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How much pocket money for your nine year old?

65 replies

EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:33

Just that really. Starting to wonder if we're really tight!

OP posts:
Beenaroundnow · 29/03/2021 22:36

Mine gets £5 a week. He saves most of it.

EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:37

We only give £5 a month which he does save so seems low in comparison!

OP posts:
Frogartist · 29/03/2021 22:39

50p a week

BammBamm · 29/03/2021 22:40

This is the UK average in 2020 OP. Ours don't really get pocket money (7 and 5).

How much pocket money for your nine year old?
doublemix · 29/03/2021 22:41

Our nearly 8 year old gets £3 a week straight onto a go Henry card. So it's generally saved up for a while until he wants something in paticular.

Prisonbreak · 29/03/2021 22:41

I’m in my 30’s and don’t have kids but when I was 9 I got £5 a week. But I had to earn it, taking bins out, dusting. Small tasks and I didn’t have to do them perfectly, my parents were happy that I would make the effort to help. So when I cleaned the mirrors, it didn’t matter that they were streaky and I couldn’t reach the top, I tried and that was enough

EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:43

@BammBamm thats really interesting thank you. £20 a month seems like a huge amount of money to me for a child who doesn't have to buy anything bit it seems I'm out of step here! I generally only give myself about £100 a month as we're doing some major saving and I buy all sorts out of that. May be time for a rethink.

OP posts:
EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:44

@doublemix I've looked at a card do you find it helps with saving?

OP posts:
EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:45

@Prisonbreak yes DS is expected to do a few bits around the house but we don't link it directly to pocket money. He can earn extra in the summer for weeding as it does my back in so I don't mind paying out!

OP posts:
BigWoollyJumpers · 29/03/2021 22:46

I didn't give my kids anything until they were teens! What would they buy that young anyway?

EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 22:48

@BigWoollyJumpers in my experience mostly Superthings Grin This is why I'm doubting myself. Its low compared to his friends but there's nothing he needs to buy!

OP posts:
Shezlon · 29/03/2021 22:49

My 10yo gets £2.50 a week. She buys sweets/magazine/crap from the Works normally. She's got so much saved up now from the past year, she won't know what to spend it on. I don't think the amount is really the important thing, it's just to teach them about managing money. If they spend it all the time, when they want something bigger they have to save up for it.

HerRoyalNotness · 29/03/2021 22:51

Whatever their age is per week. So they’d get £9/week with a payeuse every birthday. I buy them much fewer toys doing this tbh. And it’s enough they can save for something decent

Beenaroundnow · 29/03/2021 22:53

Yes he has to do a few jobs and work hard at school to get it. Sometimes we dock a bit.
Currently he tends to buy magazines and books and the odd bit of crap from Amazon or eBay.
In normal times he’d take it on days out /holidays etc. to buy more crap!
He’s also always wants to get little presents for his friends so he tends to buy these out of his own money too unless it’s for a party.
I got £20 a month when I was 12 and it seemed like impossible riches!

MandUs · 29/03/2021 22:55

£1 per school year so my 9 year old in P4 gets £4/week.

LadyFuschia · 29/03/2021 22:59

£1 per week and it goes up to £2 at ten years. They get bought sweets & comics occasionally. We live far from shops so they tend to save even precovid, then we find what they want and buy it. Their bank account is linked to mine so they can see me swoosh the money across to my account when I have paid for it, so they understand the value. I cannot imagine giving them much more. What would it get spent on??!!

Joiningthegossip · 29/03/2021 23:00

My 7 year old doesn't get pocket money as such, but she likes to have £5 for her robux (roblux game) on a Saturday if she's had a good week at school.
She then earns 20p, 50p etc if she does chores round the house which she saves up as her pocket money. (I guess both are pocket money really thinking about it)

Xmasbaby11 · 29/03/2021 23:03

My 9yo gets £4 a week if she tidies her room. This rarely happens, perhaps 1 in 3 weeks.

I feel really mean typing that!

OcelotPanda · 29/03/2021 23:03

£2 a week here, with the option to do more by doing some chores. It's only started recently and also use a Go Henry card to allow for easy saving and spending online. At this point I'm just trying to get the idea of saving in her head and a bit of understanding that you can't always have everything you want the moment you want it.

EnglishGirlApproximately · 29/03/2021 23:04

Really varied on her then thanks all. £9 a week seems an unimaginable amount of money, he'd have enough for a switch game nearly every month which seems loads to me!
I'm very aware I have an odd relationship with money as I wasn't taught to manage money as a teen and consequently got into lots of debt as a young adult. Now I'm in my forties I'm probably over cautious and find it difficult to spend on frivolities! I've had an £11 cookbook in my Amazon basket all week and I can't quite manage to press it as its one i want for reading rather than using much Blush I can afford it it just seems frivolous. Its really useful to get other views Smile

OP posts:
Atalune · 29/03/2021 23:07

Dd gets £20/month

DS is 12 and gets £30/month

bennibooboo · 29/03/2021 23:09

Nothing

heymammy · 29/03/2021 23:09

My 8yr old gets £8 per month, when he turns 9 next week he'll start getting £9 per month. He is very excited by this heady raise Grin, it goes straight in to his bank account so he doesn't really spend it...mainly cos its a pain in the arse to get to the bank!

His gran gives him a couple of pounds a week so he saves that up for roblox or Minecraft credit.

Once he goes to high school at 12 he will get £40 a month to budget with i.e. he will need to pay his train fare to school and lunches from that (or make packed lunch if he wants to save £££).

It's what we did with the older dc and seems to have worked well - of course they've made a bloody fortune over lockdown with no trains/lunches to pay for!

CharlieParley · 29/03/2021 23:11

I think that what you give as an allowance needs to work for your family. And reflect your values, your financial situation, your child's understanding and whether your child needs any money - if they get everything they need from you anyway, then it's not necessary to give an allowance. But giving an allowance does give you an opportunity to teach money management, which is a vital skill.

We consider that the kids' main job is school. As it gets harder the higher they go, they get more money when they go up a year. We also use the allowance to teach about finance, starting with saving vs spending.

Ours started at £1 per week in Primary 1, rising by a pound each year.

We take half of that and put it into longterm savings for the kids, to which we also contribute separately. (Very longterm, like for a first car or college after school.)

As with DC 1 and 2, when DC3 is 16, we will move on to budgeting. This means a weekly allowance for everything, clothes, bus travel, fun, dinner money, hair cuts etc. That way we'll practice saving and managing money for independent living together, while we are available to spot any issues as they arise and can help and explain how to solve them.

DC1 fell off the wagon in the first year at uni, but then used all the budgeting skills we had practiced by second year.

DC2 is back home thanks to lockdown, so no idea whether the budgeting skills are there or not.

And DC3 at 14 now receives £4.50 per week. Spends nothing, even saves up the school dinner money by making a home lunch once or twice a week. As that's a kid with a keen interest in finance, we're even thinking about opening a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA in the near future.

HTH

TableSetting · 29/03/2021 23:16

No pocket money given by us. Will start when they are at senior school.