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'd say £200 but weekly payments might be easier for her to manage, although if the idea is to prepare her for budgeting then monthly payments are often the most tricky to manage.

I'd left home when I went to college and so I worked but I had about this much left after paying my rent/bills, with 2 part-time jobs.

This is all very good to know - thank you. For context, all of my children have had very minimal pocket money (£1 a week through primary, £10 pcm in KS3 & £20 pcm in KS4) but on the flip side, everything paid for by us.

This is why I think there's a need for her to catch herself on now about how money really works.

On a separate, yet linked note, I do want to make the payment of this allowance conditional on her maintaining a basic standard of tidiness and cleanliness in her own bedroom and bathroom. Any really bright ideas about how to police / enforce this?

Hmmm I used to get £25 a month in late 2000s and then that was stopped when I started sixth form and got a job instead. That had to cover things like going to town on the bus, some clothes etc, and would be topped up by Christmas and birthday Monday from grandparents which probably made it £45 a month. I also paid my phone bill from that, but never had to pay for shampoo etc from it.

I suspect there's a halfway house between that and the £200 sums being suggested here!

I had £100 pm at the same age, plus any birthday money. My mum would pay for hair appointments separately though.

Personally I wouldn’t have responded to it being tied to chores, and I feel like chores should just be part of being in the family household.

At that age, you should just be able to have a conversation about her contributing to the household by making sure she cleans up after herself.

Other people might have different/better ideas though!

Dsis is the same age mum and dad give her £50 PCM & she works in a supermarket

From 16 mine get £100/month to pay for everything including phone but excluding lunches/bus fares. They then get £50 for summer wardrobe and £100 for winter wardrobe that they can use for shoes or coordinating outfits. And I spent about £300 on sixth form clothes at the start.

I forgot to mention the £80 a month was five years ago.

I also bought essential clothes like underwear coat shoes etc. But any upgrades to £100 trainers for example needed to. Be paid for by dd.

I would say it depends on whether you want her to have an incentive to get a part time job. I think £150+ sounds a lot. I would look at enough so that her basics are covered but that she wants to go and earn money for socialising, make up and clothing, etc. If she gets enough from you up front to buy all these then why would she need a job.

Is she planning on getting g a job. At 16 that's what I done as well as going to 6th form. No allowances. I even paid for all my driving lessons and saved for a car in that time. My parents did give me some money towards a car x

£200 a month. It really doesnt stretch far so a part time job can top it up.

The best way to teach them about the value of money is to give them very little so they're encouraged to get a job (I understand this doesn't apply at the moment but hopefully by the autumn?). When my 2 went away to uni they had their accommodation paid for but had Saturday jobs from 16 and saved for uni. They got jobs at uni (bar work mainly) and survived on this with student loans. My daughter did a year of her degree in France and learnt a lot about budgets! Even though she now has a good job, she still goes into Primark for stuff and knows how important it is to have savings.

DD works and pays for her own phone petrol and food when out

She gets her lunch card topped up £10 a week as she tends to go out for lunch

She buys her own clothes and shoes

Occasionally she’ll ask for something but not often.

Can’t believe they are given money on tap

DD gets £80pm.
I pay for her bus pass,phone sim only,basic toiletries and winter coat.She takes packed lunches to college and since we live rurally there is no Costas,bowling,cinema etc.
She had her hair cut very short last summer so has saved on hairdressing,getting me to trim it as it grows out.
She has become adept at finding second hand clothing on line.She has,until recently,always helped with shopping so has handle on food prices .
She is a natural saver and has a decent amount in her bank account.She just needs to learn not to lend to friends who get much.larger allowances but run out mid month.

I would say £200 per month if you can afford to do that. Currently that is what DD gets. Her allowance has to cover everything fanciful that she says she needs. For example, branded make up, branded clothes, entertainment and non school lunches.

We still pay for her travel ( annual bus pass), mobile phone, school lunches and basic toiletries, school uniform and basic clothes, shoes and coat e.g. functional and non - branded.

‘Her allowance has to cover everything that she says she needs. For example branded make up, branded clothes’ .

How about learning that no one ‘needs’ branded clothes and it would be a better incentive to get a part time job if you want branded make up.

Some of these amounts are huge, I assume you have similar ‘spending money’ as an adult? We could have afforded to give our DS more but he budgeted perfectly well, got himself a part time job and learned to save. He got into his first choice Uni so clearly working part time was not too much for him.

Gosh some big money here. My teens get £50pm plus we pay phones, basic toiletries and clothes, they walk to school so no bus fares. They can take lunch from home or buy using their money. Both babysit for extra cash, DD(17) did have a summer job lined up but that's fallen through now. Both have generally got all the money they need for socialising, gig tickets and lots of makeup!

Clothes - £25pm
Make up - £15pm
Basic toiletries, toothpaste, sanpro etc -£10pm
Some money for lunches at college although she tends to take a sandwich / salad from home. £40pm (roughly £2 per day).
Stationery- £5pm
Socialising - £40pm
Occasional salon appointments- £15pm

So I’d be giving approx about £150 pm but obviously it depends on your personal circumstances and your DD. I think it’s equally important to learn to save for things, for example £25 will get you a new top/dress from new look but you can save 3/4 months allowance and buy a really nice ted baker dress. Dividing monthly money into sections and spending it is good but learning to save is a real life skill

Our DS each have £40 a month into a current account to spend + £50 into savings. This covers casual clothes, going out, any additional meals out they want with friends. We still pay for uniform, stationery, phone, petrol (they have both passed their test), toiletries as part of usual shopping. Every so often they'll get money for doing jobs or if they need a load of clothes I'll give them £100 or so each to go shopping.

I am astonished by some of these amounts. My DC (16 and 18) get an absolute pittance compared to some of these sums. In fact, it's so low that it's embarrassing to reveal it.

I do, however, pay a stupid amount of money every month for their school fees.

Hey ho.

Can’t imagine my teenage DS ever buying stationery .

I'll give you another perspective...
I'm 23. This month I spent £30 (one summer dress and one work dress)

I think if you hand kids too much on a plate they will grow up spoilt, my parents gave me the odd £20 when I went out (once every few months), and lunch money

Foodis There are lots of people on mumsnet who, like you, assume if people live their life or raise their child in a different way they must be wrong.

Children won’t necessarily grow up spoilt if their parents give them more money than you were given.

There is a whole world out there with people living their lives in different ways to how you were raised. It doesn’t make it wrong, and it doesn’t mean The children are spoiled.

My DS got £100 per month when he started 6th form. He also worked every Sunday in a garden centre which gave him another £200.

DD is 18, Y13. She was getting £50 a month for her lunches & dancing lessons.

She got a PT job soon after starting Y12 and I then stopped giving her money. She has recently had a pay rise and earns more per hour than I do!

When she goes to Uni I plan to top her up £100 per month and even that will be a huge struggle for me.

At 17 I think she should work for her money.