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Original poster

Pocket Money for Primary Aged DC - how much would you give?

46 replies

JustSaying101 · 03/10/2020 11:59

Thinking about starting to give some pocket money to my DC but not sure what the 'going rate' is these days! When I was younger, I got about 50p - £1.00 a week (which was generally spent on lots of penny sweets, much to the dismay of the shopkeeper that had to count them out every week!)

So, do you give your children pocket money and if so, what amount do you give or think is a good amount to give to teach the value of money?

OP posts:
reluctantbrit · 03/10/2020 12:09

We started in Reception with £1/week and increased by 50p each birthday.

For us it was an instrument to learn about money, we still paid for all sweets we buy for the family, most toys and books.

We encouraged her to save so she had spending money in the holidays and it worked quite well.

No chores attached as we see them as a joined responsibility for the whole family and everyone does them.

She is now 13 and gets £25/months and is definitely a saver.

charlieclown · 03/10/2020 12:11

We don't because I don't know what they might spend it on.
I don't want them buying sweets etc all the time and they don't really want for toys.

I would though.

They do get money for birthdays and Xmas and just put it in their money boxes.

reefedsail · 03/10/2020 12:14

My Y6 gets £30 a month on his GoHenry. That is his money to spend on pixel-sh*t.

This morning he spent 3 quid on a hamster to follow him in Among Us. Confused

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Families
RedskyAtnight · 03/10/2020 12:17

Who old and what do you expect them to spend the money on?

My DC basically got a £1 a week but I expected them to spend it on sweets/rubbish. They had no need to buy anything else and I didn't want to encourage needless consumerism.

Some parents like to give their children a budget to buy things like drinks and icecreams while they are out, so if you were going down that route, you'd have to give them more.

mackerella · 03/10/2020 12:29

Mine (Y3 and Y5) each get £2/week, but aren't allowed to spend it on sweets. We started around reception age because they were constantly nagging us to get magazines and small toys. The deal is that I don't buy these things any more (although I do buy books for them) and they can spend their pocket money how they like - if they want to fritter it away in crap every week they can, but if they want to save it up, that's also ok. After the first couple of months, they've both chosen to save it instead for things like Playmobil or Lego - you can get a reasonable sized set every couple of months like that. It also stems the flood of cheap plastic crap coming into the house!

Original poster
JustSaying101 · 03/10/2020 12:32

@RedskyAtnight Sorry, I should've put the age in the OP. DC is 7. DC will use the money I expect on similar things, sweets/small toy/magazine, etc, but also to be able to save towards something bigger.

OP posts:
Original poster
JustSaying101 · 03/10/2020 12:34

@reefedsail

My Y6 gets £30 a month on his GoHenry. That is his money to spend on pixel-sh*t.

This morning he spent 3 quid on a hamster to follow him in Among Us. Confused

@reefedsail What is GoHenry? Never heard of that!
OP posts:
Gertie75 · 03/10/2020 12:37

Dd's aged 5 and 7 get £1 a week, they put it in their money boxes and tend to spend it on a toy when they've got a tenner.

Love51 · 03/10/2020 12:47

My Y3 and Y4 get £2.50 a week. I know magazines are overpriced but mine get a lot of value out if then, do all the activities etc. If they ever want a piece of tat from a £1 machine, they pay (when it is their own money they go off the idea). Sometimes they buy books. My youngest bought some superzings, my eldest tends to save up and get herself an expensive piece of art kit (light projector etc). She sometimes buys clothes or sparkly bags or hair accessories - I buy clothes she needs, she buys bits she wants. Over lockdown we ordered them books they had chosen.
I buy ice creams on a day out, pocket money is for themselves, something the rest of the family isn't getting.
I was a saver and my brother a spender, and we had spends to cover everything (clothes, books, later cinema etc) from age 10. I have a saver and a spender. You can't change a child's personality with pocket money, just give them the chance to learn while the stakes are low.

reefedsail · 03/10/2020 12:50

GoHenry is a prepaid kids' card. You and they have an app so you can load on money and see what they spend it on. They can see how much they have. Card has chip & pin so they can use it in shops and cash machines. My DS has his linked to his PS4 account.

Rellies can put money on it for birthdays etc.

Whathappenedtothelego · 03/10/2020 12:58

Mine get their age in £ per month (but paid weekly, so divided by 4.)

13 year old mainly spends on Costa/Cafe Nero, and the odd bit of jewellery/tat.

9 year mainly old collects things with guinea pigs on.

