Money Moral Dilemma: How much board should I charge?

edinburgher

Daughter's income = £200 week (after tax) = £10400/year after tax = £866/month.

£20/week rent = £1040/year = 10% of her income.
£30/week rent = £1570/year = 15% of her income.

Make her stick to the £30/week figure and point out how reasonable this figure is. She's getting a room, food and bills covered for a song!

In my experience, most lettings agents will consider up to 30% of a tenant's salary as an affordable rent. This doesn't allow for bills, food etc. If the daughter was a private tenant there's a good chance that she'd spent 60% of her income on the basics...

Dorrie

This is quite timely for me as my 20 year old son has just finished his 'A' levels but has decided not to go to university. He has a part-time job in Homebase and is looking for more work, but is also getting extra work over and above his contracted shift hours.

My husband and I discussed what we should charge and came up with the following - find out the cost of Council Tax, electricity, gas, water rates, Virgin television and Sky television packages (we have both - basic ones each package, with internet included in the virgin package), television licence, telephone, building and contents insurance. We added all these up and divided them by 5 as there are 5 of us (youngest is 16) in our family. Then I worked out the food bill (taking off the cost of cat food!) and divided that by 10 as my son gets a lot of his own food, but still eats some of ours. We did not include the mortgage because that could cause problems at a later date. This came to £32.23 per week, so we then rounded it up to £40 per week, with the difference being a small bit for renting his room and the cost of repairs. Although he would have preferred to pay less, I showed him the working out and he agreed that it was fair. Of course, when prices rise, we will have to re-calculate.

When considering how to charge our son, I asked one of his best friends, who is also 20 and works full-time at Homebase, how much his parents charged him. He said £40 - I said, a week? He looked confused and replied, no, a month!! He said he had to pay his car loan back at £200 per month. What are his parents teaching him? Even my son said that was ridiculous and it was his friend's choice to have a car (although convenient, they do not need it to get to work - it is around 1.5 miles).

edinburgher

I'm all for MoneySaving, but some of the suggestions and comments here show a complete lack of family love and respect- they're basically suggesting you kick a family member out over £10p/w, or you make her live in the dark ages (no lightbulb, no clothes washing facilities etc). Is she even allowed to use the bathroom without additional charge??

Granted, some of the posts have been completely over the top. At the same time, however, it's not unreasonable for the parents to charge more than they do. We all need to learn financial responsibility at some point and moving from 10% to 15% of her income is hardly draconian

Marisco

I agree, it should be £50 minimum. It does no one any favours if she doesn't learn the cost of things. She'll get a hell of a shock when she gets her own place!! And if you don't need the money, you could put it in a savings account for her, for when she gets her own place, deposit etc, as it's odds on if she is like most 18 year olds, saving will be the last thing on her mind!!

serious_saver

I moved back in with my parents after university. I bought all my own food but they didn't charge me anything for rent or bills. It meant I was able to save enough for a decent deposit (still can't get the mortgage to go with it though).

If she is offering to pay £20 I would take it for now. If further down the line there are issues with bills etc then cross that line when it comes to it.

shellsuit

If she's earning £200 a week, I'd expect no less than £50!

£20 is taking the Michael.

MDE

Marisco wrote: »

I agree, it should be £50 minimum. It does no one any favours if she doesn't learn the cost of things.

From the OP

She was at uni part-time before that and my partner gave her £30 per week, plus paid for expenses such as mobile, clothes and gym.

I think the damage of not knowing the cost of things may have been done already. Some basic maths using assumed figures:

Income £30 p/w
Gym £30 p/m (and not an essential)
Clothes £15 p/m
Mobile £15 p/m

So on a 4 week month, OP/ OP's partner has effectively gifted £180.

The way I read it, the allowance of £30 p/w is no longer given, and the gym, clothes and mobile are no longer paid for. So some of the daughters income is accounted for in paying for these.

What i'm saying is, you're talking about a change from 10% to 15% of income, but that is incorrect. She was being given £30 p/w, now shes being asked to give £30 p/w, as well as meet the other expenses that were previously being paid.

MDE

Marisco wrote: »

And if you don't need the money, you could put it in a savings account for her, for when she gets her own place, deposit etc, as it's odds on if she is like most 18 year olds, saving will be the last thing on her mind!!

People are talking about her learning the value of money etc- taking money off her only to put it in a saving account does nothing to teach her anything- it would just be parents thinking for her. In addition, if the OP was able to take money off her and put it in a savings account, there is clearly no desperate financial need for the daughter to pay board, so why the argument over a £10 difference?:(

Josie64

when my son was living at home and working, we split the bills three ways, except for costs towards running our car. As for 'family' surely the parents are doing a good job by making sure the child know the value of money.

gaily

"we’ve asked her to pay £30 a week towards board, so she can learn the value of money."

I think the thing to note here, is that you've asked her to contribute to learn the value of money, not becasue you'll all be out on the street if she doesn't pay.

Therefore, I am assuming that you could afford to keep her under your roof if she were doing some planet-saving volunteer work and had no cash to her name.

If she were not under your roof, then she would be paying far more than this, plus food, bills etc. Therefore you have the right to stick to what you feel is fair. If she doesn't like it, then let her see if she can find something cheaper.

If she has student loans to pay off, at £800 monthly, she won't be eligible to pay these back yet. If she's earning £200, and we also assume that she never had a job while at Uni, then she is £170 better off weekly than before (Ok, not allwoing for tax, but at £10K a year, it won't bee too high).

I know £10 is £10 and its family, but you've got an extra mouth to feed, and shes earning. If she wasn't, it'd be a different story.

.....and breathe.