How much pocket money do kids get nowadays?

DollyTheSheep

Not a parent obviously and now in my mid-40s. Just wondering how much pocket money kids get on average nowadays? How much do they get given for buying school dinners? (I used to get a £1, lol)
I assume pocket money is in addition to mobile phone bills, frequent barber visits etc?
What is the average for say a 5, 10 or 15-year-old?

strawb_shortcake

I don't give mine any aged 10, 15 & 16, they share a job delivering leaflets and get £20 every three weeks. The eldest usually picks up gardening work in the better weather for neighbours. 
I pay for mobiles for the older two, but that's around £7.50 a month. Cinema trips etc they usually pay for. I pay for explorer trips etc. But their money is usually theirs to do what they want with, thankfully the majority of it goes in their JISA's.

Drawingaline

My 15 has an allowance of £50 a month. She has to buy clothes (bar uniform, underwear and essential shoes) all Toiletries, I pay £20 for her phone, she wanted a more expensive one so she pays the rest. She has to save 10% of it (and 10% of all earnings from babysitting). This has been in place since she turned 15, and once she gets a part time job it will end.

14yr old gets £10 and saves 10%. He can also earn in the holiday by working with me, again saving 10%. He will receive a £50 allowance once he turns 15. Hopefully coinciding with the older one getting a job after exams! 

My (just) 11yr old gets £10, and has just opened his own bank account. Previously he got £5 a month, no need to save, once he turned 10.

7yr old gets nothing. I start it once they turn 10.

Older two have their own budgets on my ynab accout, 11yr old has just set his up and once his bank card arrives next week we will sort it all out properly.

No idea if this is similar to others, this is all I can afford. I had a paper round from age 13, and was actually pretty well off, unfortunately these kinds of earning opportunities have pretty much disappeared for under 16's.

mothertoben10

My 15 year old has the potential of earning £30 a month if he does his designated chores, I buy clothes, toiletries etc and pay for his mobile phone (£20 a month). Presently, he gets nothing as he's a lazy !!!!!!.

Fireflyaway

My 13 year old has £80 a month. Its for treats, we pay for clothes, phone etc. I found giving pocket money has taught some good decision making and budgeting. I never had pocket money growing up and am rubbish with money now! 

maman

You're obviously asking about older children. I think that at this age it's essential to start them on financial planning and money management. When our DDs were about 12 we gave them an allowance. We sat down with them and did the maths of everything we spent on them. It included clothes, cinema, swimming, hairdresser, dinner money. The only things we paid for was school uniform and gifts for birthdays and Christmas.

JuzaMum

When mine asked I said they could have 25p a year - meaning £2.25 a week for the 9 yo and £1.50 for the 6yo. 9 is now 11 and also gets his phone paid for at £10 a month. He might get some extra is he needs it. 

renegadefm

Problem is these days pocket money is old fashioned isnt it? If were out shopping or whatever our daughter who is only 4 admittedly but she will see something she wants and we decide then if she can have it, she doesn't really need her own money, and would probably lose it anyway. I think that pocket money works best for children 12 + to get them used to handling money. 

DollyTheSheep

What about school dinners? Is it mainly packing up nowadays, there always used to be handful of packing up dinner goers at my school back in the late 80s, early 90s. But I used to get a £1 a day, which usually went on chips and gravy or when they had mini Yorkshire puddings at 5p a dozen of them with gravy on, lol. That's if I hadn't spent it all at the tuck shop on crisps and flapjack at 10am morning break earlier!

Fireflyaway

Our child's school dinners are included in the fees but if not I would be cautious! Having seen my friends when I was at school spend their dinner money on junk food! I know some schools use pre paid cards for lunch and the kids parents can log on and see what they spent it on. Also letting kids have too much cash could be risky if they lose it etc. I put our child's pocket money in their account so they can use a debit card or withdraw cash.

MERFE

My 3 all have packed lunches, school dinners would be £2.50 per day per child if they had them. Eldest 15 gets no pocket money, she refuses all chores and is generally grumpy about helping out, she gets £20 a week from her paper round. Middle one 14 gets £5 per week from a  sunday paper round, £2 per week pocket money for sweeping the kitchen each evening and drying up the dishes and he gets the odd £5 (would be weekly but he rarely spends it) to spend on extra snacks at school because he leaves at 7am and isn't back till 5pm, so he has that incase he is hungry after finishing his packed lunch. Youngest 9 get £6 a month which he usually saves to get bigger things, although in the summer he does like to treat himself to the biggest ice cream the ice cream van do occasionally.