How much allowance for teenagers?

HappyMJ

Bluemeanie wrote: »

At 16, she should have a part time job to supplement what you give her.

If they can find one. At minimum wage of £3.68 for 4 hours on a Saturday morning that would only pay £14.72. I imagine most small employers would round that up to £15 for the 4 hours. I wouldn't want any student to be doing much work during the week if they were to succeed at school and complete the share of the household chores as well.

Bluemeanie_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

If they can find one. At minimum wage of £3.68 for 4 hours on a Saturday morning that would only pay £14.72. I imagine most small employers would round that up to £15 for the 4 hours. I wouldn't want any student to be doing much work during the week if they were to succeed at school and complete the share of the household chores as well.

They are out there. My husband has been advertising for a sat worker in our city for the last few months with very few applicants! As are all the supermarkets, shops, cafes etc. £15 a week will still teach all the things I mentioned in my next post. And like I say, maybe I am just naturally intelligent but I did ok at school despite working. It's called effective time management.

DylanO

Bluemeanie wrote: »

They are out there. My husband has been advertising for a sat worker in our city for the last few months with very few applicants! As are all the supermarkets, shops, cafes etc. £15 a week will still teach all the things I mentioned in my next post. And like I say, maybe I am just naturally intelligent but I did ok at school despite working. It's called effective time management.

Perhaps he's not paying enough? £15 doesn't stretch very far when two thirds of it barely cover the costs of getting there.

You have to take into consideration individual circumstances. I worked through sixth form, and then at uni, but my sister didn't. I didn't feel hard done by because she wasn't told to get a job - she did five hard A Levels, two AS Levels and her extra-curriculars and volunteering left her barely enough time for a social life.

I guarantee you that in a few years, should my sister be operating on you, you'll be thankful that she didn't split her time just so she could learn the lessons that you have decided are oh-so-important.

sock-knitter

my 17 year olds manage on approx 224 pounds a month.
this is to pay bills, food, clothes, travel and entertainment, both desperatly looking for work, but unable to find any despite previous experiance, when they have worked voluntary

Bluemeanie_2

DylanO wrote: »

Perhaps he's not paying enough? £15 doesn't stretch very far when two thirds of it barely cover the costs of getting there.

You have to take into consideration individual circumstances. I worked through sixth form, and then at uni, but my sister didn't. I didn't feel hard done by because she wasn't told to get a job - she did five hard A Levels, two AS Levels and her extra-curriculars and volunteering left her barely enough time for a social life.

I guarantee you that in a few years, should my sister be operating on you, you'll be thankful that she didn't split her time just so she could learn the lessons that you have decided are oh-so-important.

He is paying more than minimum wage, trust me getting there etc isn't the issue around here. It isn't £15, that is just what another poster said as an example.

I have decided they are "oh so" important, life skills are important! I can see what is happening generally to some young people who leave FE at 18 or even 21 with no basic experience of being at work or an organised environment sort of thing (such as activites or volunteering). Volunteering and the like, is as valuable and your sister would have learned time management and other effective life skills. I'm not saying having a part time job is the be all and end all, the only way to learn life skills, but I think it helps a good way if you are not doing any other alternative.

The point I was making, was not, to not, take into individuals circumstances as you suggest, but to conter-act the poster who said they would not want their teenager working at all and to only study.

Academic qualifications are clearly important, but what I am trying to say is, they are not the be all and end all, as, infact you have helped me demonstrate by stating that your sister did voluntary work and extra curricular activites during her time at school/uni, and did not just purely focus on academics.

mintymoneysaver

If you can afford £140 and it seems fair then go for it! I gave my daughter £50 a month from Y11 onwards but bought school uniform, dinners, bus fare and mobiles. It was what I could afford, and I thought it was fair.Once she was 17 she was having driving lessons, but also got a part time job. I kept giving her the £50 till she passed her test, but now she just manages on her wages, although I'll pay her mobile till this contract runs out in Oct. She'll be at Uni by then so can then fund her own.

System

Wow, i wish i was a teenager these days! I got £5 a week but i topped it up with part time work (£3.60 p/h but they made me work all the hours going).

nickj_2

i don't give our daughters anything although i do pay weekly into a savings account for them , however they both do waitressing at the local hotel , my eldest daughter can bring home over £100 pw , youngest gets £40ish , they both get their own clothes and pay for day to day stuff. we pay for treats , days out etc

beautiful_ravens

I have little recollection of pocket money lol - I know I got £1 a week at age 9, 10 and 11 [middle school ] and after that I think my mum was destitute cos I only had 2 pairs of knickers which I kept sewing up.. In fact, I think shoplifting was one of my ways of getting clothes and stuff for a while :S I may have got a pound a day 'dinner money' in my last 2 years of school, which I spent on fags - Terrible!! [given up though!]

At college I had a couple of small jobs for a bit, and then signed on for a while, at which point my mum wanted £20 a fortnight of that to pay keep. A lot of reasons for this lack of money were my parents divorce/fathers dissapearing act/ mothers' debt and our rural position - emptiness for miles, not even a bus stop. Couldnt get to a job or afford driving lessons. These are some of the reasons Ive tried so hard not to accumulate any debts myself, although I had some [now paid] I dont want to repeat this bit of history, for my kids sake!

So Im not destitute lol, I will be giving my DD [who is almost 12] a proper allowance which will start in september at £10-15 a week, when she starts secondary school, and will go up according to chores, age, circumstances and what I can afford, so there will be a maximum amount. To me that seems like a good deal and I have 2 other DDs to consider, they will continue to get 'small' chore-based pocket money til they start secondary school. Looking ahead, I dont want to set myself up to be paying out too much when they are all teens so I'm starting low!

esmy

My 17 yr old DD has the Child Benefit (£80 per 4 weeks). This funds her personal toiletries and makeup, any outings with her mates including bus fares, her mobile (12.50) and some clothing. I pay all her expenses for school. She sometimes gets money from relatives for birthday and Christmas which she saves and sometimes covers bigger purchases like new phone, ipod. She loves seeing the interest added to the account!
This has been the deal with both DDs from 16 - they don't get any more after that as they are old enough to get a part time job if they want more money. Some of her friends get a lot more from parents, others have got good part time jobs but she doesn't badger us for more.
She deals with her own room, her laundry is done with the rest provided it makes it off the floor to the linen basket, she does other jobs around the house when asked.
If I totted up the total spend per month, her allowance plus what I spend, it would probably come to around the £140 mark - school bus fares are another £40 per month alone.