models,clothes, bicycles and eventually my first two cars. Taught me the value of working towards something 

[NOBLNG]

I think I got a dollar a week? Then on Saturday, I would go pester mom while she was grocery shopping and she would pay me to go away. When that was done she would go join dad in the pub for a bit and I would go peer at them through the window in the vendor till they paid me off again. 
I spent that mostly on pop and comic books…Superman, Batman, Spiderman, RichieRich, Two Gun Kid are some that I recall.  Later when I started working at 13 and earning my own money, I started buying models, a cassette player, Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding magazines, and I don’t recall what all else….Then a ‘67 Falcon.

Edit:There were chores that needed to be done to earn the initial dollar. My first paying job at 13 was cleaning the barn and driving tractor for a nearby farmer. Some of that money I spent on bicycles and parts. I asked for something odd, like a spoke threader maybe? at the local hardware store, and the owner offered me a job assembling bikes. I worked there part time after school and full time in summer, plus evenings as a projectionist at the theatre until I graduated high school.

Edited July 31 by NOBLNG

[Mike 1017]

Comic Books

[bobss396]

I got 10 cents a week, I was 1 of 5 kids and we were poor folk. So we generally blew it on candy or balsa wood gliders. 

Models I had to wait for my birthday or Xmas. If I got money, of course it went for models.

We did work for neighbors at 50 cents per hour all summer. My mom would give us "contract" work, like weeding or painting. No joke, with a contract we had to sign.

Winter, we shoveled snow. I'd give up around the $9 mark. My younger brother once stayed out until dark, he came home with $27.

[ranma]

Allowance? Well I got one when I was growing up, which didn't last long with a "Little Brother tax" . My older brother was sort of a bully to me when growing up. Also done some things /forced that shouldn't had happened. All that got swept under the "rug" by my Parents!

[Little Timmy]

I was bucking bales of Alfalfa when I was 7 .made $5 a day .

Had my own paper route when I was 11 . The other kids would screw around and didn't take it seriously so I ended up with 4 routes I turned into One large route.

Never had an allowance. I spent my own money on the usual car Mags, model kits,  heavy metal records, and clothes.  ( I quickly learned that just because your friends bought expensive clothes doesn't mean they were quality clothes. I was only "trendy" for a few months in 1977. )