how much board should I charge

belleooo

Question for anyone with working adult children living at home. Because I am about to take a income drop of £46/per week I will have to start charging working daughter board. How much should I charge? I suggested £40 but adult daughter has taken offence at this saying it is too much as she as to share a bedroom with much younger sibling. We allready live on a tight income and £46 drop is fairly significant. Your thoughts would be appreciated. BTW daughters income is about £200 gross a week. Thanks

Acc72

There are few threads on this subject already.

It depends on lots of personal factors - eg. how old is your daughter, does she pay board now / how much, what are her outgoings, what are your outgings etc.

Eg. if she is 18 and takes home approx. £150 / week, then she still has £100 / week to spend on herself.


If she is not paying board at the moment and is now being asked to do so, then she is going to moan - however, a quick look through the local newspaper will show that there aren't many flats for rent for £46 per week (not to mention bills etc.) !!

Scarlett1

£40 per week is reasonable on a £200 weekly income, belleoo could you not put it on a spreadsheet of how much it costs to run a home on a weekly or monthly basis and show it to DD so that she could see how much she would be paying out if she had her own place

Hotspur

Belleooo, As a guide to what your daughter would have to pay on the open market I am currently renting out a double room in a shared house for £75 a week including council tax but not share of phone bill, internet access, food etc.

I'd say £40 is reasonable in the circumstances, particularly if it includes board etc.

kelloggs36

How much does she earn? Perhaps she might like to research how much it would cost her to rent a room indepentently from you? She would have to add in all the things that you do for her - washing, cooking, bills etc. Perhaps she may agree if you threaten to charge her the full rate!

belfastgirl23

£40 sounds very low to me for someone earning £200. Is this rent alone, and she contributes seperately to bills etc? Because if it's all-in it can't be anything near what it costs you to 'keep' her. It is a hard thing to do emotionally to bring up the subject of money but it is also your responsibility as a parent to make her understand how to manage it. I know well over half my income goes on basic living expenses like mortgage etc. I know the reason you are bringing it up is because of the drop in household income but actually it's something she should have been doing anyway once she started to earn anything beyond pocket money - maybe you need to start viewing it as her being given a pass for a while but now having to start pulling her weight. I think you should sit down with her, go through all your household outgoings (include EVERYTHING, she needs to know about this!) and then either ask her to think about what it's fair that she contributes or divide the total by however many people in the house. Just to add the moral support - it is absolutely right that she contributes and you are not doing her (or any future husband!) any favours in the long run by allowing her to think that she can live for free. And she will probably see this herself once she gets over the first shock

BTW I'm basing this on my own experience of my mum sitting me down and explaining budgeting when I was about 14 - upshot was that I earned my own pocket money and contributed towards my own clothes etc.

shellsuit

I paid £40 a week when I was 17 ~ I worked full time and picked up £88.

If you are only asking for £40 from £200 (or thereabouts), she is lucky!!

wifeforlife

I paid £35 per week when I started working at 18, am now 25 and no longer living at home, but my younger brother has just recently left school at 17 and is now paying £45 into the house. He is working full time and even he agrees it's a fair amount.

Especially when you take into consideration, heating, electricity, water, food, if you do her washing/ironing

Hope you both reach an amicable compromise

Cath

Penny-Pincher!!

i had to pay a third

pp
xx

foxy-lady

DD is only 11 but she already knows that she will pay 25% of her gross income when she is working. She is less likely to throw a strop as she is expecting it. She doesn't know however that it will go into her secret house fund along with her child benefit since she was born. SSShhhh! xxx

inkie

DD is only 11 but she already knows that she will pay 25% of her gross income when she is working. She is less likely to throw a strop as she is expecting it. She doesn't know however that it will go into her secret house fund along with her child benefit since she was born. SSShhhh! xxx

I think that is a great idea FL - will have to think about that, at least there will be something on show for the family allowance