money management for secondary school age kids

[sitlux]

Hi, my DD has just started year 7 and I'm wondering how it's best to teach her about managing her pocket money. We've just opened a BarclayPlus bank account (for 11-15 year olds) that comes with a contactless debit card and an app. She has some cash that was given to her by grandparents etc. so I though depositing that to the account is a good start. Also taking her piggy-bank coins to the bank and depositing it to the account.

My DD is quite young, August-born, and so far she has not had any pocket money on her, it's always been in my purse. However, I'd like her to learn a bit about spending and managing money and so on. Any apps or websites I could direct her to read about it? Also, how much do you give your DCs per week - if anything? I thought £5 max but her dad says it's too low. I also thought about starting to reward chores around the house (she does her own room, I mean outside of that) but perhaps it's not the best idea, might be too late to start that... since she is helping me anyway in the kitchen and with folding her own laundry. Any ideas? Especially about teaching her to control her spending own spending, as the contact-less card won't help with that - you can withdraw or spend all money in one shot if desired (NB. she can't go into overdraft, so that's good).

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[Weenurse]

My girls got $50 a week in high school, in return for cooking one night a week, doing their own washing and other chores.
This paid for phones, travel, outfits, outings, birthday presents etc. I took no further money out of my pocket for them except for paying for sporting activities.
They are now in their 20’s and very good with budgeting.
DD1 is having a gap year traveling paid for by her savings.
DD2 has traveled as well.

[IVEgottheDECAF]

My 11 year old gets £11 pcm , ten year old gets £10. Obviously when they are older it wont be enough but i think its a good starting point

[OrangeJustice]

11 and 12 yr old here both get £15 a month each and we save £5 in an account for them which they can’t access. Cash only at the moment but I’m beginning to think about bank accounts and cash cards.

[RedskyLastNight]

We started with £5 a month of "splurge" money into current account (which ended up mainly going on sweets) and £5 a month of "save money" into savings account (which had to be spent on tangible items i.e non food).


We prefer not to link money to chores, unless they are exceptional chores as we regard things like pitching in with everyday housework to be part of the responsibility of living in our house.

We paid for their phones and going out with friends so this was literally "fun" money plus a bit to buy presents etc.

We started low as DS had a tendency to blow every penny he had on sweets. If your DC is more responsible you might like to give them more, but have more they are required to spend it on.

[Crustytoenail]

My DD had a Go Henry card. You can see everything they do through the parent account, block it from the parent account and set tasks to complete that will pay the selected amount on a selected day when they complete them. You can set a weekly default amount and then they can earn above that doing the tasks you set, the tasks can be repeat ones each day/week or you can set a one off. You can also override the task so if they've ticked they've done it, but you know they haven't, you can delete the payment. You can also set a spend limit and it has a savings section.
My DD has £5 per week every week, and she has the potential to 'earn' another £10 through regular tasks like walking the dogs, putting the bins out, cleaning the bathroom etc. I expect washing up and sorting her own clean laundry as being part of the household. This week I've asked her to weed the path and gravel in the garden and tidy the shed up, she'll earn an extra £5 if she does, and she has until Monday to do it, if she doesn't do it and complete the task on the app she doesn't get paid and the task disappears as it's a one off. Obviously your DD is younger so tasks would be more age appropriate but my DD has learned from it.

[LlamaofDrama]

DD is 9, so not at the bank account stage yet. For the last few years we've given weekly pocket money, 50p per week each for spend, save and charity. (Separate moneyboxes) The spend is entirely up to her, she can blow it all on sweets if she wants. Save is for bigger stuff, we have a bit of a veto but have never needed to use it. Charity covers school events run for the pta funds, charity shops and any donations she wants to make. It was really important to DH and I that she grow up understanding charitable giving as well as spending on herself.

To start with she never had any money because it had all gone, but she's now incredibly frugal (with her money!). If she wants something or if I say "would you like..." she always checks who's passing before she decides

I don't expect her to buy presents out of her money, it's for stuff for her, apart from the charity pot, but she always chooses to spend some of it on buying presents on holiday for her friends which I think is very sweet.

She's keen now to start having an allowance and more say over buying her clothes etc. But that's not happening for a while as she has inappropriate taste in clothes!

[senua]

teaching her to control her spending own spending, as the contact-less card won't help with that - you can withdraw or spend all money in one shot if desired
Let her. You can't learn by your mistakes if you are never allowed to make mistakes!
Put the weekly pocketmoney into the account, let her get used to it and the responsibility. Then transfer in the 'big' money (or some of it) once she has matured a bit.

