How much to charge 18 year old for board & lodge

freebie_junkie

why do some peopel think that its teh parents responsibility to pay for an adult to get a house?

wellsie82

I'm 18 and i've been working full time since Novemeber as a nursery nurse earing £11500 a year so not too much!

although i still offically live at home i am at my boyfriends flat every night apart from the weekend when we both stay at my house and i eat most of my meals with my boyfriend.

I give my mum £100 a month but she works it out on how much i have earned over that month. I also put money into my ISA and into a joint account which i have with my boyfriend for when we buy a house in a few months time

black-saturn

So your sleeping and eating at your boyfriend and still paying keep to your parents?

wellsie82

black-saturn wrote:

So your sleeping and eating at your boyfriend and still paying keep to your parents?

Yep and i'll happily keep paying

My parents have brought me up for 18 years so it's the least they deserve

aliasojo

wellsie82 wrote:

Yep and i'll happily keep paying

My parents have brought me up for 18 years so it's the least they deserve

Just wanted to say it's nice to see an appreciative child (although I realise you're not a child as such ). Wouldn't the world be a lovely place if all offspring felt like this, lol.

heather38

i paid £50 a week when i lived at home, but this included how much it cost my parents to put me on their car insurance at the time, i started working at 18 and bought my house with my BF when i was 23, my parents never helped us as we didn't want it, it was our house and we wanted to do it ourselves, however my parents gave me back all the money when we got married last year and they told me that they had saved it all along, however they charge my sister rent at the moment and are not saving it as they helped her out with money when she was at uni so the two amounts equal about the same.
i always felt that i should pay rent and offered to pay it in the first place!! i had a SO set up to pay it on payday and never missed it anyway, if i wanted something i had to save like everybody else.
my husband was an only child and spoilt by his mum, he never paid rent and even now his mum still gives him money!! i don't mind as it means that when he wants a new computer game i don't have to pay for it!!!

abbieken888

When I lived at home and was working, I didn't pay anything. This was on the understanding that I saved at least £50 a month (was only earning £200/month mind). I also did all the washing (the whole familys), cooked dinner, helped with shopping, cleaned the whole house etc. I think the only thing I didn't do was vacuum, can't stand it!
My mum and dad both worked over 50+ hours a week, and I only did about 35-40, so it worked out better for us if I did housework as oppose to paying rent.
It does depend on the family and the set up, but the above worked for us. Did set me up well for life now - don't know many 18 year olds who run a household aswell as me lol!

Savvy_Sue

I think as she's on an apprenticeship the OP's daughter may not have a lot of cash coming in, so it will need to be a free and frank discussion of what the household needs / has lost in terms of Child Beneft etc; what the daughter needs to get to and from work, lunches etc; and what will work in the light of that. And I like the idea - from abbieken - that a contribution in terms of housework might be considered equivalent to paying money. I do think that as our teenagers mature, they need to learn how to shop, cook, budget, and do their own laundry, and as well as help with washing up and whatever other housework is considered necessary. Being allowed to turn up for meals and a bed without helping out does no-one any favours!

And wellsie, don't suppose you'd like to put yourself up for adoption would you? What a lovely young lady you are! Hope your parents are very proud of you!

*Louise*

My mum always told us that we could live rent-free if we went to Uni etc, but once we left full-time education, we had to pay 'digs'...fair enough.

It always depended on what we earned.
I was on £100 a week (few years ago now) at one point and I had to pay £20 per week, the max. any of us paid was £35 (my Brother - £250 p/w)

I would charge my kids when they are older - it teaches the value of money. If by some luck I don't need the money from them (here's hoping!) then I would put it aside and give them it at a later date as a surprise. I reckon £25-£30 p/w is reasonable.

november

My daughter is 16 so I've given this some thought. Mind you I gave it thought ages ago so even the 12 year old knows whats coming.

She is currently at college and working p/t so I charge her nothing and whats more pay for her bus pass so she is left with some spending money (for clothes basically - she doesn't go out much as she doesn't earn much).

When she goes to uni if she gets a bursary or is earning (given her current chosen career) I may charge a subsidised amount to allow her to continue with her education.

Generally speaking though I have a set amount in mind which would be their percentage of the running costs of this house (currently 4 people = 25%), plus an addition of either their share of the mortgage or £50 rent whichever is the lower. Subsidised amounts would be allowed for earning less (so they have some personal money but I don't see why they need more personal money than me!) but I wouldn't do a percentage so they wouldn't be penalised for earning more. Yes I know this comes to more than £50 in total so am aware that they probably won't ever actually pay the full amount as hopefully they will leave before they are earning that much! However its important I think that they know what the initial figure is and that I am allowing them a subsidised amount so they have an idea of reality.

I don't see why I should save this money towards their future housing costs Its money that they will be 'spending' e.g. food, utilities (and they probably use more electricity than I do!!). If they want to save from their 'personal amount' they can. In fact they already do ......... and I jokingly refer to this as their 'deposit for moving out'

I can't remember how much I paid. I earned £20 back in 1977 and think I gave my mum about £5 of it although it could have been more. I remember I also bought her a bunch of flowers on pay day every week. I remember feeling 'well off' rather than hard done by I can remember I left home shortly after (aged 17) and went into lodgings where the cost of living was roughly the same as it had been at home so obviously my parents had charged the right amount! (The roughly is because when I left I bought my own dinner in my first lodgings but not in the second).

[edited to add]
Both my children already know how much this house costs to run e.g. how much the mortgage is, how much electric and gas costs. I told them when they were old enough to understand allowances and pocket money is based on what we have coming in and what is going out and that what was left needed dividing up between all of us! They also both take 25% of household chores, being IMHO old enough.

Good idea about the extra jobs for less 'rent' though. I will bear that one in mind!