Maybe this is too basic for older kids, but my parents paid me an allowance based on chores and other work/merit-based things. Then, they mandated that from that I contributed certain percentages of it to "spending," "saving," and "giving." Might have been something like 60%, 30%, 10% respectively. Pretty sure the giving money went to the church and charities. No idea what happened to the saving money, but notionally you could designate a certain time period before kids could spend it or be very clear that it is for college or a shared family goal or whatever. The "spending" money was mine but I still had to plan out bigger purchases and figured out over time that I couldn't spend everything I had if I ever wanted to buy something more substantial. If I wanted to earn a little more money for allowance than normal, I could do odd jobs around the house/yard that were worth a certain amount. I also had to buy video game time so luckily I didn't become a couch potato! (hey, it was the '80s and I couldn't get enough of Duck Hunt).
Bryan