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Do you carry on paying a monthly allowance once they have a p/t job?

10 replies

Listmaker · 23/05/2007 12:47

My 17 year old stepdd was getting £40 a month from us as an allowance which covered going out expenses, non-essential clothing, gifts etc and covered her baby-sitting for her younger sisters as and when.

We also pay for her mobile phone which is £30 per month.

She now has a part-time job in the evening/Sat two or three times a week and is earning quite well and has loads of money in the bank.

Should we continue to pay the allowance and/or the phone bill? It seems mean to stop paying just because she has a job when we pay the other dds their allowances/pocket money. We were thinking of saving it for her separately so she can have it for a holiday or when she goes to uni.

What do you do?

Thanks

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bossykate · 23/05/2007 12:48

i think you will disincentivise her from working!

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mumeeee · 23/05/2007 12:57

Your stepdd sems to be geting a big alowence. DD2 is 17 and she only gets £30 a month. For which she has to buy the same as your stepdd and also fund her mobile. Although we do sometimes put credit on her mobile and she can earn extra money by doing extra chores.
Any way back to your questio when dDD1 gtot a part time job at the age of 16 we stopped paying her an allowence although and the same will go for DD2 when she gets a job.

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Listmaker · 23/05/2007 13:02

Yeah I had a feeling it was too generous but have no experience of teenagers and no friends with teenagers (I must be too young ). I think we should stop the allowance and maybe just continue with the phone for now but if she starts earning more ask for a contribution to that too.

She has been doing the job for 4 months now so don't think it's disincentivising her. She has just been on holiday with us and then grounded for weeks (got very drunk 36 hours before our wedding - paramedics and everything!) so she hasn't spent much lately hence the money building up in the bank!

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chopchopbusybusy · 23/05/2007 13:10

Well it is quite a lot of money but you say it includes babysitting so I suppose it really depends how often you ask her to do that. I would probably cancel the allowance but agree to pay for babysitting as and when she does it.

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Listmaker · 23/05/2007 13:24

Fact is that all the money is actually sitting in our bank account anyway and she doesn't show much interest in the details (she's completely uninterested in the workings of every day life on the whole!!) so I doubt she'll ever ask for it all anyway! Bless her!

Thanks for your comments though!

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motheroftwoboys · 23/05/2007 17:37

I think it depends on where you live and what sort of social life they have. Our DS1 (16) gets £60 a month and DS2 (14) gets £40 - you see the pattern! DS1 also had a job a little while ago and has some money saved which he pays himself some money each month but he and his mates seem to have a much better social life than us. They go to gigs/cinema/meet up for a coffee and even doing that once a week (plus transport to and from) costs quite a lot! DS2 however, doesn't go out much and saves his money to buy computer games! They pay for their own mobiles but I pay for transport to/from school and for school lunches plus necessary clothes. This seems to be about average round here. Newcastle.

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4sonsmum · 24/05/2007 07:40

Oh heck - it should be the other way round - my 18year old DS works in Burger King and has to pay me £40 a nonth dig money!

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MrsTucky · 24/05/2007 11:10

I wouldn't pay them an allowance either once they were in work.

My mam made us all pay her 'board' once we reached 16 and were in some form of work. Depending on how much we earned, determined on how much she took. I'll do it that way with my kids too.

Was feeling really mean after reading all these posts as my 14.5 yo DS only gets £16 a month pocket money. We have 4 kids between us and money is tight. He does a paper round to earn extra money, and babysits, and he does tend to get 'extra's' tho, if he asks. He just doesn't ask very often at all.

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MissGolightly · 24/05/2007 11:15

She should get the allowance as long as she's studying. You shouldn't penalise her for working.

If she stops studying and is working full time then, imo, you are no longer obliged to support her.

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Listmaker · 24/05/2007 11:15

Thanks for the replies! I told her last night that the allowance was going to stop but we would pay for her phone and give her £100 towards a holiday she is having in the summer. She accepted it OK.

We have 5 dds between us so it does get expensive! The 15 year old gets £25 per month and seems happy with that. She goes out a lot less than the 17 year old though.