Pocketmoney Discussion Thread

MrsE_2

claire1234 wrote: »

hiya everyone,

had a quick look around but coudnt see a thread so thought id start this one to see what other parents do;

how much pocket money do you give your kids? £18.50 PW
if your kids are older what age did you stop giving pocket money? 20:rolleyes:
how much mobile phone credit do you top up? (or is this included in the pocket money) Included in pocket money

thanks from claire.

I was giving her £18.50, until she was 20 (one year ago):o
She had part-time jobs too (while in education) & she kept all of that. I also drove her to & from college so she had no fares & I made her packed lunch so no lunches to buy.

Was I very soft:o :rolleyes:

pipkin71

MrsE wrote: »

I was giving her £18.50, until she was 20 (one year ago):o
She had part-time jobs too (while in education) & she kept all of that. I also drove her to & from college so she had no fares & I made her packed lunch so no lunches to buy.

Was I very soft:o :rolleyes:

Hi MrsE :hello:

My pocket money stopped at 17.

Mind you, I had left home

Pipkin xxxx

Edited to add: if I had known then what I know now, I may not have been so eager to go out in the big wide world!

woozywendy

My dd's are 7 and 4. I put £5 a week into their savings account by S/O and they have £1 to spend in the shops on sweets or something. They generally buy a chocolate bar each and all their change goes into a big bottle for their spending money when we go on holiday. I show them their bank account balance every month so they can see their savings grow. If my eldest daughter wants to buy something she has to take the money out of her own account and I tell her to wait one week before she does to see if she really wants it, she has only ever withdrew money once for a sparring kit for her kickboxing. Because she was willing to pay for it all herself I contributed to it.

affordmylife

i have never given any of mine pocket money. (5 children)
but they all do various clubs and activies which i pay for.
they all have mobile phone credit provided.
and if they go out for any occasion or reason i always make sure they have what they need in their pocket depending on where they are going/what they are doing.

i.e. £10 if going to the pictures.
£2 of £3 if going to the beach or something with mates.

now that the older two are working i dont really have to give them any but occasionally if they are short ill give them £10.

it works for us.

Idiophreak

I can't remember exactly how much I was given as a kid, but I do know one of the things that worked best (in terms of financial responsibility etc) was "matched savings" - say I got £20 a month - my parents would match anything I saved - and I couldn't spend my savings on anything cheap...this meant I didn't have too much money for frittering away on crap week-to-week, but I could still manage to save up for large things if I wanted to...I think that encouraging kids to save up for larger things is quite a good idea, really.

I think that pocketmoney should be maintained until it's loss isn't really felt anymore...maybe when the pocket money's less than 10% of their wage?

beer_tins

Fiver a week, plus whatever their "base" mobile phone charge is I guess. Maybe a tenner once they are older, but before they can work. Mind you, if they get money from their mum, a fiver a week each is plenty and forget the mobile top up.

Lunar_Eclipse

Very interesting thread.

I read recently that whether or not children get formal pocket money, they have the same amount of money spent on them as if they didn't. Thus we decided on the pocket money route since firstly, they can make their own spending and savings decisions with minimal nagging and then as they get older, they will learn about account balancing, compound interest etc. They are currently 8 & 6 and get £2.50/week, to do with completely as they wish. They also get a weekly 50p treat from the sweet shop. Clothes and party gifts are excluded from this, but will become part of it once they move to a monthly allowance - probably when they go to senior school.

Our youngest has started on her first savings mission 'recently' - for a Nintendo Wii. £179 is a tall order for a first project on £2.50/week! However she has saved almost £70 already and has shown brilliant resolve at saving most of her income and resisting gift shop purchases when out on a day trip for instance. They have had pocket money since our eldest turned five and it has shown a real insight into their financial nature - not how we would have predicted!

I was surprised about how young some children are when they get mobiles! Eldest is too young IMO @ 8, although she has asked when she can get one recently. One girl in her class has one already. We told her she can have one as soon as she needs it, which I suspect is when she goes to secondary school and is thus more independent in travelling to and from school. She was reasonably accepting of the logic behind our decision, although will no doubt realise at some point that if she saved her own money we would let her buy one if that is really how she wanted to spend her money.

I can't wait to see what clothes and other things she comes home with after her first completely independent shopping trip.

BernadetteN

Our 2 eldest are 9 and 11 and they get £5 a month each, paid yearly so £60 into their Nationwide bank accounts. The 11 year old has a mobile used to contact us occasionally and I've put £10 on it in September and it's still got credit. The kids are told they should spend no more than 50% of their pocket money and leave the rest in savings, though not set in stone it's a good target to try and keep to. In Febraury, the boys bought themselves a Nintendo Wii with the pocket money they had saved up over the last 2 years and they are back to having around £100 each left in their Nationwide accounts.

I pay a substantial amount each year on swimming, dancing, running and Cubs fees so I really can't see any justification for more than £5 a month pocket money.

Lunar_Eclipse

BernadetteN wrote: »

I pay a substantial amount each year on swimming, dancing, running and Cubs fees so I really can't see any justification for more than £5 a month pocket money.

Whilst essentially I agree with you and can see that your children probably have everything they need and some things they want, I don't see that the activities mentioned above have any link with pocket money. Thus nor any justification either way.

Put simply, pocket money is a (very good) parental tool available to teach our children about financial responsibility.

Thus weekly swimming lessons are probably not developing their financial skills. Unless it involves a reasonable degree of decision making on their part, although my own experience has shown that swimming lessons are mainly a parental choice.

A one-off archery lesson (or souvenir or new book or increased savings) on a family holiday however may offer some decision making and therefore development in this area.

Just my musings. Not intended to be critical so please don't take any offence.

jog

This is very interesting. We have got 3 children and they get 50p a week for each year old they are, e.g. 12 year old gets £6, 10 year old £5 etc. They have to buy comics, sweets trading cards, games, presents etc. Only the oldest child has a mobile but he also has to pay for his credit out of the pocket money. On one occasion I have paid for a top -up because he had no credit left and I felt he needed to be able to contact me on a particular occasion. It's very interesting though to get a feel for what other people do.