Allowance (money)

An allowance is an amount of money given or allotted usually at regular intervals for a specific purpose. In the context of children, parents may provide an allowance (British English: pocket money) to their child for their miscellaneous personal spending. In the construction industry, an allowance may be an amount allocated to a specific item of work as part of an overall contract.

The person providing the allowance usually tries to control how or when money is spent by the recipient so that it meets the aims of the person providing the money. For example, a parent giving an allowance may be motivated to teach their child money management, and the allowance may be either unconditional or tied to the completion of chores or the achievement of specific grades.^[1]

The person supplying the allowance usually specifies the purpose, and may put controls in place to make sure that the money is spent only for that purpose. For example, company employees may be given an allowance or per diem to provide for meals, and travel when they work away from home, and then be required to provide receipts as proof, or they may be provided with specific non-money tokens or vouchers such as a meal voucher that can be used only for a specific purpose.^{[citation needed]}