do you give your children pocket money?

[NordicPrincess]

If so, how much and what age? Do they have to pay for anything out of that or is it just for toys sweets comics etc...?

My son will be 5 in march and im starting to think maybe he sould get some but i never got pocket money when i was growing up so i have no idea where to start?

Thanks :)

ooh and im very proud of myself, ive mananged to save 550 in my savings account! go me ive never had them before :D Feels like im getting on the right track at last !

[onepieceoflollipop]

dd is nearly 7 and gets £1.50 most weeks from us. For that she has to tidy her room, to a reasonable standard, e.g. hoover, damp dust, pick up toys/clothes and I help her to change her bedding.

Out of this money she gets sweets (but not many, once a week) and she does buy the odd "magazine" or small toy. She tends to save it up. She spent about £4 at the fete on rubbish bric a brac that I refuse to shell out for. (we did pay for a few things for her and her little sister)

[mumofloads]

DD (13) £10.00
DS (10) £5.00
DD (7) £3.00
DS (5) £2.00
DD (3) £2.00

All weekly. We have a home banking system for the younger 4 where a bank book is filled in weekly with credits and debits. The DC then come to me for money from their account if they want to buy anything.
I buy them a comic and sweets each Saturday as well.

They also have proper bank accounts that DH and I pay into each month.

[HecTheHallsWithBoughsOfHolly]

Yes, they get £5 each a week (are 10 & 11) and it goes into the bank. They get to check their statements, they've got cards - can't withdraw but can check balance and it's a good introduction to it all.

I encourage them to save it, and when there's something they really want, to go to the bank and get some, but to remember "spend a little save a little"

My eldest is far better at this than my youngest

When they were younger they got cash and it all went on sweets and mags.

[NordicPrincess]

i dont know why but part of me feels uncomfortable "paying" my son. hes so little that i sometimes think what does he need money for when he has me? but another part of me wants to teach him to be responcible with money etcc..

[mousesma]

No but my mum gives DD £1.50 a week. This is entirely unnecessary because DD is 21 weeks old and does not currently make any purchases :) I just put it in her piggy bank for when she is older.

I have tried explaining to my mum there is no need to give DD pocket money but she wants to because she gives all the other GDs money and she doesn't like to give one without the other.

All the other GDs pocket money is on a sliding scale depending on how old they.

I don't think there is anything wrong with giving older children pocket money but I think they should do something to earn it. i.e. designated small chores like tidying bedroom, putting clothes in washbin etc.

As a child I was given pocket money and I had the option of either saving it for holiday spending money and buying christmas gifts or spending it all. If I didn't save then I didn't have any spending money on holiday and couldn't buy friends and family christmas gifts. However if I did save my dad used to double whatever I had saved.

[thell]

I found my four yr old was nagging me for little soft toys etc all the time, in every shop or gift shop..so DH and I decided to give her £1 a week, then she has the responsibility to save up for her own little treats.

I made it a quid so that she would have to do some saving if she wanted anything, basically, and not be able to fill our house with tat. But then it only takes three or four weeks to save up for a little book.
She's not allowed to buy sweets at all - she only ever gets them in party bags.

[DingALongCow]

DD is five and a half and I think I will hold off on giving her pocket money until she asks/until she is 6. At the moment she gets all of her birthday notes and any little bits of money she is given and she doesnt spend it. She doesn't seem to want much and I think if we started giving her money that might change. On occasion she has taken out the odd pound to spend on special things at school but she seems pretty happy with what she has and has never pestered for expensive toys etc. When asked she says she is saving it for when she is a big girl but I think once she has been at school a little longer she might start wanting more. This year she took £1 out to buy her baby brother a birthday present which I encouraged. I'm probably going to start at £1 a week and add on 50p or a £1 each birthday. She will be expected to save some of that for birthdays.

My parents had a system where we could earn more money by doing extra chores such as cleaning the car or doing another person's chores for them which taught us we could pay for someone to do things for us but we had less money to have fun with. I'll institute that when it seems necessary.

[emy72]

My DD1 is 6 this month and I don't see any need for her to have pocket money. She doesn't really have any interest in it and tbh we are so rural that I don't see where she'd get to spend it!!

We do have accounts for all the kids and save for them, I suspect at some point when they are older I will give them access to those.

I do think it will probably be when they are 10 or 12 though. We'll see!!

I guess I wasn't brought up with pocket money so I am not sure I fully appreciate the value of it!!!

[welshandproud]

DD (12)gets 20pounds a month into her bank account. She has a cash card and pin number but hasn't touched it in the last 3 months. She is saving for a spree in the january sales. She is expected to help tidy up her younger siblings toys daily, keep her room tidyish, clear the table after tea, stack the dishwasher and sweep under the table.She also has dancing lessons 2/3 times a week at 4quid a time and she understands that this is also pocket money.

[upahill]

DS1 gets £20 a week.

We pay for the phone, clothes,lynx and the like, pictures and any other forms of entertainment he fancies, skiing, the odd computer game, haircut.

He doesn't get paid for doing jobs round the house but is expected to do them because he lives there!

