Year 7 pocket money

[neverstophopping]

DD is going into senior school in September, so going on 12.

At the moment she gets £5 a week and that covers wandering round the corner to get sweets etc with her friends but her social life is starting to pick up already (eek) so I'm getting constant 'please can I have' as they want to do things.

We have a cleaner twice a week so there's no real jobs in the house I ask her to do, bar laying the table and keeping her room tidy, so this is pocket money not earning on chores IYSWIM.

How much should I be giving her a week/month to allow her to realistically budget without needing me to top up.

I want to teach her to manage money and don't want to be flush, or tight.

She's my eldest so this is uncharted territory for me!

Watching with interest.

My eldest just turned 13, she still gets £1 a week pocket money!

My eldest is yr 6 so this is uncharted territory for me too.
I'm planning on trying fortnightly pocket money of £15. Fortnightly so they can learn to budget a little- say if they've plans the next week they know they need to take it easy this week etc.

I got £20 a month over 20 years ago. It was expected to cover all extras-bus fare into town (not school), clothes (beyond basics), music, sweets, friends birthday presents etc.
It lasted me pretty well especially when combined with a Saturday job a few years later.

So by today’s standards that would be about £50 a month? Which seems a lot but I wouldn’t be paying for much else alongside that.

When I was about the same age, my mum calculated roughly what she spent a year on clothes and trips out, extras etc and then averaged out a weekly amount.

She still bought school uniform & paid school bus fair, but everything else we had to budget and pay for.

My struggle is how you work it out after a year where they’ve not been spending any money!

Tbh my Y8 spends most of her time at the stables so never asks for money. I buy her the odd bits & pieces of clothes but she doesn’t mooch around the shops with her friends yet. So don’t really have a baseline to make a financial assessment from!

My 12 year old gets £7 a week, automatically on his GoHenry card. I can also add chores to it, and debit cash for gobshite behaviour.

we never did pocket money for our kids.
I don't see the point (and that's referring to our own situation, not a criticism of anyone else!!).
we are financially in a position that they have everything they need.
if they want a little treat it goes on the shopping list.
until they are in secondary they are not rambling about outdoors unsupervised so they don't need money.
once a bit older and want to go out with their friends they get cash on a 'need' basis.
and the lovely thing is that they know they can spend it all but if they didn't they just give the change back saying "didn't need all of it".

and if they need/want money for something bigger they can earn it. so far my oldest 4 have grown up to be responsible with money.
DS1 is 19 and has a full time job (IT robotics) and is earning a great salary. he also worked in a chippy for about 8 months while & after doing A levels to save up for a trip in his gap year. we helped out with the cost of plane ticket, but he paid with his savings for 5 weeks in Australia (staying with family about half of the time) last year. he came back 2 weeks before lockdown
DS2 - DS4 have had paper rounds and get paid by MIL for helping with gardening & jobs around the house. DS3 had a tutoring job in y10.
we can't seem to find a replacement for our cleaner who fell ill in March so we are gonna pay the kids to do it instead.
Also we need a lot of stuff done in the garden plus DH wants to build a shed so again will pay them for their time.
everyone's happy

just want to add that we don't pay them for stuff like emptying the dishwashers, hoovering up on room, taking the bins out, changing their own bedsheets etc.
that's just normal chores they have to do anyway.

they will only get paid for stuff we'd pay others to do.

My 12 year old still gets £5 a week. But he 'earns' extra for chores and also occasionally for things like participating in things he hates and detests such as football fixtures. I know that is probably considered shocking parenting but it served to turn him from refusing to do football at school and getting detention after detention to now saying it is his 'favourite thing'. So on average he gets about £10 a week. Which he then spends on bloody shitting robux.

Yes. Chores were separate. That’s just part of being a family.

Good point about the not spending in the last year. Hadn’t thought of that.

I used to get £10 a week 20 years ago, with my parents buying clothes and paying for bus fares. Retrospectively that's a lot when you equate it to today's standards.

However, I had little regard for money when I was in my twenties (not saying this is all due to that at all but perhaps it played a part) so I don't want to be too generous. However I certainly don't want her to struggle to spend time with friends.

The 'pay per play' method of her asking for money was very expensive for me over half term as her idea of a good time is sitting in Costa with friends for hours at a time or buying makeup. That was the driver for this really, I don't want her to be spoilt.

I give my 14 year old about 60 quid a month. He's year 9. It was £25 a month in year 7

I expect him to buy his gaming passes and the odd game download with it along with any sweets or snacks he fancies if he's out and about - which is not often at the moment.

I also top him up if need be if he wants something specific. However I will say he doesn't ask for much at all and doesn't want for much so I'd probably be less inclined to give him extra if he was constantly asking.

