Pocketmoney Discussion Thread

carla40

my 11 year old gets £5 a week, and 16 year old gets £10, sometimes more, sometimes less, it depends what they want it for, 16 year old always spends his, but 11 year old saves quite a bit of it

oramgepekoe

My 12 year old gets £10 per month plus we buy him a monthly magazine. I find it easier to pay him monthly, (first of every month), than weekly.

whatsername

I have a 9 yr old and a 7 yr old. They each get a pound for each year of their age per month! So 7yr old gets £7, 9yr old gets £9. They get paid on the first of each month (my son has the day marked on his calendar!).

We have a very complicated system whereby out of the money they have, they each pay a percentage (10%) to charity, and a percentage (20%) into their own savings account. The rest they can spend as they please. My daughter spends a lot of hers, my son spends hardly any.

I also don't agree with paying for chores - I think they should just do it as a matter of course, so they each have chores every day, but they can also do extra chores to earn money, or sell things, etc.

Loopy_Lobes

My older two get their pocket money weekly and get 15p per year of their life, so my 10 year old gets £1.50 and my 13 year old gets £1.95 per week. In addition to this they each get £10 for each of the main school holidays - Summer, Christmas and Easter. It works well and they seem happy enough despite both having friends who get much much more money! They both have savings which we pay into every month and the rule is that any money given to them by grandparents etc must be split 50/50 between their savings accounts and their money boxes.

Loopy x

thriftlady_2

My eldest is coming up for 13 and I've been wondering whether his weekly £1 should be increased. It does seem a bit stingy (mind you gparents top it up to £3 quite often). £10 a month seems about right to me. I think we'll open a bank account for him and get paid in directly.

In order to receive their pocket money my kids have to keep their rooms tidy, put away clothes, make their beds and take out rubbish whenever asked. They can also earn extra for special jobs. Eldest earnt £10 last weekend for helping tremedously in filling a skip and clearing part of our garden. The other 2 helped, but not as much so they got less.

Thanks for everyone's advice here, it's been useful.

jenando999

ben500 wrote: »

My 13yr old son has been saving since he was old enough to walk upstairs to bed, each night I empty all my small change onto the floor outside his bedroom, as a child he was encouraged to go to bed without event as each night was a "treasure hunt" each night he would he would collect his "treasure" and place it in his savings box, each time the box was full, (small box if your smart) he would count up his treasure and we would take it to the bank to make sure he didn't lose it and it became someone elses treasure.

Even to this day he would NEVER dream of walking past a penny in the street without picking it up to go into his savings. this has encouraged him to be thrifty in many many ways, he is a fantastic "womble" and has amassed over £150 in Tesco clubcard points since I got a card for him four years ago.

As an incentive to save he has always understood that we as his parents will cater for ALL his NEEDS, the only things he ever pays for out of his own money are his WANTS, bearing this in mind he has very few WANTS and is satisfied and content with his NEEDS being met.

He doesn't get any set pocket money, he does however have a paper round which pays him between £10-£20 per week, he saves a minimum of 50% usually all of it.

He has a current savings balance across three accounts of over £6,000, it has worked well for us, he NEVER buys anything without comparing the price with other vendors.

We also accept his Tesco coupons from him in exchange for cash at face value, no doubt when there is something of interest him in the deals he will in time exchange them online at 4x.

Ben your son will be running this website when Martin hangs up his moneysaving belt. :money:

My 13 yo daughter gets £5 per week as long as she tidies her bedroom and keeps up the good behaviour. Any bad behaviour will see her money docked by 50p. Her attitude has improved no end since I brought in this rule.

shazrobo

my two sons who will be 13 this month, each gets £5 a week pocket money out of this they pay for sweets, magazines, youth club etc

MartialArtMan

We're trying to decide what my 10 year old daughter can do to earn some money. As she is too young for employment we have decided that the only way really is to give her pocket money for chores around the house.

When I was younger me and my sisters done the washing up everyday to earn our pocket money but as her younger sister would never keep to a schedule of daily chores I don't really think it's fair for her to do the washing up on her own everyday...

What we have come up with so far is clearing up the dogs poo from the garden, making her bed and help with tidying the kitchen after tea time. We figured this is worth £5 per week.

What are your opinions? What do your kids do and how much do you pay them?

pboae

I think it's good for kids to do chores to earn pocket money, but I wouldn't have them clean up dog poo. Even when a dog is wormed and flea treated regularly, their mess can still carry diseases. Children tend to be not very good at washing their hands thoroughly.

Presumably someone has to do the dishes anyway, so why not say she has to help one of you do it, i.e. some days she washes and some days she dries, and that way when her sister is a bit older the routine is already in place, and she can take over the other half of the washing up.

What about feeding the dog, going on walks with it (not on her own, obviously) or doing some training with it?

Changing her bed sheets, or the towels in the bathroom?

bestpud

Pink_Princess_1 wrote: »

My daughter is just 14 and I give her £5 per week IF she washes the pots and keeps her room tidy- she spends this on whatever she wants. I also buy all of her clothes ( but if there is something extra she wants she will buy it from birthday/christmas money etc) Her dad gives her £20 per month which she tops up her phone with and her grandparents give her £10 per week - but they save this weekly and she will use it for shopping trips etc... I have wondered lately about a clothing allowance as i do seem to spend a fortune on her clothes and will be looking at these replies with interest:p

Wow, you've got me thinking now - that's a lot if you are still clothing her!

We are in discussions with dd15 about a monthly allowance, from which she will buy her own mobile top-ups, clothes, shoes, non-essential toiletries, gifts for others etc.

I was thinking of £60 pcm initially but dd has said she will be able to manage fine with £40. So I was thinking we will probably settle on £50 and review it in a couple of months.

I do pay her if she babysits her little sister and she occassionally gets babysitting money from other people. But that is obviously irregular and can't be relied on. Plus, most of our relatives tend to give money for birthdays and xmas, which she uses now to buy clothes and/or shoes.

I'm assuming from you last comment though, that your dd likes lots of, or expensive, clothes? I hope so anyway, as we have vastly underestimated otherwise!