Pocket Money for kids

System

I'm of the opinion that pocket money should be earned. My three eldest children had paper rounds to earn their money. The fourth was too lazy and moaned till he was blue in the face about being skint. My youngest, he was crafty. His Dad gave him his bus fare to go to school and he walked. However, now that he's left school that has dried up. He's hopefully going to college in September (subject to his GCSE's being as expected) but he really needs to earn a bit of money for himself. His Dad is paying his £15 a month phone top up and we will be feeding and clothing him as well as providing anything else he needs but as for wants.... its down to him now.

shortdog

Mine get 50p a week for each year of their age - so 9 year old daughter gets £4.50, 6 year old son gets £3.00. That has to buy them magazines, sweets, and spending money for days out. My daughter saved up to buy herself the school bag she wanted, as I refused to pay £28 for a bag, so I paid £10, she paid the rest.
I think my son is currently sitting with about £60 in his piggy bank, as he rarely spends, but my daughter has less than £10, as it burns a hole in her pocket!

HeadAboveWater

When I was young (trying my hardest not so sound as though I'm retired :eek: lol), we got £20 for helping dad gather spuds or help with bringing in the hay. That was once a year. Other than that we never got a penny

daisiegg

I think pocket money is SO important. How on earth do kids learn the value of things (or even how much they cost in the first place) if they are just handed money any time they want something? Not to mention important skills like money management, saving up for things, budgeting...I cannot comprehend not giving kids pocket money! OH gives his daughter £20 twice a month as her pocket money from him but her mum doesn't give her any sort of formal pocket money and always moans to OH about how much money she hands over to her willy nilly.

When I was growing up we always had pocket money of a sort. Even as tiny children - my mum used to 'sell us' sweets each Saturday (for pennies!) so we had to decide what to spend our pennies on, and we learnt that some things were more expensive than otters and you can't always afford everything you want, and we even learnt things like if we clubbed together our money we could 'buy' some sweets of higher value and share them...etc!

As we got older, we had a basic pocket money rate that we got for doing our basic chores. If we hadn't done them, we didn't necessarily get all the money (with obvious exceptions for things like not having done as many jobs because we had exams, or something). Equally, we had opportunities for earning more money - there was a chart on the fridge with different jobs we could do to earn more pocket money - and it was pretty generous too, I think hoovering the downstairs earned a hefty £10 which was a lot to a teenager 15 years ago! This taught us so many valuable lessons.

I have such strong opinions about this as I have to bite my tongue all the time about OH's daughter - it's not my place to say anything of course - but she is being done such a disservice by her parents as she has no idea of the value of money, of how to budget, to prioritise, manage her money etc. At 16 I really think these are skills she should be developing.

Also from the child/teenager's perspective does it not feel a bit - I don't know, almost humiliating having to ask for money any time you want something? It's fine for a little child but once you get to mid teens, surely you want to be able to say to a friend 'yes I will contribute £5 to that joint birthday present for our friend' or 'yes I can come to the cinema' safe in the knowledge that the money is there in your purse, without having to ask mummy and daddy for some money?

daisiegg

Oh...and don't get me started on paying for a teenager's phone contract...lol

balletshoes

some good ideas here, its something I've been thinking about recently too, with DD aged 11. I think I might wait for another year or so, until she's going out with friends etc. Right now I pay for everything, clothes etc are along the lines of what she needs not really extras she might want (those come out of birthday and christmas money).

Thinking of keeping paying her dance class and school meals separately, and then giving her a monthly allowance, to cover phone credit (not a big deal right now, but that might change when she goes to secondary school) and anything else (non-essential clothes and toiletries, going into town with friends etc).

balletshoes

daisiegg wrote: »

I think pocket money is SO important. How on earth do kids learn the value of things (or even how much they cost in the first place) if they are just handed money any time they want something? Not to mention important skills like money management, saving up for things, budgeting...I cannot comprehend not giving kids pocket money! OH gives his daughter £20 twice a month as her pocket money from him but her mum doesn't give her any sort of formal pocket money and always moans to OH about how much money she hands over to her willy nilly.

there is a difference between no pocket money and kids just getting everything willy-nilly though .

I never got pocket money from my parents. However, we had the work ethic instilled in us from an early age. Each Saturday when we were younger, we got a magazine and some sweets as a treat. We lived in a farming community, so each summer and October school holidays from the age of about 7 we'd be picking berries or potatoes. Half our wages from the berries went towards whatever we needed for our school uniform, and half our potatoes wages went towards a winter coat and boots. The rest was ours to spend. We didn't really get birthday or christmas money. We all got Saturday jobs when we reached 13/14, and we all kept them all the way through secondary school. I was under no illusion that if I wasn't working or carrying on my education after the age of 16, my parents weren't going to be financially supporting me in any way.

