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I don't like the idea of tying mandatory chores to an allowance.. They should learn that being in a family means having responsibilities and that they can't just choose not to do them one week because they don't feel like it and don't care if they don't get the money.

So taking out the garbage, unloading the dishwasher, doing your own laundry, etc are things I probably wouldn't tie to an allowance.

And those extra infrequent jobs I usually offered extra. "I'll give you $20 to go break down all the boxes in the garage and load them into the car". This is pretty unsuccessful for me though, my kid doesn't care about money or stuff enough lol.

I've seen some parents do enforced savings, i.e. half of the allowance has to go into savings.

As for the amount, I tried to scale it according to the kinds of things he'd want to spend it on and how long I thought was reasonable to expect him to save. Did I want him to save for 1 week for a $40 LEGO set? 1 month? 6 months? If the kid's money is more about activities and being social then maybe scale it according to that, what's a reasonable number of movies to see with friends a month and how much do they need to have to be able to do that and still have some money.

Part of it is education about just using money, part of it is fostering independence, part is teaching value and saving and delayed gratification.

We haven't done allowance in a while now, he seems to get enough as gifts to meet his needs.