Monthly budget for 17 year old

[roaringwater]

How much do you think it's reasonable to give a 17 year old girl as a monthly allowance?

DD is starting sixth form college in September - she's also 17 in September.

I want to start giving her a monthly allowance in order to teach her how to budget, value money etc. This needs to cover:

Clothes
Make up
Basic toiletries, toothpaste, sanpro etc
Some money for lunches at college although she tends to take a sandwich / salad from home.
Stationery
Socialising
Occasional salon appointments, e.g. eyebrow wax (yes, yes, I know this isn't essential, flies in the face of feminist principles etc etc and no, I'm not getting into a discussion about it)

Her dad pays for her phone and will continue to do so. Travel isn't really an issue as we live in a city centre and literally everything is walkable. I don't expect a big outlay on college textbooks but tbh I would pay for these.

I know it's a case of "how long is a piece of string?" but I'm interested in what other Year 12s get.

She is determined to get a part time job, although this might prove harder now with All This Going On.

The purpose of doing this is so that she doesn't start university clueless about how to manage her own money like I did.

I got £20 a week in 1998!

DS will be starting 6th form in September, but is a little younger and has only just turned 16.

On his 16th birthday we discussed finances with him and agreed that he will get his child benefit money paid into his account. He gets an allowance of £10 a week from us and we pay for his phone. He also worked in a local pub prior to lockdown but this has obviously stopped for the time being.

We have made it clear that we will not be paying for things like T-shirt's, boxers etc, that will all be down to him, though basic toiletries go on our weekly shop. He is also responsible for paying for his guitar lessons.

So far it seems to be working. He has set up a side account and guitar lesson money goes straight there when the CB money goes in. He's bought some new bedding for himself (with much agonising over thread counts and whether to buy cheap or to last) and has given me £10 to put in his savings account. He's extremely proud of being in control of his own budget, and while his ability to fritter it away is somewhat limited, but I hope it's a valuable lesson in budgeting for him.

My 14vyear old het £100 a month, I buy all toiletries although if she wants particularly fancy shampoo etc she buys that. We pay her phone and basic clothing ( school uniform, winter coat,shoes etc) her money if for socialising, brows, nails, and shoes I wont buy lol

Our DS got £50 a month - obviously no beauty salon treatments . He also had a part time job.

Its very hard to 'normalise' what teens get - we live in a fairly rural area so no teens would go out to a film, bowling etc a McDonalds would be a very rare treat. My DS didn't choose expensive clothes, loved charity shops or DeBop. Basic toiletries provided and any posh stuff would be a Christmas or birthday present.

He managed fine ......... and saved some, it definitely helped him when he went to Uni last September as he was very used to budgeting and quite shocked at students who spent so much on their 'social lives'. (His child benefit went straight into a pension fund from birth ).

DS1 is a similar age - due to start 6th Form college. What I am doing is to work out what I would usually expect to spend on the budget items I am asking him to take over, and then add a bit of leeway if possible. He might also have some income from a college bursary, and a job if he decides to get one, so equally I didn't want to make it too generous. He has ASD, so I am expecting to be very active in supporting his budgeting for at least the first year. I am teaching him how to use the same budgeting software as I use because I have found it very helpful and his spending habits are scarily similar to mine.

He will be paying for lunches at college, his college bus pass (in instalments - I will pay for it upfront and he will pay it back to me), his phone bill, other discretionary food/travel, all clothing, hair cuts, anything above basic toiletries, small gifts for family/friends at birthdays and Christmas, and then other spends with an expectation of him saving some as well. For us that comes to £200-£250 so he will be getting £250 pcm - although if he ends up not going to college full time due to covid then we might need to negotiate on the lunch money.

I will continue to purchase basic toiletries (shower stuff is all shared anyway) and the family plans for Spotify/Netflix. I will also pay for any other college expenses, e.g. equipment or trips.

I also factored in the younger two - making sure I could afford to do this for them to when they reach a similar age and also considering for e.g. that they both wear glasses and whether that would be something I would expect to be funded out of an allowance (I decided not, unless they wanted to pay the additional amount to get designer)

My 17 year old ds gets £120 a month which needs to cover going out, clothing etc.

I reckon £150 - £200 if this is affordable to you.

Say two lunches a week - £10
Drinks, snacks etc - £20
Hair appointment every other month - £20 per month
Socialising - £20 - £30
Toiletries/makeup - £20
Clothes - £40
Stationary - £10
Sundries - £10

I did that totally wrong mixed up weeks and months😂😂😂

This is all really helpful - thank you to all of you

So really need around £250 per month

Say two lunches a week - £40
Drinks, snacks etc - £40
Hair appointment every other month - £20 per month
Socialising - £80
Toiletries/makeup - £20
Clothes - £40
Stationary - £10
Sundries - £10

I would add all of the concrete expenses up - so college lunches are probably estimable, also toiletries and salon appointments (if these are on a different schedule to monthly, either calculate per week and x4.33 or calculate per year and /12.)

Clothes and make up trickier because it massively depends on what brands she likes etc. I would not cover expensive brands, but the kinds of things you'd consider reasonable to buy her as everyday clothing rather than treats/presents. Again to get a rough estimate of how much is reasonable, think about the amount of clothing/make up she would reasonably need over a year and divide by 12. (Consider if you tend to do things like holiday wardrobe shopping, holding some back to release as a kind of "bonus" at that time of year.)

