Pocketmoney Discussion Thread

Raver2k7

My Son is 8yrs old and loves helping with Chores, even cleans his own fish tank out! However, he is coming to live with me in a couple of weeks (YAYY!!!) and is asking for pocket money. But im not sure what is a reasonable amount??

Becles

One of mine is 8.

They get £2 a week off their grandparents, which is enough to buy odds and ends with.

SSB

Hi
My DD (11) and DS ( nearly 9) do their own ironing, vacuum/dust/tidy their rooms and also are generally responsible for putting their shoes/coats away, clear their plates etc. They receive £14/month but they will have to top up their mobiles from this.

My DD is very untidy but when she was around 5, I presented her with a choice of keeping her room tidy or her things will end up at a local charity shop. She paid no attention until, during a walk around town, she said; ' Is that my swimming bag, red dress and white teddy for sale?!?!?!'

Oh yes, I picked up all the stuff she had left on the floor and dutifully donated it. She has been much better ever since....

linzz_2

My two older boys are 12 and 16 and they;

hoover up twice a week each
clear the table between them
the older one washes up and the younger one dries and puts away, keep their room tidy
strip their beds off
make their bed (I put the duvet cover on for the 12 year old)
bring washing in (when asked)
put washing out (when asked)
Older one sometimes helps with the cooking (makes fab yorkshires!)
Younger one sometimes does a bit of ironing
and other bits and bobs as and when needed.

They get £20 a month each.

kent_lady

Hi all

An update - after speaking to a friend of mine and discovering that she gives her 11 year old DS £10 a week :eek: , I had a rethink.

DS1 is now 11 and DS2 will be 8 in 5 weeks time so I have decided the following:

- effective now, I am doubling their pocket money to £6 and £5 per week respectively
- they will each be opening a savings account this week and the deal with the increase is that they have to save some money EVERY week (start the money savers early, that's what I say!!)
- any birthday/christmas money, gifts for good school report etc, will also be subject to the "spend some, save some" rule
- the ex-OH is also giving them pocket money which they can either spend or save a bit of (he's only giving them £3.00per week but it's a start! )

DS1 had money for his birthday as he wanted a Nintendo DS. With money from his Dad, his brother, his nan and me he had enough so we went and bought it yesterday. Now he has an incentive to save as he will need to buy games for it!

I'll keep you posted!

Clive_Woody

My daughter is only 1, but this thread has been inspirational, in a few years time I will be able to exploit child labour paying minimal amounts to get jobs around the house done.

At what age can you let children use power tools?

Spendless

Clive_Woody wrote: »

At what age can you let children use power tools?

Mine used it at under 2years old :eek: No I'm not kidding, we were between houses due to moving and stopping at a relatives who had gone away. It had a downstairs 'junk' room. I had a noise coming from there went to see what it was and caught my 19 month old son with a cordless power drill in his hand and a hole in the piece of plyboard in front of him. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Kimitatsu

kent_lady wrote: »

Hi all

An update - after speaking to a friend of mine and discovering that she gives her 11 year old DS £10 a week :eek: , I had a rethink.

DS1 is now 11 and DS2 will be 8 in 5 weeks time so I have decided the following:

- effective now, I am doubling their pocket money to £6 and £5 per week respectively
- they will each be opening a savings account this week and the deal with the increase is that they have to save some money EVERY week (start the money savers early, that's what I say!!)
- any birthday/christmas money, gifts for good school report etc, will also be subject to the "spend some, save some" rule
- the ex-OH is also giving them pocket money which they can either spend or save a bit of (he's only giving them £3.00per week but it's a start! )

DS1 had money for his birthday as he wanted a Nintendo DS. With money from his Dad, his brother, his nan and me he had enough so we went and bought it yesterday. Now he has an incentive to save as he will need to buy games for it!

I'll keep you posted!

My two monsters are 10 and 8 and get £6 a week pocket money. They get half in their hand and the other half goes in the bank. The majority of birthday and Christmas money does to (they get more than us :eek: ). We pay for all of their subs for clubs etc but they have to pay for any toys sweets etc. It works pretty well because they know they have to save up and they have their "rainy day" money as well. The one thing I have noticed is the lack of comments that it is "only" £x because they work out how long that will take them to save up for!

They also have alist of chores that has to be completed:
Tidy bedroom (once a week)
clothes in the wash basket
shoes in the rack
clean teeth
help walk the dogs
do their homework (preferably without complaint - well I can try!!)
clean out their pets.

THey get penalised for those things not done and fines go in the swear box (which I get :rotfl: ) if they use bad language. At 50p a time they learnt quickly!!!

HTH

bucksliz

I used to give my 13 year old son money for chores but it turned into a nightmare! I'd pay him to wash the car or hoover the bedrooms but if I asked him to unload the dishwasher he'd say "How much?" The final straw was when I reminded him to take his plate to the kitchen after dinner and he wanted to know how much I would pay him for that!!!!

After long discussions with friends and colleagues I decided to give him £5 a week just as pocket money for all the things he already does without being asked. The things which just make my life easier; he always gets up on his own without being reminded, he makes breakfast for himself every day and for his younger sister on Sundays, he often makes his own lunch for school, he keeps his room reasonably tidy, he sometimes irons, he empties and fills the dishwasher (when asked!) and he sometimes helps at bed time for his younger sister, reading story, checking teeth are brushed etc.

Don't get me wrong, things are not perfect! I have an awful time getting him to do his homework and he has recently decided bed time is "whenever"! But since we stopped bartering for jobs to be done and I told him how much I appreciate the jobs he already does life has been less stressful on both sides!

kazmeister

This has been an interesting thread so big thanks to OP. I have DS 15yrs and DD 8 yrs. I like the idea of them getting a pound per week for each year of age. Although that will cost me a packet per month I have decided that out of that they can pay their own activities currently £7.50 for DS and £3.25 for DD, plus any clothing. Have a particularly fashion conscious DD! I will pay for essentials only. I have very little money to spare but I think I will actually be better off by doing this as I am less likely to spend when they dont really need it. It was only after catching up with DD's ironing that I realised it wont all fit in the wardrobe (and the new holiday stuff is stashed in her brothers inc 6 new pairs of flip flops/sandals!) They will of course have to continue their chores and keep their rooms clean.