How much pocket money for teenagers?

[lilolilmanchester]

We've always given our DCs £1 per month for each year of their age, and it's always been enough. We pay for regular activities such as swimming etc separate to this. DS is now 14 and going out more often with his pals. £14 a month isn't enough, but I want to keep it to a sensible amount so he learns the value of money. How much do you give your teenagers, what is it supposed to cover, and do they have certain jobs to do for that amount or earn extra for additional jobs?

[slowreader]

We give ds14 £6.00 which has to cover school bus fairs (45p each way or he can walk and save it if he likes) + school snacks- they can get toast etc at break. (He takes packed lunches as do all his friends). He can top it up by cutting lawns -£4- £2 each, cleaning the cars (£5.00 inside and out) etc non routine jobs like that.
He also helps a neighbour for £3-£4 per week. All his friends seem to do pretty much the same.

[noddyholder]

My ds is 13 and gets £30 a month into his account.He has to cover all leisure stuff and ps games etc going into town cinema etc.I buy his clothes although he does buy bits too.He also gets £10 on his phone

[MarsLady]

DS1 (14) gets £30 a month.
DD1 (12) gets £20 a month.

DS1 has to do all his leisure activities and pay for his phone with that. He picks up a bit of babysitting which tops it up when he wants to.

DD1 has to do all of her leisure activities and I give her £5 for her phone.


Until age 11 mine get 10p for each year of age, so DD2 is currently on 80p a week.

The money goes up on birthdays. I feed them and clothe them but if they want extra clothes they have to pay for them themselves.

I have told them all that this bank doesn't offer overdrafts. So once their money is gone it is gone! Seems to work. They save for any big things that they want.

[Howdydoody]

We do the same, a £ for their ages. Keep it to £14 but do a list of jobs he can earn money for - £3 for cleaning car, £3 for cutting grass etc then you get something for the extra money you have to pay him. We do this and dd gets about £30/£35 altogether a month depending on how much she wants to work.

[lilolilmanchester]

yes, like your idea Howdydoody. DS needed extra cash to go the cinema at the weekend so he stripped all the beds and washed kitchen floor. Methinks this is the most sensible approach!

[2shoes]

ds gets £12 a week he earns this by helping me with dd who has cp.
I buy his clothes and pay busfare for school. He has packed lunches.

[mumeeee]

My 17 year old gets £30 a month and my 15 year old gets £25. They both pay for leisure activities, most of thier clothes and shoes, although I do buy school uniform and college clothes and basic shoes. I do sometimes give the 17 year old £5 for her phone usually if we need to get in touch with her and she hasn't got any credit. The 15 year old doesn't have a phone.

[Nicola63]

DSD aged 14 gets £15 a week. When she came to live with us 6 months ago I did not have a clue what sort of amount to give her and I just set on that figure as it seemed she could buy a CD or two books with that amount (it's about what I spend on books a week so it seemed fair). In fact she saves nearly all of it and spends it on presents for people at holiday time. She occasionally buys a CD. Her phone is on my monthly payment plan, but she never spends more than $10 a month on calls and texts (she is sending a lot of texts to South Africa, where her mother and sister and many friends are, as she cannot phone them all the time).

[lilolilmanchester]

Thanks all, it's helping me to see what others do.

[Tortington]

tell him to get a job £14 a month for fuck all wow

[lilolilmanchester]

Apart from paper rounds, Custardo, which have long waiting lists round here, could you tell me how he can legally be employed at 14???
He doesn't do FA for his money, by the way. He has regular jobs to do around the house and gets a bit more when he does extra jobs. And given that his mates get £30 - £50 per month, it's hard to argue that we're spoiling him.

[noddyholder]

I don't think £14 is enough for a boy that age although I appreciate it is quite a lot to find every month but things are so expensive and I think you will find thta jobs are hard to come by at that age apart from paper rounds.A friends son does a paper round but she worries so much thta something will happen to him I wonder if its worth it.

[motheroftwoboys]

We give our sons what seems quite a lot - £40 a month at 14, £60 a month at 16 etc but it actually doesn't go that far. It costs £2 or £3 pounds just to get into town. Depends what they do but buying cds or vinyl, meeting friends for a coffee or a meal, going to the cinema or whatever - none of it comes cheap. I don't really want them to have a job while they are at school. This period of life - when they are responsible enough to be allowed out alone but don't have to be responsible enough to worry about money - will not last long at all. University/work and responsibility all comes very quickly. They got much less when they were little 10p a week per year of their age - but they didn't NEED any money then - it just went on sweets! Some of their friends get less, some a LOT more, most seem to have about the same. It's all funded by their child benefit so it doesn't actually cost us anything.

