Pocket money (merged)

Julie84

Rachie_B wrote:

i agree ,definitely have to "earn" their pocket money,dont get anything for doing nothing
i too worked in a shop,a greegrocers as a saturday girl lmao i earned £20 and thought i was rich lol

welcome BTW

Thank you.

flea72

we are in exactly the same position, with dd starting secondary school in september.

we have decided that to start with we will give her £20 a month., and then see if that is a realistic amount. this money is free to do with as she pleases, but is mainly to cover busfares into town, entertainment and non-essential shopping.

i will still buy all her essential clothing and general toiletries but all other clothes have to come out of her allowance, so if she decided she needs a new top just to go to youth club, thats her choice and it comes out of her own money.

i dont expect her to have to work for this money. it a general rule in our house, is somone asks you to do something, you do it, whether there is financial gain or not. I dont want to get into the trap of my kids only being helpful if they think they will get money out of it.

i really think if you are on a tight budget, then giving your kids an allowance works for the best. it saves the arguments over them asking for money and me not having any available. it also means, that if a friend asks them if they want to go out (ie cinema) they know whether they can afford to do it. rather than saying 'yes' then me bearing the brunt of their moods, when i later say 'no'. they have to understand there is a finite amount of money, and you plan ahead and budget accordingly

Flea

Penny-Pincher!!

Evening

Thanks again for the replies!

DD, OH & I all sat down and had a discussion about this tonight. We have come to the conclusion of £25pcm, but to receive this, she has to:

complete her homework daily
keep her room tidy, make the bed (strip bed on friday) and open the blinds
make sure she always has some credit on her mobile
takes plates out after dinner and load into DW
buys her own fancy stationary bits
pays for cinema if she goes out with mates
put dirty washing in wash room
unload DW at the weekend

How does that sound? I know some kids do alot more about the home, but dont want to overload her with chores when she's going to be busy doing 1.5hrs a day on homework IYSWIM. I want her to enjoy her schooling and concentrate on that for her future. Obviously as well teaching her life and social skills along the way-she;s pretty independant and is mature for her age etc.

Thanks again
PP
xx

roswell

Just a thought but why not give her a £25 a month and a £5 overdraft ...... with say 1% interest a month, effectivly youy can teach both money and debt managment, you can havce it now but it will cost you or you can have it next month out of your money ..... just an idea.

Julie84

roswell wrote:

Just a thought but why not give her a £25 a month and a £5 overdraft ...... with say 1% interest a month, effectivly youy can teach both money and debt managment, you can havce it now but it will cost you or you can have it next month out of your money ..... just an idea.

Woah, that sounds confusing to me, let alone a young teenager with her first 'allowance'. :o Don't know how the OP finds that but I sometimes feel setting up an overdraft is like 'expecting' problems, especially at that age. There is no reason why a 12 year old should ever go into debt. I think it would be an imprtant lesson to learn that if you have spent all your money, you will have to go without. Parents are still there to decide whether they think a little help or guidance might be needed.

Penny pincher - I think your system sounds really good and I think it was great that you sat down with your daughter and discussed it all together. The 'point' of an allowance, as I see it, is recognising that your child is growing up and allowing them a bit more independence. By also including her in the 'negotiation' she will feel a much bigger part in it all, and hopefully be grateful (rather than feeling it is owed - she certainly sounds very sensible for her age. ) Sounds like the perfect balance to me - you want her to enjoy her childhood and growing up whilst teaching her life skills and responsibility. (I want to say 'well done' but don't know if that will sound condescending? )

Sweet_Pea_2

This is an interesting thread. My DD's are 10 and 7 and I dont give them any pocket money at all. This is only because my mum gives them £2.00 per week, and she has 2 magazines on order each for them, (all of these are every two weeks, so its the equivalent of a magazine a week each) If one of them loses a tooth, gets a swimming badge or a certificate at school etc she goves BOTH of them an extra pound a week each. She started to do this a couple of years ago. She also gives me £10 every 10 weeks to go in their building societies and so do the in laws.
I think this works out to a lot so I dont give them any money. Neither of them have asked for any more money - my mum and in laws both also give them extra spending money if we go on holiday. I guess Im really lucky as I nearly had a heart attack at the mention of £30 pcm! I only just about have that for myself to spend!
I think the way you have worked it out with your DD Penny Pincher is really good. She sounds great. My own DD1 is in Year 5, Im sure it wont be long before she wants an allowance too and Ill have to think about it. The only thing I do at the moment is put £5 per month credit on her phone, but I dont give DD2 anything as she is too young for a phone. My DD's dont go shopping very often and only really get to spend it at half term so often it accumalates to a hefty sum. Unless they specifically want something I siphon a bit off for their savings accounts, as I think a lump sum of £30 to spend in Woolies on plastic rubbish to clutter up their rooms is a lot, but they are getting to the age where thery will spend it on a CD or DVD which is acceptable.
The only problem at the moment, although my mum gives them the money so its saving money for me, I am not in control of how much they have, my mum insists they have to have the same (she doesn't want to favour one over the other) but if I was paying it, until DD1 goes to secondary school I would tailor it to age, say the same amount in pounds per month as the years in their age. I think their current arrangement will have to come to an end when DD1 goes to secondary school.

roswell

Sorry bit of confusing i didnt mean an actual overdraft i ment op give DD £25 with the option to borrow £5 more but if she borrows it she gets charged .... saying that im the one that sits on the fence that believes money managment shoudl be taught in school not when you turn round and find you have no more available credit and more bills than income.

Rachie_B

a few of you have said that £30 per month is too much yet you have bought them mobile phones at the age of 10 :eek:

pp i think you have come to a good arrangement with your daughter

comping_cat

I feel dreadful reading all this, i dont give my DS (9) or DD (8) any pocket money!!!! Mind you, they do not have to buy anything themselves, and i pay for all their magazines, toileteries, sweets etc, i wouldnt want them to go without. I think they are too young at the moment for mobile phones, but i suppose once they do get one (im thinking secondary school) then i will prob sit down and discuss pocket money then. At the moment, like i said, i pay for everything they need, and they are always with me. If they do go anywhere with friends/family i find out where they are going and what they will be doing and give them the money accordingly.
After reading all this tho, im thinking of working out what i spend on them each week or month, and maybe giving them the money to spend themselves, might be worth seeing if they spend it all, or save any of it!!!!

chardonnay_2

seems like you have got it sussed pp. the only question i would have is why does she want an increase? what does she expect it to cover. as for fancy stationery - poundland do a brill range of stationery, gel pens etc.

we give our dss's £2.50 each a week but have changed it to £10 pcm each. mainly so theyknow they are working towards receiving pocket money rather than expecting it. we expect them to keep their room tidy / open blinds curtains & empty their bin, take their plates through and tidy away their toys games etc. when they stay with us at the weekend we give them a treat of watching dvd's in bed and we also buy them bottles of juice / sweets etc this.

dss1 is at high school but hasn't asked for more. we basically started giving them regular pocket money as when they were younger they always asked for the latest games which we couldn't afford and this taught them to save up for what they wanted. trouble is the money seems to burn a whole in their pockets and it's usually spent on games asap.