How much pocket money for your nine year old?

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

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

At nine, Ds probably got got around £7 a week. Has always had pocket money from my dm too. He's 15 now and we give him £80 a month plus he also gets £10 a week from mum. So £120 a month. We still buy clothes, pay for anything school related and pay for phone and guitar lessons. His money is for paying for a hobby, going out with friends, buying Birthday etc gifts for family. He's actually good with money and a saver so he's not wasting his money. I put him up to £80 from £50 fairly recently on the basis he doesn't ask for money for things like subway if he fancies one as there's always food in the house. Obviously if we were all eating something like Subway we'd buy ds's too.

DD1 and DS get £2 a week (11 and 9). DD2 gets £1 a week (6). They mainly spend theirs on sweets, magazines and books. They always seem to have plenty of money to buy what they want. I do know some of their friends get a lot more (and regular gifts from grandparents which mine don't get) but I have no idea what they spend it on.

I am thinking of moving DD1 onto a monthly allowance when she starts secondary and some form of contactless card as she's travelling to school on her own and will need one as so many places/ the bus don't accept cash anymore.

£2 for an 11 year old and £4 for a 12 year old seem incredibly low. How do the dc buy sweets, drinks, books, magazines or footballs out of that? A drink can cost at least £1 and a magazine is often £5!

My 9 year old gets £1.50 per week.

I have found it's enough - especially during lockdown.

It usually gets saved and then splurged every now and then.

13 year old gets £2.50 a week and similarly saves it most of the time. Always seems to have enough for hot chocolates and chips with friends, and the odd book here and there.

@Bbq1

£2 for an 11 year old and £4 for a 12 year old seem incredibly low. How do the dc buy sweets, drinks, books, magazines or footballs out of that? A drink can cost at least £1 and a magazine is often £5!

They learn to save up, take a bottle of water when they go out.

Don't set your children up to be able to buy themselves something every week, that won't prepare them for adulthood

£3.50 a week for my 9 year old , goes up by 50p a year. She has to buy any magazines / toys etc she wants out of that and is getting quite good at learning to save for things she wants.

Frogartist
My ds rarely buys anything except snacks when out with friends, if he wants a treat lunch different to what's available at home, or gifts for family. He is very good at money management and saving. He certainly doesn't buy anything much weekly for himself. Most of it is saved. He also pays for 2 or 3 as subscriptions he has. Although he is a good saver ds also quite generous at times. He knows the value of money, he also does weekly unpaid volunteer work (non Covid). His needs at 15 are different maybe to a 12 year old, he could hardly afford to do much with his friends if he went out armed with £2 a week.

@gingercat02

My 12yo gets £4 per week plus £5 phone contract. He just buys sweets drinks etc when he is out or packs on FIFA or other games (ALWAYS asks first) He also pays for his PS live yearly and other things like footballs if he fancies a new one.. When he was 9/10 it was £3 per week plus phone. He has a Santander current account with a contactless card so it goes directly into his account and he spends it when he needs it.

Oh and we pay for scouts football etc. His money is just for "crap" that I don't buy

We haven't started yet but discussed with my 7yo. We decided on 70p for 7yo, 50p for 5yo per week.

@Bbq1

£2 for an 11 year old and £4 for a 12 year old seem incredibly low. How do the dc buy sweets, drinks, books, magazines or footballs out of that? A drink can cost at least £1 and a magazine is often £5!

Erm - by saving up? Not going to the newsagent every day after school? Taking a bottle of water? Not expecting to buy something every week? Using the library? Pooling resources with siblings to buy computer games? Not buying a toy from the gift shop every time we go somewhere?

They do have subscriptions to things like The Beano and The Week Junior which are separate. Their pocket money is just that, for any crap that they choose to put it towards.

Reading through all the replies we've decided to increase to £10 a month. From this though we'll ask him to get his own tuck shop etc but we'll carry on paying magazine subscriptions etc. It seems somewhere in the middle of what most people are saying, enough to allow him to save if he wants something more expensive but not so much he will have the expectation of always having money.

He won't be saving much out of £10 a month if he has to pay for things.

10yo gets £5 a week onto a Rooster Card.
It generally gets saved, but it does mean that if he velvet loses something he has his own money to replace things... usually gum shields, though most recently a school reading book.
It doesn’t seem to burn a hole in his pocket in the same way having cash did, and it makes him stop and think if he really wants something.
Recently he saw a cuddly hand warmer thing in a garden centre for £20 something pounds that he absolutely must have.
Simply asked if he had his card, he didn’t, and had shown no burning desire to go back for the “must-have” item.

@jessstan2 well we're only really asking him to get tuck shop after Beavers which is about 50p a week then he'd buy the odd Superthing at 80p. He manages to save at the moment with £5 a month so all we're really doing is moving the money he spends on tat to his pocket to look after. Any big things we'll still pay for as we always have.

My 11 year old gets £5.
So at 9 he will have had £4 a week.

He still doesn't physically get it. I just keep track on my phone then he tells me what he wants to spend it on.

His brother is 14 and gets £6.50 a week - he has had a bank account since he was 11, but due to covid we haven't done the bank visit thing yet for DS2. His pocket money goes directly to his bank account. He generally just uses it for gaming.

We also have savings accounts for them. I think about £30 a month each. Thats more for driving lessons etc when they are old enough.