What would you make your 17 year old pay for?

alwaysskint96

18 yr old girl here, doing A2s and working part time. She pays for her giffgaff top up ( still got iphone 3gs which was passed from a friend of mine) so thats £10 a month, And she hasd to pay for some more driving lessons and half towards a test as i paid for a year of lessons, theory test and 3 practicals so far- coughing up herself might concentrate her mind.

I pay for haircuts but colours etc she has to pay for- uses local college so much cheaper

And extra clothes above her basic ones ( eg party dress etc ) Takeaways nights out etc she has to cough up for

CATS

Hi OP,

£120 a month is not a lot of money. I am not sure where you are but in London everything is expensive, cinema, bowling, I am sure that even McDonalds is now around £5. I currently pay all my sons's lunches, £100 pm, his mobile phone contract £26pm and give him a £40pm allowance, all his cadets activities and outings. I pay for his hair cuts, all uniform, travel for kids is free down here so no bus pass. I still buy all his clothes and pay for when he goes out, up to £25 depending on where he is going. As he is turning 14 soon, I will also be giving him a clothing allowance of £100 every 3 months to spend on clothes, this will work out much cheaper than me buying his clothes at the moment. I bought him his own laptop but any thing expensive like his BMX bike and things that he doesnt need but wants, like he has a blackberry now but wants an iphone5 he will need to save up for. I think as long as he is in education and even if he gets a part time job I will continue to pay for this as he is my responsibility and it is my job to provide for him, although I might stop the phone contract when he gets a job. Things are expensive now a days and I would feel sorry for her having no money despite working for it.

Spendless

jackieblack wrote: »

:eek: :rotfl:

ha, ha, ha, ooops. :eek: 1 year older than me I meant.

System

Personally I would still pay her phone contract (but see if you can get a cheaper tariff). I wouldn't pay her £10 a week though.

Toiletries, well apart from the basics, i'd encourage her to buy her own.

She needs to feel that she is benefitting by going to work (and you can benefit too by not paying her the £10 a week).

Spendless

aliasojo wrote: »

Showing your age girl.

I know:p but I think it's a good point. Nowadays a single fare where I live for a student under 19 is 70p. All our buses go into the town centre and stop, there's no interconnecting between villages if they are not on the route to the town centre (iyswim) so in order for son to go to the leisure centre to ice skate would be £2.80 for a return trip. That's quite a lot out of meagre wages, unless child has a weekly bus pass because it's needed for school/college that has unlimited travel on it.

busiscoming2

My DS2 is 16 and has just got a part time job. I will still pay for his phone which is £10 per month. I will pay for school essentials like winter coat etc or put towards it if he wants something 'designer'.

My elder two were treated like this and they are now very responsible with their money. It helps to teach them budgeting and independence.

Until he is old enough to learn to drive and now he is earning we charge £1 per trip when we take or collect him from anywhere.

fireyfirenze

busiscoming2 wrote: »

Until he is old enough to learn to drive and now he is earning we charge £1 per trip when we take or collect him from anywhere.

you charge him a pound a trip at 16?! wow!

busiscoming2

fireyfirenze wrote: »

you charge him a pound a trip at 16?! wow!

Forgot to say that we save it in a jar and then he gets it back to help towards the cost of his driving lessons.

Spendless

herand wrote: »

What's that teaching him?

To walk, catch a bus or cycle to the shops, school, his mates down the road and so on otherwise Mum/Dad will charge you a quid.

Might threaten my 13yo with that one. Thanks for the idea.

Idiophreak

LondonDiva wrote: »

I would get her to:
Set aside an amount that would go into savings (even if only £20pm)
Pay her phone bill - seems very high, it's possibly worth sitting with her and using it as a learning opportunity to renegotiate or review what other options are out there.
A token amount to you for her 'keep' (and no' saving it up and giving it back').
Fares to work and socialising (and any associated costs)
Lunches (if she wants a meal for school etc, needs to use stuff from the kitchen or buy her own)
Clothes / accessories that aren't 'parental issue / standard'
Make up

I'd also stop giving her money.

Ok...So at the moment she gets £40/month for doing nothing...now she's taken the initiative to go out and get work...

You want her to take her £120 wage, deduct £20 for savings, £45 for the phone bill (which her parents have taken out, not her fault it's so high and won't be able to do much about until end of contract), "keep" - £20? and bus fares to work- £20? Which would leave her with what? £15 per month. So less than half she gets for doing nothing...

What lesson are you trying to teach her, again?

OP - I'd advise keeping things as they are. Presumably you'd have kept paying the phone bill and £10/week if she hadn't got a job, so why would you penalise her for getting one?