Neither buy sweets much at all, but definitely did when I first started giving pocket money.

soloula · 03/10/2020 12:58

My two get half their age a week. So 5yo DD2 gets £2.50, 7yo DD1 gets £3.50. We just started a few months ago and use the Rooster app as we figured with the way things are atm that they'd probably be spending more money online anyway rather than cash in shops. DD1 has a card with it so can buy stuff with it. DD2 is too young as you need to be 6 for a card. We also use the app for extra pocket money. Like a couple weeks ago we set up 10p for every new food they tried. We have pockets set up to save money for specific things (DD1 is saving for a book she wants).

wendz86 · 03/10/2020 13:01

5 year old gets £1.50 a week , 9 year old gets £3.50 a week . Goes up 50p when it’s their birthday .

RedCatBlueCat · 03/10/2020 13:09

Mine both (age 9 and 11) get £10 per month. Mainly because I never had any change.
Its only increased when we have moved country, as each time we needed to calculate the exchange rate, it had to be rounded up. The same happened with the tooth fairy Hmm.
They dont spend it in anything!

Stompythedinosaur · 03/10/2020 13:12

My 9yo and 7yo get £2 a week which goes into a pot labelled for them within our monzo account. They mainly spend it on toys i don't want to buy them, like toys at a gift shop when we've been out somewhere.

Original poster
JustSaying101 · 03/10/2020 14:04

Thank you for all your responses so far, they've been really helpful and very interesting to see what everyone else does! Agree with you @Love51 about the magazines being crazily overpriced, my DC also really likes them so that will probably be something they can save up for! Also very intrigued by using GoHenry / Rooster / Monzo, particularly as we rarely have spare change lying around, even for when the tooth fairy makes an appearance!

OP posts:
rollonoctober · 03/10/2020 14:07

My 8 and 10 year olds get £3 per week on their gohenry cards. They both chose to donate 20p a week to charity (an option on the app). My 10 year old tends to spend most of his on sweets as he is allowed to go the shop/park with his friends. The 8 year old tends to save and buy bigger things like Lego sets, or uses it for credit on his Microsoft account to buy stuff in minecraft. It works well for us as they don't nag us to buy things for them now as they know they need to budget for themselves.

rollonoctober · 03/10/2020 14:08

Meant to add, we got the gohenry cards because we'd keep forgetting to give them cash and then every now and again they'd pop up asking for something that cost £20 because "we've had no pocket money for months and months...." and we'd have no idea if that was right or not! Now it happens automatically so we don't have to think about it!

Waxonwaxoff0 · 03/10/2020 14:16

I give DS age 7 £5 a week but it's conditional depending on behaviour and helping out around the house. He's not allowed to spend it on sweets, I limit the amount of sweets he has but he can spend it on anything else. More often than not it tends to be Robux!

Cheerybigbottom · 03/10/2020 14:26

My Ds (8) gets £2 a week on a go Henry card.
He has the app on an old phone (and mine) so he can tick off tasks that he's done and see saving goals. He also gives 20p a week to a charity through it and he likes checking the cumulative total and thinking how it's helped people.

DeathMetalMum · 03/10/2020 14:34

Dds 7&9 get a £1 for doing certain chores, some weeks they can get £3 other weeks nothing.

Every now and then we take them to buy sweets and a few times I've seen things I know they would like on Facebook marketplace books and stuff and ask them if they would like to buy them. Otherwise they save it up to go with birthday money for other things (usually huge lego sets) they want.

Stompythedinosaur · 03/10/2020 15:16

I like the idea of the Go Henry card, but there was no way I was spending £72 a year for the two of them to have one - that's loads!

Hence why we do the monzo pot.

TwoZeroTwoZero · 03/10/2020 15:58

Mine are 8 & 9 and they don't get pocket money because I can't afford to give them a regular amount every week or month etc. I do give them a pound or two when I'm feeling flush and they usually save it up. They also save their birthday monies and then spend it on a bigger thing like a bike helmet, a PS controller or a pile of books. I try not to control what they spend their money on but am strict with the idea that once it's gone, it's gone.

doingmeheadin · 03/10/2020 19:23

Gohenry is great. No idea how much it costs to run but it's worth it given my DS just lobs money around/loses it around the house (easily loses notes all the time), so it's definitely a good investment in our house. DS8 gets £1 a week but gets top ups for doing chores etc, so can be quite a lot more. Really good for getting bday money from friends and has a saving option for when he wants to save for xbox games etc. Hoping it stands him in good stead in years to come when he can see his spending laid out and where its gone/how much is left.

RaggieDolls · 03/10/2020 19:28

My 8 year old gets £5 a week on Go Henry.

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