How Much Pocket Money for DCs?

[BeeAndNettle]

DC1 is nearly 10, DC2 and 3 are 7. How much pocket money should they have a week?

At the moment DC1 gets £2 and DC2 & 3 get £1.50 a week. They've never been that fussed about spending it until recently, particularly DC1. He spotted something he wanted which was £50 and was dismayed at how long it would take to save up for it, and it got me thinking that actually the amount they get really wont go very far!!

So clearly it needs to go up but we are not rolling in it by any means so it needs to be sensible.

How much pocket money do you give your DC?

Could you 'price up' jobs around the house? DC can earn extra when there's something they want and it helps you out?

My 9 year old gets a fiver a week- he can earn more by doing housework.

DC don't get paid for doing their chores, i guess i could come up with some extras for some money.

I would say £5 per week for the older one. We give my 15 year old stepdaughter £10 a week and then she does ironing for extra

We do £1 per year of life per month so my 5 yr old gets £5 per month and my 7yr old £7. They can do with it as they please but expected to save for things they want and we top it up if needed. We still cover everything they need and treats if we’re out - ice cream etc

I guess it depends on how much money you have ect. But the children I look after, are 11 years and she gets £6.50 a week and 10 years, she gets £6.00. They also just signed up for the children's debit card and if they do extra chores they can extra money.

so it definitely needs to go up then!!

I have 4 DC so there is an element of how much it adds up to for all of them.

I like the per year of age per month or per school year per week idea - that gives a nice sliding scale up.

DH suggested giving £3 to DC1 and £2 to DC2 and 3 and then if they do their saturday chores without complaining give them a bonus but i think that would lead to more arguments!!

the school year one seems the 'fairest' in terms of how much they get in relation to the cost of toys/games etc. which would be £5 for DC1 and £3 each for DTs. £11 a week should be managable.

7yo doesn't get any. We might give him a euro or two on a day out, pays for sweets or something from a gift shop etc, or he can save it.

I refuse to pay him for chores as no one pays either DH or I!

He has managed to save €20 here and there for Lego or whathaveyou.

We've always done 1€ per school year per week, paid monthly based on a 4 week month (so actually as months are more like 4,5 weeks it's a tiny bit less per week technically). So if your 10 year old is in year 6 that's 22€ per month (whether £22 buys the same as 22€ I'm not quite sure, but there's not much difference these days).

Paying it out monthly makes it feel a more meaningful amount, and is also more meaningful in terms of learning to budget.

Birthday money, if anyone gives them money instead of presents, is also theirs to spend - we used to put it into their savings when they were very little, but once they have things they want to buy it's theirs and they can spend or save. All of them sometimes save all or part and sometimes spend.

At 13 we switched Dc1 from pocket money to an allowance, and she also buys her own clothes and pays for her own haircuts and any specific special toiletries she wants to have which are different to the communal stock of generic basic shampoo/ shower gel/ soap/ deodorant/ toothbrushes/ toothpaste/ sanitary ware stuff in the cupboard. She gets 80€ per month which won't go up (unless the cost of living in the country rises noticeably for some reason). Her money is fully hers to spend as she wishes, but if she bought a computer game and had no money for a haircut/ we jeans she'd just have to wait til next month.

DD also made herself a star chart to earn money by doing laundry and charges 50 cents per load - washed, dried and folded. This was all her own idea but I'm happy with it. As were a family of 5 and I work shifts it's sometimes very useful, and some weeks she can earn an extra 10€ if there's a backlog, bed linen, towels, sports/ swimming stuff etc. as well as the best part of a weeks clothes.

When DD was 10 she got £4/week. She is now 12 and gets £20/months but we pay for food when she is out and she has to cover lunch. Coffee shops are her problem. We also cover all basic toiletries, clothes, pads/tampons and school stationary.

In some months she doesn't spend anything, in some just buys some sweets and in others spends a lot.

No chores attached.

Ds1 is 9 and gets £2.50 a week. He can then earn an extra £2.50 by doing some jobs, 5 jobs 50p per job. He is very good with his money and currently has over £100 saved. Dd is 7. She gets £1.75 a week, then has the option of earning £2.50 by doing the 5 jobs. Ks2 is 4 so he doesnt get anything at the moment. We use go henry cards for the eldest 2 to manage their money.

To add, we live rurally, so there is no 'popping to the shops for sweets'. it's a 10 min drive to the local shops and half an hour to the shopping centre. they all, particularly DC1 now, want to save for things like build a bear, or a trip to the toy store!

I'm not keen on the gohenry cards, i want the DC to have a real understanding of the different amounts of money, i'm really wary of them being able to wave plastic and it not seeming any different whether its 50p of £50 that they spend. i like them physically having to hand over the cash so its real for them.

i will speak to DH again tonight. i agree with PP - chores are part of family life, you don't get paid for them. i may come up with a list of other chores they can do on top that will earn them extra.

we would pay for food/treats when out (so we can still say no to endless icecreams!!) but they need to fund their gift shop spends from their money. i want them to have enough that they can get the idea of 'spend some save some' too. the way the world lives on credit scares me and i dont want my DC to think you can spend on credit.

We’re planning on starting ours on their age per week when they are 5.

If we have enough income we’d like to actually give them £10 a week but of that £2 goes into a ‘tax’ jam jar, £1 to charity, £1 to savings and £1 to pension. So they’ll only see £5 of it to spend.

Tax rebate (empty the tax jam jar) once a year so they get a chunk to spend over the summer holidays. Savings can be emptied as and when they want. Charity jar given to their chosen charity maybe each month. Pension jam jar given to them on their 18th birthdays.

I had zero idea about how finances works so I’d like to teach them early so it normalises savings etc!

My dc are 4 and 5 and they get £4 a week each. They usually both save it up individually for a lego or something but sometimes they club together for a toy. We have a chalk board where we keep track if how much they have, we sometimes give them cash but other times they use our card at the till- most peole i know now pay by card for everything and keep track of their spending on their phones so it's most likely how my dc will end up managing money. They don't earn their pocket money as such but they are expected to do jobs just generally.

DS1 is 12 and gets £5.50. He has a bank account and it goes directly into that.
DC2 is 9 and gets £4 a week. I just write it on the calendar.
At the moment its rising 50p a year but that may change.
I will buy them one magazine a month if they want it as well.
Sometimes they can earn money (car washing etc)

I love the idea of a 'tax rebate' jar, I will be stealing that for when DD is old enough.
I wish my parents had taught me more about money, I remember begging for an allowance like my friends at 14 and they said the idea was ridiculous. I did not do very well having to budget on a very very tight income once I got to uni.