[Tinuviel]

I think pocket money is the first step in learning to budget! So from 4 or 5 they have received weekly pocket money - 10p per year of their age. DD is 9 so gets 90p/wk.

At 11 I gave DS1 £5 a week but he had to pay for Scouts (£3) and Kidz Club (50p) out of it. At 13 he got a bank account with a cash card and gets £40 a month. Out of that he pays for 3 activities a week, mobile top-ups (hardly uses it) and buys his own t-shirts.

So in our house it is a gradual process in managing your own money. I would never link cchores to pocket money myself as chores are just part of living in the house. If I paid them, that would imply that there is a choice about whether they do them or not! And that isn't a choice here .

[morethanyoubargainfor]

My ds 8 gets £2.00 per week

5 Y.o gets 50p per week.

Youngest isn't expected to buy anything but he will take money to places we visit/christmas fayres etc.

Ds saved up his pocket money at the beginning of the year for an axoltl, once he saved enough he brought the tank (from Ebay) and the creature. He is now expected to buy food and replacement filter cartridges when required. He often doens't spend it on anything else.

They get given the money on a saturday regardless, they do jobs in the house if we ask them, DS1 has learnig disabilities so is limited).

[shivermetimbers]

DD get £40 per month. In theory anything she needs I buy, anything she wants she buys.Rarely works out that way though.

[kitbit]

DS is 6. We don't pay him for helping around the house because we're trying to teach him that it's a job that belongs to all of us and not done as a "favour", however if he's been especially helpful he gets a step up on his chart and at the end of the week all the steps are added up and that's his pocket money.

He also gets steps for going to bed nicely, general lovely behaviour, getting himself dressed (hates doing it), eating well, good manners, playing nicely etc. He usually ends up with between £1.20 and £2.00 a week and it goes into his piggy bank. We went to a cafe on Saturday and he insisted on paying :o (I sneakily topped up his piggy bank when we got home)

[MerryMarigold]

Ds1 is 5. I don't give him pocket money. He has no idea of money yet (maybe it would help, but we are busy working on writing at the mo!) He has a money box and gets to put all the coins he finds on the floor - quite a few - in it. Rarely dh drops a pound coin out of his trouser pocket and he understands that's a 'big one'. When the box is full we will take it to one of those counting places. Or maybe by the time it's full, he'll be able to count it himself !

[Ragwort]

upahill - out of interest, what does your son use his £20 pocket money for if you are paying for everything - how old is he?

My DS (9) gets 70p a week and has to save half . He tends to save most of it anyway, very occasionally buys some sweets.

[ReadytheRedNoseReindeer]

Ds (6) gets 50p a week and a sweet ration once a week , the pocket money he saves for a toy usually, although he's just bought an anti-bullying band that he's been craving

dd1 will begin getting it when she is 6, I don't consider her mature enough to get the concept yet.

[nymphadora]

9/10 get £2 a week each. £1 to spend £1to save for hols/xmas etc. I give them £10 ish extra for hols/xmas if they have been saving properly. dd2 is terrible for spending on crap & then begging from dd1 who doesn't spend hence the bonuses!

[AngryPixie]

We started pocket money at 6yrs. My dd (7) now gets £1.20 my ds (6) £1 They get it every saturday and are not paid for chores. They are just expected to help out around the house, because they live here.

I have used it as a stick (as opposed to carrot) though, last year my dd lost 10p each time she called her brother 'stupid' Worked like a charm

For me, the best thing about pocket money is instilling some sense of the value of things. My dd used to say 'But it's only £10' because 10 really is a small number when you're 6. She'll now say 'That would cost me more than 2 months pocket money!!!'

[MrsNonSmoker]

DDs 7 and 9 get £1 or £2 if they do chores. Most of the time they forget and so do I (we're not big on housework!) DD1 (9) saves up and buys quite expensive items, DD2 (7) has no real concept of money, we're saving up to buy them a piano and when she gets £5 she gives it back to me for the piano jar!

[DandyDan]

Pocket money never linked to chores.

Everyone in the house is expected to do some level of chores, regardless of money. On a rare occasion (cleaning the car, inside or out) they would get an extra £1 maybe, but not often.

Children should learn to have their own spending potential and not be deprived of it. As a SAHM mum, I don't get paid for chores either, nor am I told that I can't buy a bar of chocolate to treat myself because I forgot to do the ironing one day, so it would be unfair to link "tidying rooms" etc to how much the children get.

From aged 5, ours received 20p x their age - so a five yr old got £1, at six years £1.20. By age 11, this went up to £2.50, and then up in 50p or £1 increments until £7 aged 16. We paid for haircuts, toiletries, cinema trips, expensive bus-fare and clothing.

[upahill]

Ragwort DS is 14. He pays for all his BMX stuff, his train fares to the Blackpool and his entry fee to Rampcity. He also buys 'extra' clothes, that is ones that he really likes and wants that is over and above what I think is reasonable (but I understand why he wants them- because I was a teenager once) He pays for his pool when he goes to the local snooker club and incidentals. He bought a girl a box of chocolates for her birthday recently and wouldn't let me pay for them because he wanted them to be from him - I think he forgot where the money originaly came from!!