My DD hasn't had pocket money yet, but I can see that its probably going to benefit us both if I do start up a regular amount and what she's expected to use it for. She doesn't get whatever she wants, and we've used a budget for spends for her on every holiday we've been on (so she's very good at window-shopping and then buying what she wants with her money on her last day or so).

My DD knows that as an adult (ie once you've left school) if you want money you have to work for it.

kazd

Difficult one, I think they do need some money of their own but equally I don't think they should be paid for helping out around the house.

Just did a quick check DS1 has had £200 on clothes this year, DD has had £340 and DS2 £170. DD is 15 and has new bra's every six months at the moment and has now gone into underwired so more expensive. Spent £100 alone on bra's for her last week. DS1 did have over £1k last year but that is because he has to wear suits in sixth form and had two plus shirts, ties, belts, new shoes etc.

To be honest I don't know how much to give them, DS1 has possibly got a job that will pay him £30 per day - its not regular though. This role involves me taking him to his place of work and I was trying to explain to him how much the journey costs me in petrol. He got a bit upset, saying you wanted me to get a job and now you are saying I have to give you half of it back. Told him I was not asking for half but a contribution which only seems fair, as its also my time. I also currently pay £10 per month towards the cost of his mobile contract, with the others I just top it up whenever they need it, £10 normally last them a couple of months.

Its just the amount now, I was thinking £20 for DS2 and £30 for DD but for that I don't think I could expect them to buy clothes or even toiletries. A trip to the pictures is about £12 by the time they get popcorn and a drink.

mrcow

daisiegg wrote: »

I think pocket money is SO important. How on earth do kids learn the value of things (or even how much they cost in the first place) if they are just handed money any time they want something? Not to mention important skills like money management, saving up for things, budgeting...I cannot comprehend not giving kids pocket money! OH gives his daughter £20 twice a month as her pocket money from him but her mum doesn't give her any sort of formal pocket money and always moans to OH about how much money she hands over to her willy nilly.

I think this is a very blinkered view.

I never had any pocket money when I was young. We couldn't afford it.

I learned the value of money because I have simple common sense. Same as anyone else. It's not hard for a kid to understand what £5 means and how much it is/is worth, or £10 or £100. My ten year old knows what it means and has done for many years.

I learned how to save for stuff once I got my first job at 14. Same as many many teenagers.

Pocket money is nice, but it certainly isn't "important". Do it if you prefer to, but it certainly isn't the only way kids learn about money. And not doing it doesn't mean that chiildren automaticaly think that mone grows on trees or that they will simply get given everything they ask for. Most are switched on enough to understand how to save up for something with birthday/christmas money or money they have earned/been given in other ways than a regular weekly expectaation.

balletshoes

kazd wrote: »

Difficult one, I think they do need some money of their own but equally I don't think they should be paid for helping out around the house.

Just did a quick check DS1 has had £200 on clothes this year, DD has had £340 and DS2 £170. DD is 15 and has new bra's every six months at the moment and has now gone into underwired so more expensive. Spent £100 alone on bra's for her last week. DS1 did have over £1k last year but that is because he has to wear suits in sixth form and had two plus shirts, ties, belts, new shoes etc.

To be honest I don't know how much to give them, DS1 has possibly got a job that will pay him £30 per day - its not regular though. This role involves me taking him to his place of work and I was trying to explain to him how much the journey costs me in petrol. He got a bit upset, saying you wanted me to get a job and now you are saying I have to give you half of it back. Told him I was not asking for half but a contribution which only seems fair, as its also my time. I also currently pay £10 per month towards the cost of his mobile contract, with the others I just top it up whenever they need it, £10 normally last them a couple of months.

Its just the amount now, I was thinking £20 for DS2 and £30 for DD but for that I don't think I could expect them to buy clothes or even toiletries. A trip to the pictures is about £12 by the time they get popcorn and a drink.

I see your dilemma - in your examples so far, you could average out over the year how much you pay for your kids phone credit, and work out a weekly or monthly figure to give them which corresponds with this.
How much of the clothes budget that you've spent on them in the last year was essential, and how much was just because they wanted it? Break it down, and add a bit to the pocket money budget for the non-essential clothes they've had (but not all, as this means they will have to budget for their treat clothes). Bras for a growing girl are essential so I wouldn't expect her to have to pay for those out of her own pocket money, but Mac and other premium brand make-up is a luxury, so my DD would either have to budget for that herself (and she certainly wouldn't be expecting to be able to buy herself a new item of clothing or a new Mac mascara every week out of her budget, she'd have to save it up), or I'd give her those items for christmas/birthday treats. I'd be expecting my DD to budget for her make-up to be honest.

With the cinema thing - how regularly do they go to the cinema with friends? If its weekly or more frequently, look into a monthly movie pass for them, and put this figure into their pocket money budget.

I see nothing wrong in your son contributing say a local bus fare amount towards the ferrying about you do for him to his job.