How much allowance for teenagers?

FATBALLZ

Sounds like a lot to me. I remember having to have a heated row with my dad to have my allowance at that age increased from £5 to £10 a week, which is probably about the equivalent of £14 now. The weekend job I got shortly after paid around £200/mth for 15 hours/wk.

So if you're going to give them so much I'd suggest at least making sure they do a vaguely proportional amount of work to earn it.

tori.k

Since our eldest turned 16 and moved on to college we decided to hand over his child benefit and let him get on with it, we provide the roof over his head and food & college bus pass (our income excludes him from any concessions) but thats it if he needs something like new clothes or something for college he has to budget for them he also got himself a weekend job so gets around £65 a week all in.
It's worked really well he sort's his own washing and and most of his own meals (often im heading off to work when he get's home from college) living a independant life at home where there is help if he needs it, giving him personal responsibility has had some great side effect's his best mate started smoking, my son's attitude was that he mad when he worked out how much his mate was paying each week for fags and decided it's not a habit he would want to emulate..lol
He's also better at looking after his belongings now he has sole responsibility in replacing them.
It's made him think ahead he wants to learn to drive so is putting some aside each week to make this happen.
It's worked really well for us, and I worry less that when he does eventually move out of the family home that he will cope with the transition better

tiff

Mine gets an allowance till he's 16 when I expect him to get a part time job. He has been desperate to work and earn money since he was 13 so I hope the fact he has to wait till he's 16 doesnt change that.

gibson123

Each young person is different depending, if they have expensive hobbies or fees to pay they may need a bit more.

My 13 year old gets £150 per month and has done for about 2 years, she buys everything with this including phone, school uniform and savings. She generally does very well at managing this allowance and it takes a lot of the "unknown" out of the household budget.

We came to this sum by a process of negotiation, I wrote down everything i spend on her over a month ...£210!! and she went off and did a spreadsheet with all her expenses, we then we agreed a budget.

Her big expenses are ... music lessons - £10 per week, horse-riding - £18 and at this time of year school trips.. £35 to go to Blackpool.

The main difference between pre-allowance and post allowance is that before when we went shopping she always picked up the most expensive items, now we invariably head to the charity shop or sales. Arguments have now ceased. She knows that her allowance will be withdrawn if it is ever spent on anything inappropriate.

Marisco

jayII wrote: »

No worries, it's a good idea. I should have posted that we do that in my OP but I forgot. It doesn't seem to make any difference as the lazy so-and-so's rarely do those money earning chores. I suppose I give into their emotional blackmail too easily. They do generally help out otherwise whenever I ask them, so I can't really complain but I find their lack of initiative frustrating. I hope it will change under the new regime.

Try a different tack and say that if the jobs are not done, then money will be deducted every month, sort of like paying tax and NI.

poet123

This thread has really made me think. We never gave any of our elder three an allowance. We just paid for all their needs as and when. They never really asked for much, maybe £10 for the cinema/ local under 17's disco etc, no huge amounts. We also paid for driving lessons as birthday presents, and bought electronic gadgets as xmas gifts. It actually never occurred to me to give them an allowance and they never asked.

Now, we have a 15 year old he is the same, we pay for lunches at school £15 pw and he has probably £2 per day "walking money" aka buying rubbish on way home from school money!! Other than that he gets money for the cinema or microsoft points, and we pay for his other hobbies, which are table tennis, football and rugby. He is not very demanding moneywise and has quite a bit saved from xmas and birthday money.

I think that how you handle money is personality dependent. Out of our four three are great with it and one is hopeless. The one who is hopeless had the most money to play with as he chose to have a part time job from being 16, whilst the others managed on what we gave them and studied more (?) instead.

Interesting thread though.

gibson123

jayII wrote: »

No worries, it's a good idea. I should have posted that we do that in my OP but I forgot. It doesn't seem to make any difference as the lazy so-and-so's rarely do those money earning chores. I suppose I give into their emotional blackmail too easily. They do generally help out otherwise whenever I ask them, so I can't really complain but I find their lack of initiative frustrating. I hope it will change under the new regime.

Expecting teenagers to have initiative ....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

They don't understand this, every teenager I have ever met is entirely self-centred and self obsessed, its all me me me. They will only take action when it impacts directly on them. So unless you use reward and punishment you haven't a hope. I am reliably informed by my older sisters, that they do grow out of this self obsession and in the meantime I am an angel of patience and serenity whilst quietly seething inside. :A:A:A

silvercar

We give £100 a month plus pay for his mobile phone contract and lunch money. We also put petrol in the car as he now drives himself to and from school.

Mojisola

jayII wrote: »

I forgot to add that we have a system where they can earn bits of cash for doing extra chores like cleaning the car, vacuuming the stairs and we will continue with that. That and choosing to make packed lunches (or not) is their choice. OH and I take packed lunches to work and both work hard around the house at weekends, so the example is there.

So Mum and Dad work hard round the house - does anyone pay you?

Kids aged 15 and 16 can do jobs but get paid for them and usually are too lazy to bother?

There are basically four adults in the house and two of them have servants!

Youngsters of that age should be sharing the household jobs. I never got into paying our kids for chores round the house - we all live there, we all make mess, want to eat, etc, so we all help with the work but, as you're starting from that position, I would give a very limited allowance and then the rest is earned.

You also need to add the proviso that the job is done when it needs to be done without any moaning. Grumbling or delaying chores leads to a reduction in pay.

jayII

gibson123 wrote: »

Each young person is different depending, if they have expensive hobbies or fees to pay they may need a bit more.

My 13 year old gets £150 per month and has done for about 2 years, she buys everything with this including phone, school uniform and savings. She generally does very well at managing this allowance and it takes a lot of the "unknown" out of the household budget.

We came to this sum by a process of negotiation, I wrote down everything i spend on her over a month ...£210!! and she went off and did a spreadsheet with all her expenses, we then we agreed a budget.

Her big expenses are ... music lessons - £10 per week, horse-riding - £18 and at this time of year school trips.. £35 to go to Blackpool.

The main difference between pre-allowance and post allowance is that before when we went shopping she always picked up the most expensive items, now we invariably head to the charity shop or sales. Arguments have now ceased. She knows that her allowance will be withdrawn if it is ever spent on anything inappropriate.

Those are really good points, thanks. I agree that they all have different needs according to hobbies and so on. I also (selfishly) feel that I need to be comfortable with the amount I give them.

I like the spreadsheet idea too, I may ask mine to do that if they are unhappy with what I suggest.

I second the point about spending it on anything inappropriate, though we've always done that with pocket money, so they'll be expecting that consequence.