[Comefromaway]

I opened two linked accounts for mine. One was a savings account that birthday/christmas money went into, the other was for weekly pocket money.

In Year 7 they got about £5 per week.

[Passthecake30]

My year 7 gets £15 per month going into a bank account. However, he is extremely tight and is a saver through and through, so won't be blowing it on sweets. He'll most likely save it up and get some gadgets. I've given him a few £ for his bag in case he pops to the park with mates and wants to get a drink, and if he does go somewhere (cinema/bowling) then I will give him extra money.

[CIT80]

Mine get £100pm on a go Henry from this they have to top up their school dinner account if they don’t make themselves a packed lunch. They have to then pay for all their social life cinema trips, Saturday shopping with their mates, clothing that is a want and not a need. It sounds a lot but before I did this they would spend sometimes £7 a day on crap from school canteen so had to give them some way of budgeting. My daughter is a nightmare and spends 90% of it in the first two weeks but then she has a tough last two weeks of the month. My eldest son manages it brilliantly and is always carrying money over to the next month.
My youngest in year 6 gets £25pm and we pay for his school meals.

[sitlux]

Thanks all! this is really helpful. I think the £5 per week will be enough for just pocket money. Still not sure if I want to link it to chores.

@senua that's why I got her a contact-less card and not a cash card, I wanted her to have all the freedoms that come with it, and learn about purchasing online and checking her balance on the app and so on. The account is linked to my Barclays account, however it doesn't show on my mobile app. In fact the only way for me to see her balance is to check her phone, as there is no access to online banking for this account, only a mobile app that is child friendly.

The account is paying a bit of interest, but only 0.6% paid quarterly I believe so maybe that will entice her to save a bit.

For "big money" we opened a couple of savings account for her, which she doesn't have access to until she's 18, and told her that money is mainly for uni.

I asked her to put some money in the uni account it as well. When she gets money from relatives, to use some for spending and some to save -- but I'm now thinking that she could do both long term savings (uni) and short term savings (e.g. buying her own phone) and use the current account just for fun and sweets.

[SeaSidePebbles]

In year 7 she had £5 a week.
She just turned 11, so I opened her a nationwide account.
Very rarely I give her cash, I just transfer into her account.
We live in a city, so I need her to be able to access money (bus/grab some milk on your way home/can you get dinner tonight/milkshake with her friends etc).
I suppose if we were still in the middle of nowhere,she wouldn’t have needed that much.
Asking her to go buy a bottle of oil on her way home makes aware how much stuff costs. She’s become savvy, since she realised she can check the prices and go to the cheaper shop, she can keep the difference.
She buys her own toothpaste/deodorant/razors, she’s learnt the hard way cheap is not always best 😂, but she can budget now, because it’s her own needs.

This year was fab, I just transferred her money and she sorted her own school shoes, tights and shirts. She was telling me the tights in Boots are cheaper than m&s but better quality 😂. And she told me she can’t affort russel and bromley, what was I thinking takigg her there all her life? Clarks will do just fine. So, there you go. They learn if their own pocket stings would be the moral of the story.

[sitlux]

@SeaSidePebbles do you mean in year 6 she had £5 per week? If she's just turned 11, that means she's just started year 7 in Sep '19, right? Or perhaps you are in a different school system?

[Crustytoenail]

that's why I got her a contact-less card and not a cash card, I wanted her to have all the freedoms that come with it, and learn about purchasing online and checking her balance on the app and so on.

This was a really important bit of the learning for my DD, plus the impact of being careless and losing the card. DD was away this summer and 'lost' her card. She hadn't lost it actually, just didn't keep proper tabs on it and keep it safe. She did block it through the app, but then obviously had no access to her money, and being away from me, there wasn't a lot I could do. She went 3 days without spending money, she was with family so all needs met, and her card was found where she'd left it, but I think it taught her an important lesson about the responsibility of the card and the money and the concequences. She then had to wait for me to unblock it because I was working when it was found and only the parent account can unblock. She was also mortified to have a transaction declined as she hadn't checked her balance and had spent more than she thought and the weekly spend limit kicked in. Not pleasant lessons, but important ones I feel.

[SeaSidePebbles]

She’s a few years older now 😂. No, what I meant was when she started year 7 she’d just turned 11, like your DD.