[frogs]

DD1 (12) gets £10 a week as an allowance. This was originally based on the cost of her school canteen lunches; I then pointed out to her that if she took the trouble to make packed lunches, she could save that money for herself. So she has an incentive to get sufficiently organised to make her own lunches, and to realise how quickly it adds up if you're not constantly blowing it on snacks and random trinkets.

If she manages it well she has enough to cover occasional snacks, leisure spending (trips to cinema or to lunch with friends), birthday presents for friends and family and the steady supply of little stationery items that seem to be essential teenage accessories. I buy her basic clothes (based on us looking at what she already has and agreeing on what she needs); if she really wants something that I don't think is necessary, she has to save up her allowance or birthday money for it, or we agree to go halves or whatever. I tend to be generous with her on the whole, as she's not a particularly demanding child wrt clothes and general stuff. She is, however, naturally very disorganised and untidy, so I wanted to make sure the allowance had some kind of incentivising system built into it. She also has to replace lost items of kit out of her own funds, via the school 2nd hand cupboard, again as an incentive to be more organised with it.

[chenin]

18yo and 15yo get no pocket money and haven't since they were 14. They work.

[schneebly]

Dont give him any - he is 14 and can get a job! Mine will be!

[mumeeee]

We will stop giving my 17 year old anallowence when she gets a job. She has treid very hard to get a job and has not been succesful so she has lost confidence at the moment. She is working hard at college and will be in a musical in August so she has rehearsals for that at the moment. She wants to do Musical Theatre at uni or a Drama School when she leaves college so it is important that she gets as much experiance as possible.
There are not many jobs for the under 16's so we will not ask my 15 year old to start looking for one until then.
DD1 got a job at 16 just after she finished her GCSE's so we stoped her allownce then.
Sorry for the long post bit I get cross at people saying that tenagers should get a job at 14 when it is not that easy and it is important for them to be focusing on thier scghool work.

[schneebly]

Fair enough if they have tried to get a job but I don't think 14 is too young to teach them that they have to work for their money and I dont think working a few hours on a saturday is going to interfere with schoolwork too much. I had jobs from the age of 14 and always gave a percentage on my earnings to my mum for 'keep money' and I really think it was a valuable lesson for me.

[noddyholder]

I think the don't give them any get a job is a bit harsh.Am I the only one and just a bit soft?There are years for working when you are older teens is for living and having fun!

[JodieG1]

I agree with you Noddy, they have the rest of their lives to work and just a few short years to enjoy the freedom without it and the responsibility that comes with it. Plenty of time for that a few years later.

[JARM]

I got £10 a week from 14-16 when i started full time work - then i had to pay my mum and dad £80 a month rent lol

[slowreader]

I agree, you can't just say get a job. Not many jobs around here for 14s.
I think they should help anyway with routine jobs around the house but the over and aboves like car cleaning, lawn mowing etc should be acknowledged.
And school is hard unpaid work!

I give mine pocket money because I remember too well never having it- parents attitude was 'we buy you what you need'. Once shoplifted my little sister a birthday present- don't want anyone ever to feel like that around here.

[fakeblonde]

dd1 14 gets £8.00 pw
dd2 11 gets £6.00 pw
For this they have chores-dog walking and feeding.
dd1 washes up mon wed and fri.
dd2 washes up tue and thur.
dd1 empties airing cupboard twice a week,strips her own bed and puts fresh bedding on once a week,hoovers cleans and tidies the conservatory.

dd2 cleans the bathroom once a week , inc scrubbing the loo proporly,feeds cat,strips her bed and makes it up fresh, and cleans hoovers and tidies the nursery.

They can earn extra on top also.

dd1 babysits for a friend @ 3.50 per hour.

I encourage them to always save 10% and for every pound they save i give them 25% on top.

We pay for everything else-dance lessons,swimming,phone,guides,music ,lunches ect.

[Loshad]

ds1 and ds2 get £5 /week each (they are 13 and 12)younger 2 get less, but ds1 has recently seen a dramatic increase in his "need" for money - girlfriend, cinema trips, train home (£2.40) and so forth. He has been really good about asking for jobs to do to earn some more money, but there is no way he will be able to get a proper job at his age and given the fact we live out in the sticks (nor in reality do i want him to - it's his childhood) so I think when daddy returns from the states it might be time for a discussion re increaing his pm, though politically re the other children waiting until his b'day in oct might be best.