Teenagers Pocket Money

TheBanker

Do parents of teenagers give them 'pocket money' these days, and if so what's the going rate and what do you expect them to pay for?

My other half doesn't give her son (14) pocket money as such, but she pays for things as and when required. She is not on the breadline, but she's a single parent (she and I are financially independent and don't live together) so has to be careful with her budgeting, if that makes any difference.

When I was his age (30 years ago...) I used to be given some pocket money every week. I think it was just a couple of pounds although that could obviously buy more then than it can now. I also had a paper round. I used to save my pocket money and paper money (and any birthday money) to buy things I wanted. I'd sometimes make an extra few pounds by doing odd jobs for neighbours e.g. washing cars or mowing lawns. 

I'm asking what's normal because he was having a moan to me earlier about having to ask his mum every time he wants to buy something or do something. Most of his mates have bank accounts or cards that their parents top up for them. He doesn't have a bank account. 

When I had a word with his mum, she said she prefers to do it that way because she wants to make sure he's spending on sensible things. I said he'll not learn to spend or budget wisely, if he doesn't have any money to work with. He's her son, so she decides and I'm not going to disagree with her approach, but interested to know how others deal with this?

marcia_

 I dont give pocket money to my 13 yr old. He can do jobs and get a few £ and i pay for his mobile phone and odd bits like Roblox etc 
He also has a bank account with birthday money etc so has his own money to spend 

oldernonethewiser

The going rate will be whatever someone chooses to give their child(ren)

I prefer the option of giving the child money so they can learn to budget rather than buying things as they are asked for.

pramsay13

I give my 14 year old around £45 a month. That includes him buying 2 lunches a week during school days. I transfer it to his bank account and he controls his own spending. 
I think it's really important at this age for them to understand budgeting and how to be sustainable. 

JGB1955

We used to give both our children the equivalent of their Child Benefit.  About £20 per week in current terms.  They had to pay for all of their clothes out of that (other than school uniform), transport and entertainment. They soon learned to budget!

theoretica

At 14 I think I was being given my bus fairs for the week and a bit extra - by 16 I was getting a quarterly sum to cover bus fairs, school lunch, clothes and whatever else I could afford.  In hindsight, I think my parents were very sensible in giving me responsibility for boring spending as well as fun stuff.

TheBanker

pramsay13 said:

I give my 14 year old around £45 a month. That includes him buying 2 lunches a week during school days. I transfer it to his bank account and he controls his own spending. 
I think it's really important at this age for them to understand budgeting and how to be sustainable. 

Does he manage ok or have there been any disasters? My OH is worried that if she gives her son some money, he'll spend it all on rubbish then she'll still have to buy him things he needs. I think she needs to let him do that, he won't learn otherwise. I might be infuluenced by the fact that one of my early jobs was working in a University bank branch so spent most of my time trying to teach students that they needed to budget because coming back every week asking for a bigger overdraft wouldn't work.

School lunches aren't a problem as his are paid for in advance online.

pramsay13

No disasters but a couple of times he's spent more than his monthly allowance so he's dipped into extra money from birthdays or Christmas so we've had a conversation about spending and being solvent. 
All my children got their own allowance from 11 when they got their own bank accounts. 
I think being worried someone will spend all their money is the worst reason for not doing it, will she still bail him out when he's 20, 30, married?

TheBanker

pramsay13 said:

No disasters but a couple of times he's spent more than his monthly allowance so he's dipped into extra money from birthdays or Christmas so we've had a conversation about spending and being solvent. 
All my children got their own allowance from 11 when they got their own bank accounts. 
I think being worried someone will spend all their money is the worst reason for not doing it, will she still bail him out when he's 20, 30, married?

I am sure she will if she's able to and he needs it, because she loves him to pieces. 

elsien

Nephews were paid for as they went along by parents. Generally speaking, they preferred that because they reckoned they got a better deal than if they were just given the money to manage themselves. 

It did mean though when they got part-time jobs they didn’t have a clue about budgeting so it was a very steep learning curve. 

Does he not get any money from anyone else for anything - birthday money, et cetera - that he could open an account with and start to learn?

maybe they could also be a discussion around what he needs and what he wants. And what he pays for and what Mum still pays for  -  for example basic toiletries and school uniform are probably always going to come out the household budget. The Xbox games, the branded t-shirt and the posh aftershave - That would be down to him. 

And if he did run out of money for the basics, that’s how people learn. Walking if you’ve spent a bus fare for example.

TheBanker

elsien said:

Nephews were paid for as they went along by parents. Generally speaking, they preferred that because they reckoned they got a better deal than if they were just given the money to manage themselves. 

It did mean though when they got part-time jobs they didn’t have a clue about budgeting so it was a very steep learning curve. 

Does he not get any money from anyone else for anything - birthday money, et cetera - that he could open an account with and start to learn?

maybe they could also be a discussion around what he needs and what he wants. And what he pays for and what Mum still pays for  -  for example basic toiletries and school uniform are probably always going to come out the household budget. The Xbox games, the branded t-shirt and the posh aftershave - That would be down to him. 

And if he did run out of money for the basics, that’s how people learn. Walking if you’ve spent a bus fare for example.

There isn't really anyone else - no grandparents or aunties or uncles sadly. There is a sum of money from his dad (who died) in trust for when he's older but he doesn't know about that and anyway it's not really for day-to-day spending, it's to help with uni costs or house deposits or whatever. 

It's not that he goes without - if he needs something his mum buys it. If he wants something, she will sometimes buy it and sometimes not, depending on what it is and how much it costs. But he isn't able to make his own choices as he's got no money of his own.