so you save kid's child benefit money?

tazandtommy

I get about £78 CTC and about £50 FA
It all goes towards his child care which is £540 every 4 weeks:eek: :eek:

smileypigface

I may be wrong .. but I seem to recall ages and ages ago reading that if you put all the CB into the right sort of investment account and kept it going throughout the life of the child - on into adult-hood - that it would provide a good value pension (so good you wouldn't need to worry about making any other pension provision throughout your working life) - not sure if maybe I dreamed that up

Never had the opportunity to find out though as ours has always gone on senseless frivolities ... roof over head, food on table .. you know the kind of thing!!!

busiscoming2

I haven't read all the posts but I have always saved the FA - between xmas and the summer it went towards our summer holiday and between summer and xmas it bought the bulk of xmas pressies and food.

Lunar_Eclipse

plzhelpmesave! wrote: »

Luckily they're too young for pocket money yet!

Well it really depends on your point of view.

As soon as a child takes any interest in shopping and starts to express 'wants', then that is a great age to introduce pocket money IMO to help them make safe choices through relatively limited spending. It also has the brilliant side effect of shifting ownership to them, without any 'can I buy a x/y/z' when you're out and about. You would also be able to see very quickly whether your child was a natural saver or spender, how good they are at delaying gratification by saving up for something and how this changes as they mature.

Many people think pocket money is for the child. When in fact it typically is a parent's primary tool for educating their offspring about money.

In answer to the OP's question, ours goes into the pot.

Grumpysally

I had been putting £100 into a savings account to pay for holiday pocket money, Christmas and birthday pressies. However since DS turned 18 last month and my ex has stopped paying maintenance for him, plus my shopping bill increasing every time I go to the supermarket, it all goes into the pot.

keld

Ours goes towards holidays and christmas. I keep meaning to move some by DD into a savings account so it can't get spent.

Kaz2904

Mine goes into the general slush fund. The kids get clothed and shod, holidays, food, clubs etc. They get £2 per week pocket money (aged 6 & 4) and £25 per month goes into pensions for them which have been running for nearly 3 years.
We overpay our mortgage and know that if they want to go to university then we will have to subsidise them so by getting our mortgage cleared before they go is of more benefit to all of us than saving their child benefit for them to blow on booze!

Brightness

Mine goes into my account along with the CTC. I can't afford to just give it to my son but pay for all his clothes, toiletries, food and every thing else he needs as well as contributing to college trips & general needs etc.

If I added up all the money that I actually spend just on him per month, it would be far more than the CB and CT put together. As he's just passed his driving test and can't afford a car he's also going on my insurance and guess who'll be forking out for the petrol as well.......

He does actually work by the way but only a few hours per week as his course is so intense and he is there from 8.30 - 4.30 most days. He uses this as his pocket money - We're still waiting to hear from the EMA people.....

welshnoonoo

biscotte wrote: »

We get a lot here (I'm not in the UK), about £300 for three children per month, and if we saved that up it would be quite a significant amount.

Flippin 'eck Biscotte - tell me where you are - I need to book a flight!

biscotte

Sounds good doesn't it but I'm in Switzerland where everything costs about twice as much as the rest of Europe (especially meat - no kidding, an under 3 lb chicken costs about 15CHF = £6.50).

Luckily I live near the border so I pop over to Germany to do my shopping:rotfl: (a chicken is only 4.90 euros there!)