'How much pocket money do you give to your kids?' poll discussion

System

I have a 15yo. She gets £19.50pw from her job. We don't give here anything else but do occasionally buy some clothes for her.

rosalie-lavender

karent wrote: »

I have 2 teen daughters 14 and 16. They get 5 pounds a week. I provide minimal amounts of clothing, just enough to get by on, and school uniforms. The younger one spends all hers on clothes, the eldest has saved everything for months, as she wants to visit friends in Canada this year. Totally different! They are expected to share most of the housework with me, as a single parent working full time I couldn't manage otherwise. They are wonderful. Was contemplating a small rise, as they really do deserve more.

The elder one will get £30 per week EMA next year, the younger one not till the following year. Any suggestions on how to handle the pocket money issue during that year. Don't want jealousy. Obviously I will talk to them about it but just wondered what you thought

I have a five year old aswell, and I will be interested to hear how others deal with pocket money. Not sure how many chores she'd do, I think she'd rather starve than tidy up!!!!!

I had the same issue with mine and had a chat with the eldest and we decided between us that he would try and spend some of his money on things that would also benefit his younger brother and sister. As they are all into computers it was quite easy to do, when they were saving up for things he paid a bigger share. The other proviso was that he had to save ready for university which he did. Pocket money I kept up for all three of them.

Some of his money went on bus fares to and from school and equipment. I also paid for his residential trip which I was prepared to do because he was effectively sharing his money with his brother and sister, otherwise the ema would have paid for it.

As far as tidying up goes, my 15 year old daughter is the worst for making a mess. The quickest way to get her to tidy up is to threaten to confiscate her ipod. I don't think she could live without music. With the boys I just wait until a female is coming and their rooms become spotless.:rotfl:The eldest even vacuumed behind the computer once when a group of girls were due to visit.

Cocoa_Butter

I currently get £10 a week, which wil stop as soon as I get a job. (Except nobody seems to want to give me one!)

I think the system we have is pretty good, especially from a budgeting POV.
I get paid montly sort of!
520/12 = 43.33
So I get £32 SO into my bank account half way through the month and the rest (£11ish) in cash on the 1st of every month so I can use it to by snacks/drinks in the cafe at school which doesn't take visa!
I pay for around half of my clothes as well as presents, sweets/junk food, music, books etc.

isthatreduced

DD 15 gets £50 per month into her bank account.
I pay for clothes,contacts lenses,Bus pass, Drama class, and half of her mobile phone contract,(she pays the other half directly taken off her pocket money) gulp,it looks a lot when you write it down,
She has to buy presents and entertains herself.

I wish I had sorted her pocket money years ago ,but I just didn't have the cash.

I am considering a clothes allowance,but she will be 16 in November and get EMA so she will have to manage that,and pay for her contact lenses.
I haven't worked out the details yet.

I would advise any parent to plan out pocket money and put it into a bank account ,get your child thinking about handling money at an early age,and let's hope they don't get into the spend every penny they earn and in some cases more scenario.

firestronaut

My 13 month old daughter gets approx £3.75 a week - £15 a month - which goes directly into her Trust fund.
and once she's old enough, I'll reduce the amount to £10 into the trust fund and £5 for her to spend on what she wants/needs.
Her main Xmas and B'day money has also been money into her trust fund.

Hopefully, she'll learn the value of money and saving - I'm trying to make it as exciting as possible from a young age.

SarahNeedle1872

DS (3) gets £10 per month although its not technically pocket money, as it goes straight into his bank account, which we can't access (mainly because Mummy lost the pass book )

Sx

full-time-mum

My DD is nearly 14 and gets £3. Currently we buy all her basic clothes but she will buy extra tops and buys all her make-up/magazines etc.

I've read this thread to get some ideas of where we should take it as she gets older.
I looked up EMA and we won't qualify for that. :-( which means some of her friends will be getting up to £30 and she won't and there is no way we will be able to fund that so I can see some problems in the future. Me thinks I've got some serious thinking and planning to do.

How do other parents get around the EMA thing when their child doesn't qualify - does it cause resentment and do you just hand over the cash?

miss_corerupted

my dss gets 5p a chore which is things like laying the table, so far he's eanrt about 25p but he's really chuffed with it. ds is only 15 months so he gets nothing! money they get given off aunties etc go in money boxes etc as we don't buy sweets or toys excpet b'days etc (dss mam gives him loads).

hookymiss

Just started giving regular pocket money this year - my daughter's 11 and son almost 6. Both get £1.50 a week, being older I do buy my daughter a few extras on top of this i.e school stationery. My son on a visit to the Lego shop with his christmas money wanted more than he had, so we decided on him having pocket money so he could save the £15 for his lorry. Every week he has duly put his pennies in a little box, last week he was very pleased with himself when he reached target and bought the lorry. I have always felt that children that are given everything they want, appreciate nothing. This proves to have worked as when we're out at the shops the children don't ask for things, sometimes my son will want, being that much younger but he accepts the no answer and now has the mindset that he needs to save his pocket money.

earthmother

My 3 boys (4, 6.5 and almost 9) are on a sliding scale - they get £1 a week until their 5th birthday, and then it goes up by 50p a week for each year. I intend to freeze it once they are old enough to get a paper round or can supplement their own income somehow. They also get £7.50 a month each from their Grandma (it was worth 2 comics when it first started). They are expected to save most of it for holidays, days out and 'big' spends (for example, eldest is into Hornby, so his goes to the local model shop every so often).

Their weekly chores earn them 'physical' things - treats like a pack of sweets, or a milkshake with their school dinner, or PS2 time at the weekends. The littlest actually 'earns' more that way than the other two do (they all have an equal chance, but he's the most willing at the moment).

Long term savings tend to come from birthday and christmas money - and they have more money than DH and I usually.