Do your secondary school age kids carry money??

anonymousie

DD1 (14) and DS (12) have money- a small amount of pocket money and also some they "earn" that all goes into a bank account.

For day to day school they have bus/train passes and smart cards for dinners.

They don't carry any money (DD1 has and emergency £5 somewhere, if she hasn't lost it in the mists of time- we didn't give DS one as she has never used the £5 in the 4yrs at secondary!).

THey both have cashcards for their cash accounts and have the PINs. DD1 rarely gets a bit out to get pressies for her mates eg at Xmas, but mostly she has a sub from the "bank of Mum" and pays me back:rotfl:

THey reall don't have anything to spend money on, and I'm afraid I don't want them buying sweets/pop daily like the kids we see on the train- they take snacks from home.

Is this normal?? Am I a "bad mum" or a setting them up with bad finacial habits?? It isn't that they don't have money to spend if they want, but as it isn't burning a hole in a pocket they don't think about spending!!

fiscalfreckles

Mine doesn't very often - occasionally she needs to take money in to buy a ticket or something, but if your lunches & travel are covered I see no need.

Luckily, mine have never got into the habit of buying stuff on the way home like a lot of the kids do (they walk past my house and all the boys especially seem to be eating something, I even saw one eating a pot noodle yesterday!)

I provide snacks like cereal bars & kit kats etc that they can take in their pockets if they want, and they fill a drink bottle at home each day & they seem happy with that.

vixarooni

Hmm. I used to carry money with me at that age at school. I would get a roll and lunch or walk up to the shop and buy something. At school there really isnt any need to carry any money around, but i think its good to for social times.

I remember at your childrens ages i would go down town with my best friend every saturday armed with my £2 pocket money. I then got some more when i got a job at 14/15 and it must have taught me something im sure. Once its gone its gone!

I say - enjoy this time while it lasts, give it a few years and DD1 will be thinking clothes, clothes, shoes, handbags, make up, hair products!

Alikay

Yes, mine go to school in the city centre and need bus fares- varying amounts dependant on which bus route/operator they use. They start each week with £10 on their dinner swipe card and get a top up later in the week of £3 or so. They do a long school day (8.20 ish til 4 with a half hour dinner) and stay til 5 or later if they have a sports club, music etc so I'm fine with them grabbing a donut or sausage roll from Greggs on the way home if they want.

On Fridays they finish 40 minutes earlier so often go to a particular coffee shop to chat with mates - this comes out of pocket money, though.

So yes, my teenagers generally have up to a fiver on them most of the time.

chivas

I think it's good not to put too much temptation in their way - and I hate seeing school kids eating loads of rubbish on the way to or from school...

A slight caution would be to make sure they know how to deal with money - if they are protected from handling money at all - then they might go mad with it when they do eventually get some...

One possibility to give financial understanding (without daily amounts of £££) could be to give them a clothing/toiletries allowance (as appropriate). Make sure they spend it on what it's intended for - but let them spend it how they like within that. So they can have the really posh trainers - but then realise they can't get any other new clothes for 2/3 months (whenever the next allowance is due) A friend of mine tried that with her 13 yr old - it seemed to work really well Also helped her save money - as whenever kid asked for clothes/ makeup, she was referred to her allowance!

minimacka

My ds (14) takes £2 a day to school for his meals, they dont have a swipe card system and he walks to school with his mates. He is usually starving when he gets home so I know he doesnt buy sweets or cr*p on the way home. I know he doesnt use all the £2 for lunch, it usually costs him about £1.80 ish depending on what he buys. My other ds (11) is starting secondary school in September so thats £20 a week that I will need to put by for them :eek: luckily its only for 1 year.

flybynight

by 14 I was wandering round with money in my pocket, but then i also had a job outside school hours and needed to buy dinner / drinks etc.
oh yeh and i needed fags. so i am possibly not the best example here.
i think my dads argyuement was if i was old enough to earn it i was old enough to figure out what to do with it. lol

anonymousie

flybynight wrote: »

by 14 I was wandering round with money in my pocket, but then i also had a job outside school hours and needed to buy dinner / drinks etc.
oh yeh and i needed fags. so i am possibly not the best example here.
i think my dads argyuement was if i was old enough to earn it i was old enough to figure out what to do with it. lol

Yup!! I kinda agree about the "old enough to earn it, old enough to spend it" thing which is why they have the cashcards to the pocket money/earnings accounts, it is just that as it is in the bank it tends to stay there:rotfl:

THe fags do worry me- they are both very anti smopking, but I understand the attraction of it in some ways, and also the power of the school gate fag pushers having met a couple of 12yr olds who have fallen fould of them via work.

For those who don't know- there are people who hang round school gates with packs of 10 fags and given them to the gullible on the "you sell these to your mates at Xp each, bring me the money and I'll feed your habit for free" deal. So any child who has £1 or so on them can buy smokes:mad: That's before we get near other drugs or alcopops.

Savvy_Sue

Mine have occasional 'official' needs - like £2 for the planner at the start of the year. Mind you that's a waste of money, DS3 rarely writes anything useful in it, and even if I remember to sign it his tutor rarely does.

I like them to have a little bit of cash on them, but once they're in 6th form it's their responsibility not mine.

It does mean DS3 can go to the school shop and buy more pencils etc although he claims not to know where that is, or that the list of things he should have for lessons applies to everyone but him ...

sorry, we'll be off-topic in a while.

I think that secondary school is the time for them to start learning how to handle cash. And that the 'emergency fiver' is a useful concept - what if they lost their bus pass?

princess

DS 13 takes £10 on a Monday to school and that has to buy him four lunches as he goes to Grandparents for lunch one day a week. He often only has coppers left for lunches by the end of the week! He also has his own pocket money that he takes when he goes into town swimming, and for out of school bus fares etc. Putting him in charge of his own money has been great for us. Instead of constantly begging us he has actually become quite admirably tight fisted. He makes friends phone him back on the mobile, goes to the supermarket rather than the corner shop for sweets etc, and has given up big name lables in favour of own brands.

flybynight

i must admit that i was a tight littel so and so with my wages, much more so than mates that just got given cash. (i had a few different jobs including labouring on site with me dad, and most of them seemed to involve getting rained on). i'd be inclined to tell them that if they want random spends in their pocket they go to the hole in the wall and take it out of their account. I bet they don't bother. For those parents that think not having money will stop them smoking etc you are unfortunatley kidding yourself. I remember there being a good currency in homework answers for fags amongst the kids at my school whos parents didnt let them have cash.