Pocketmoney Discussion Thread

Nicki

Gosh! I'm not letting my kids read this thread!

DS (7) gets £1 a week, and we thought this was generous for such a little one. Its enough for him to buy some sweets or a comic if he wants it, but usually he saves his money up tp buy a toy which costs a bit more, and when he gets close to the amount he needs, we top it up for him. Obviously we pay for all his out of school activities, books, etc.

DD (6) doesn't get any at all as she has learning difficulties and doesn't yet understand the concept of money. We always buy something for her when DS is in the shop spending his pocket money of a similar value though.

I can't conceive of what DS would buy if he got £5 per week - my house would be groaning under a pile of junk and his teeth would all fall out!Not sure when he's going to get a payrise but not for a little while yet.

Now I really do feel mean though!!

bucksliz

Nicki I totally agree! Until recently DS got 10p per week for every year (50p aged 5 and 60p aged 6) As you say, enough to buy a comic or some sweets or save up to buy a toy. However when the reach teens this just doesn't satisfy any longer! I just wanted to warn others of the "cash for chores" senario I went through!

You have just reminded me.....should be giving DD 70p per week!

sophiesmum_2

My DD15 gets £5 per week cash but we do pay for the upkeep of her horse and her mobile phone contract.So if she wants any more money to spend she has to earn it herself.

She is not afraid of hard work and has found herself a little job at the stables for the school holidays earning about £10 - £15 a day 7 days a week ,mucking out horses:rotfl: - she is saving this to buy herself a scooter when she is 16 in December;) .

If we were not paying for the horse etc i would probably give her at least £10 per week which is what most of her friends get.

kent_lady

Bump, bump.....

An update - we have commenced with the new PM rates. We went to the Building Society and opened an account for each of them. Now I give them their pocket money and ask them how much they'll be saving this week. They are both doing brilliantly - the minimum they put in each week is £2.00, DS1 sometimes saves £3.00. It's a start as I think they now realise that having this little bit of discpline helps them out as they can now physically see their own little pots of £ growing .

Hapless_2

bucksliz wrote: »

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 knack to that is to have a set list of Chores and value.

greedycat

Hi I have two boys age 10 and 8 up till now we have sort of on and off given them pocket money but have now decided that they need to learn the value of money a bit better(they are very good at spending mine but not their own) but not sure how much is sensible and what they should have to pay for and what I do. Any suggestions gratefully received.

mae

Advice on Pocket Money Rates wanted pls this link may help

kodokan

My son aged 7 gets £2 a week. The system is that we check his room is tidy on Saturday morning, then he gets the cash. I don't take him shopping that often, so when he does go there's usually a good pile of money - he recently saved up for and bought the new Lego Mars Mission kit (around £25).

I expect his pocket money to cover all those off the cuff requests for 'Muuuumm, can I have *insert name of brightly coloured plastic tacky thing he's just spotted on the shelf and now can't live without*', and my response can therefore be 'I don't know, dear, have you got enough money?' rather than a long debate about price/ value/ advertising/ similarity to something he already has/ etc/ etc.

I don't expect him just yet to really save it up for long term goals - Christmas, holiday spending, etc - but plan to introduce some sort of interest/ matching facility when this starts.

Your children are probably about the right age - my 7 yr old sometimes goes without pocket money because he forgets to ask, and we forget to give it to him. We chose 7 because that was when he could get his own bank account (and didn't he feel grown-up going into town to open one and signing his own bank book!), but he's still a bit vague about money, so we're not being very structured at the moment.

HTH

kodokan

squibbs25

My ds used to get £3.00 (about 18 months ago) BUT he had little jobs to do around the house. Empty the dishwasher, make sure bedroom tidy (ish) yeah right!, and to set the table for dinner.
At the time our dd got 50p, she has to help big bro to set the table.
Now they are 9 (nearly 10) and 4 (nearly 5), but i dont tend to give them money anyomre, as the hobbies they have are quite expensive.
DS has keyboard lessons in school, goes to a Music School on a Saturday, also attends Cubs, he also collects the Dr Who battles in Time collection which he is subscribed to. I do give him the odd 50p or £1.00.
He dont need it to buy sweets as i tend to buy them for the kids (or give him the money to go and buy them for them both)
DD has ballet and tap lessons, she is subscribed to the Dora DVD Collection @ £5.99 per fortnight.
Again like her brother she does get the odd 50p for sweets.
Last week she helped clean out our car, hoover and polish it, so i gave her £1.00, which she was well made up with.


Oh yea,a year ago ds decided he wanted to change his hairstyle, used to be shaved by us in a grade 1, he grew it out it and has it cut/styled by the hairdresser. LOL

Squibbs

stebiz

Call me horrible if you like but my DD's 9 and 11 earn all their money. Not difficult jobs but I do let them earn a lot if they are prepared to work. This means say 50p for raking the law, 50p for putting washing in washer, 50p for loading dishwasher, 50p for making breckie etc. They can quite easily earn £5-£10 a week each but that leaves both myself and my wife (who both work) more time.

So if you come past a house were 2 young girls are begging to clean their Dads car - it's ours!!!

They have both saved up for some lovely stuff and you know what girls are like for clothes. They respect it too.

Stebiz