How much housekeeping for 19 year old?

Liverbird

I have a 19 year old daughter, she works full time and brings home just over £700 every 4 weeks. She has all the home comforts, I pick her up from work when she is working late or the weather is bad. I also buy her the odd t shirt, underwear etc.
What do you think a reasonable weekly housekeeping charge is? She gives me £200 a month and thinks its far too much.... now I'm feeling guilty!
There's just me and her in the home by the way.

RP2X

200 per month !

Now I feel guilty myself about giving my mum so little and im 27

I only give 50 quid per month if maybe £100 and help out about the house with other payments every now and then.

This is such a hard Question and debate and I dont feel there is a right anwer or any amount.

I do know that when I was 19 and had a part time job over weekend making 60 per week I was giving 30 quid of it to my parents I did this for 2 years and it pretty much killed off any Life or happyness I could have had, that 30 quid could have been spent on food/clothes/going out etc instead I made ends meet just about.

If I ever have the choice I will under no circumstances take money from my own child, taking money from them is like bleeding them dry its not nice.

But in your situation id say considering your giving her lifts and stuff 35 is a nice balance, I know many friends of mine that dont pay anything and just chip in the bills and maybe the odd 50 quid each month or so...

Choice is yours but yeah 50 quid each week is to much id say 35-40max!

elona

£50 is not too much and at 27 years old I am surprised that you do not realise how much it costs to keep the roof over your head, not to mention council tax, electricity,gas, water, food, toiletries etc.

To move out and to rent a bedsitter somewhere would cost you over £50 a week - not counting heating , water, tax, food, toiletries etc.

Js_Other_Half

There have been various threads about this recently here:-
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=58552

I will say that I feel that the amount is way too low - you run the risk of having her at home with no plans for her future for a very long time...;)

(I moved out at 18 to go to university and never returned home to live, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask...:p )

elona

Liverbird

How much does she cost you?

Can you afford to subsidize her?

Murtle

£200 is realistic. Do you need all the money, or could you maybe use some of it to start a secret savings account for her, for when she does move out?? If you can, then it will help you with the guilt feelings (which you have no reason to) and your daughter with financial planning.....so that when she does move out, she has some understanding of how much it costs just to *live* not *socialise etc!!!

If you can't afford to save any of the money....then the amount is certainly right....as it is needed for her upkeep.

I paid my Mum £200 and my takehome after tax was +/-£900....I also had to pay for transport to London from it...and repay student debt! Not all students graduate into high paying jobs.... more's the pity

Bendybops19

Aaahh i wrote on the other thread about this. The other thread did actually change my view..... to begin with i have always thought that charging children rent was wrong, i think now that maybe a bit of money is ok, but 200 quid is far too much!!! Is the 700 she earns before or after tax? That isnt a lot of money for her, u will be leaving her with 500 pounds, does she have to pay her own bills and buy her own toiletries etc?

MarkyMarkD

Her own bills?

What the heck bills does she have if she's living at home!

I think £50 a week is quite little for full board and lodging not to mention the odd extra you buy for her. I wouldn't consider charging any less, in your circumstances.

Liverbird

There is just the two of us living here. She has no other bills to pay......except her mobile phone....... I buy the toiletries, she buys her own make-up etc.
She brings home £700 after tax. She will get paid on a thursday and I can guarantee within a week she will be skint....so comes to me for loans till pay day.
She has full use of cable tv, phone, broadband internet, the washing machine and water heater seems to be on non stop when she's around.
She says she is looking around for a flat share.... but everyone we know reckons she won't last 5 minutes.

Murtle

I think, you're better off teaching her finer art of dealing with finances! Sorry, but if you take nothing of her now she'll never learn!! I know there is a time for being young and a time for being grown up, but 19 is as good a time to learn. You only have to read a few of the posts in the debt-free-wanabee board to see how easy it is to get into severe debt....not saying she will, but I think paying board will teach her money matters
x

Savvy_Sue

Liverbird wrote:

There is just the two of us living here. She has no other bills to pay......except her mobile phone....... I buy the toiletries, she buys her own make-up etc.
She brings home £700 after tax. She will get paid on a thursday and I can guarantee within a week she will be skint....so comes to me for loans till pay day.
She has full use of cable tv, phone, broadband internet, the washing machine and water heater seems to be on non stop when she's around.
She says she is looking around for a flat share.... but everyone we know reckons she won't last 5 minutes.

Then personally I think it's time to take action. In her own best interests. Stop giving her loans: warn her, then stop. Set out all the bills, and ask why she shouldn't be paying half? Hopefully she's doing her own laundry, her fair share of the cooking, food shopping, washing up and any other domestic chores you feel necessary. But if she's not, start now.

That way, when she does move out, she stands a fighting chance of survival.

If you don't need her to pay half the bills, you may consider a proportionate reduction in line with your income - that's up to you. And if you don't need the money, put some aside for her, as others have suggested. You may want to increase what she pays gradually over a few months, again that's up to you.

She'll hate you for now, but thank you for it later!