Socialising I would think of a sample "average" schedule e.g. how many cinema trips, meals out, bowling etc in a month and allocate enough to cover those things. At expensive times like Christmas consider the "bonus" idea again.

Stationery tricky again. I think I would take a similar approach to the clothing - think about what brands you'd happily buy her, and price according to that. Hard to say how much she would go through in a year. Again you may wish to hold some back for an August back-to-school shop.

Then I assume that she might also want to buy other things in addition - snacks/drinks? Jewellery? Books? Birthday presents for friends/family? So you might want to add a little extra for this, although not a huge amount more.

All of this ought to give her enough wiggle room. So for example, if she brings lunches from home, she'll have extra she can spend to get some nicer clothes or stationery or make up. If she chooses to shop second hand or get cheaper Primark multipacks or something, she'll have extra money to spend on something else. If she goes overboard and blows it all on clothing, she'll have nothing to socialise with, etc.

I would re think the basic toiletries because if she ran out you would obviously have to provide them so doesn’t really help with budgeting for the real world.
My dd had £80 a month in sixth form, she had a bus pass for college but not for other journeys.
We paid her mobile phone , basic toiletries and she could either buy lunch at college or make her own.

I got 20 a month as a mid teen in say 2002. I had to get most things with that, I took packed lunch to school. I got a part time job at 15 nearly 16 and that stopped and I bought everything myself except school uniform and 1 pair of shoes.

I've got 3 children ( two are teens) but if I gave them £250 each a month that's £750 !!!??? Mumsnet is completely another world sometimes. I would personally think that expensive clothes, beauty treatments etc if they want that sort of thing, should be paid for by themselves when they have a job! I don't spend anything like £250 each month on myself even!! Maybe I am just old fashioned and out of touch!

MyMelodie, that's why I said to work out what you would usually spend on the items you want them to start paying for to assess the right amount for your family/circumstances. I won't be spending any more money on DS1 through his allowance than I do now, I will just be paying it directly to him so that he can develop his money management skills.

FWIW I have two younger children in Y6 and Y8 - they get £10 pocket money pcm through primary school, and £20 pcm for secondary Y7-11 which is purely for discretionary spending because I pay for their lunches/travel/clothing. An allowance for 16-18 is something different, to me anyway. None of them will be getting an allowance at the same time, if there was a closer age gap then that's something I would have factored in.

My DS14 gets £10 a week from us and £10 per month from GPS. I buy all toiletries, basic clothing and school uniform and pay for his phone. He has two jobs and earns £100 per week term time and £180 a week during the holidays!! He keeps around £100 a month from his wages and the rest goes into his savings account for uni/travelling in the future. He certainly appreciates the value of money now he is earning it himself. I was thinking of increasing his pocket money but now he earns so much himself we have agreed that I will put the extra I was going to give him into his savings instead.

My melodie - everyone has different lifestyles and budgets. You will come across a much wider variety of lifestyles and outlook of mumsnet than you will amounts your own friends and family.

I did say depending on what is affordable.

Lunches, drinks and sacks Add up. The girl is clearly already getting beauty treatments paid for and her mother is happy to continue that.

That may be a different way of life than you are used to, but that’s okay.

My DD has £120pm for travel, food, extras like products, nails etc. We paid phone bill and car insurance. London though so May make a difference

Jeez, my 17 year old Ds gets nothing

Wouldn’t be able to afford to give him anything. He used the household toiletries and he gets a few t shorts/pair of jeans and maybe cheap trainers for birthdays and grandparents will give him £100 for birthdays and Xmas and that has to last.

He doesn’t go out at all though as he doesn’t know anyone where we live, his college is an hour away.

My 17 year old gets £120 per month. I buy generic toiletries and pay for her phone. I will also provide anything needed for education, textbooks and physical supplies for her course. Everything else is her own choice now.

In normal circumstances I buy myself a monthly bus pass, if I’m not using it she can borrow it for trips to town, if I am using it she pays her own fare.

I’d say about £150 a month which is what I got at that age (4 years ago) but I didn’t pay for my own toiletries and got basic clothes bought for me. This was for socialising and lunches at school - which I skipped so I could save!

My family were very low income with both parents retired so I really valued having that money to try and fit in with my friends.

Add up what you are already spending and divide by 12.

I got £60per.month when I lived at home but that was 20 years ago

Currently DD gets £50 per month for all clothes toiletries and entertaining.
She will go to college a train and then either 20min walk or bus ride away. She will get £140 per month so £90 extra for buses/lunches etc. There will be food to naked packed lunches at home.
If she would like more expensive clothes, fancy haircuts etc she needs to get a job. She has already applied for several.

My son starts college in September. We have given him the family allowance and we are topping it up to £100. That’s for him to spend on what he wants going out etc ...

He has medical problems with his feet and legs and back. so he can’t get a job for now. So we are mindful of that when it comes to money as he has no other way.

I buy toiletries for him in the weekly shop and buy his clothes for him mostly.

He has had such an awful few years I just want him to go out with friends and have a good time. I would pay the world for him to make sure he can do that. And I wouldn’t let him not be able to go anywhere just because he has no money. He has spent the last year years not really leaving the house and missing so much.