It's all dependent on your budget too, but I'd be giving £25 a month in your case, expecting a few jobs done round the house and a basic level of respect and that'd be that

My kids are a bit younger, 8 and 9, but they get £12.50 a week on their gohenry cards. The first £6 is pocket money and the other £6.50 is chores.

They also get an extra £15 every time they save up £100 and put it into their savings account.

If she were a child in care aged 11-12 she wold be getting between £4-6 per week (not including bus fayes and dinner money)

Both DD and DS (12) went up to £10/week when they started secondary school. On £5/week in y6.

DD (now 16) gets it as a lump sum paid into her bank at the beginning of the month, along with £25 clothes allowance per month. This is up for review (ie. pocket money may rise) as she's going into Sixth form and 'needs more money for clothes'. DS still gets physical cash each Friday.

They are both expected to make their budget work and any extra money needs to be earned through doing extra chores or, in the case of DD, getting an actual job.

@BlueLobelia

My 12 year old still gets £5 a week. But he 'earns' extra for chores and also occasionally for things like participating in things he hates and detests such as football fixtures. I know that is probably considered shocking parenting but it served to turn him from refusing to do football at school and getting detention after detention to now saying it is his 'favourite thing'. So on average he gets about £10 a week. Which he then spends on bloody shitting robux.

@BlueLobelia

It's definitely unusual but dude I wish I had thought of that with DS2. he loves everything about football but never played games in a club and he would've been good at it.
why didn't you tell me this 7 years ago?😭

I think it's brilliant parenting. you know your kid, you managed to motivate him and it benefited him.
you are a superstar. 🏅

I understand why people take the approach zing does but I must admit my mum and dad did this with me and I was shocking with money when I first got some as a result because it was such a novelty.

I think it is important to learn to budget but that has to be realistic - no one can get anything with £1 a week.

For year 7 I’d probably look at £10-20 a week.

Thanks Zing! I really appreciate you saying that. DS has a range of developmental issues including dyspraxia, so the turn around in his attitude has been amazing. He got top marks for PE last report. His teacher was thrilled and I never admitted my bribery and corruption approach to parenting

If in doubt resort to bribery. I love it,

Sometimes a small amount of external motivation is necessary to kick start internal motivation.

£10-20 a week is loads i think, if you gave that in year 7 what would it be in a couple of years!

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

If in doubt resort to bribery. I love it,

Sometimes a small amount of external motivation is necessary to kick start internal motivation.

well, tbf that is the only way I can get myself to work some days. :)

@crinklyfoil

I understand why people take the approach zing does but I must admit my mum and dad did this with me and I was shocking with money when I first got some as a result because it was such a novelty.

I think it is important to learn to budget but that has to be realistic - no one can get anything with £1 a week.

For year 7 I’d probably look at £10-20 a week.

Yes, it can go both ways.

but they'd always been given money for birthdays and Christmas by some relatives & friends (and £1 per tooth, from us as I don't do tooth fairy bollocks) so when younger they could choose to spend that as they wished.
and that way they learnt that yes, they could buy lots of little bits of crap that was either eaten/used quickly or broke (and they did sometimes!😁) or spend it on something more valuable.

also when shopping I explained a lot about quality v quantity, value for money, what's worth spending more on, what's not (I will only buy Tesco finest sausages because they taste better and not full of fat but value or generic nappies, tissues, wipes, flour, baked beans, rich tea biscuits, bacon etc because they were good enough).
they'd get plenty of info and we'd play "what would you rather buy" games to test their thought processes.

but I totally see if education about money is not ongoing from an early age it can go wrong when they suddenly have freedom to spend, yet unprepared.

Why the need to give kids £10 a week sort of money? What exactly are they buying?

I remember being in my early and even mid teens and getting £2 a week. I did not even particulary spend that.

what exactly are they buying

Well, what do you buy?

Some things they may want to get are

Cards / presents for friends and family at birthday and Christmas times.

Music, although I guess this isn’t as important as it was to me as a 90s teen with Alexa and so on but I imagine many will enjoy buying songs on iTunes.

Starbucks with their friends

Cinema trips

Swimming

Clothes / accessories like phone cases, jewellery, bits of makeup and nail polish, lip balms, bubble bath.

Our 7 and 9 year olds get £2 a week at the minute to either spend or save. We buy them treats regularly so they get the odd think they want during payday time or if we have the spare cash and they ask, but they also have their change now that they can save to buy things outright.

I think our plan is to go up every year with it but I think every household is different, it all depends on what you think is best for her current lifestyle balanced with what you can reasonably afford