How much pocket money for 14yo

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

How much pocket money does your 14yo get, what do they have to pay for themselves and what do they have to do for it (if anything)?

My 14yo ds gets £3.50 per week, only has to buy random stuff he wants, but I buy all essential stuff, pay phone etc. He has ASD and doesn't go out alone ever so doesn't need money for doing stuff with friends (sadly), so I pay whenever we do go out to do anything.
He doest have to do anything to get it (specific rewards for specific tasks tend to lead to mega meltdowns).
But I think he's of an age now when he should probably be getting more. So interested in what others do.

I don't think you should be giving him less money because he doesn't go out. If he did go out with friends, how much would you consider okay? It just feels like you're penalising him. And even a child who does go out will be learning to make choices based on what they want money for - DS got KFC the other day instead of Nandos because he wanted to spend less. So I'd definitely up it. It may be that he then saves all that money and then blows the whole lot in one go on a Playstation game or something, but that's fine.

DS is 11 and gets £5 a week. This is to encourage saving as he's not out and about enough to need much money but he uses it to buy the odd sweet/chips when out playing with friends. Mostly he saves it and buys larger items like new games or particular clothes that are outside of the normal stuff I buy. He recently had to buy himself new gloves as I'd paid for the last two pairs, both of which he lost.

At that age I got £100 a month. But it was for socialising and any non essential clothes I wanted (miss sixty jeans). The vast majority of it went on socialising so if that isn't a consideration than I would say £5 a week is reasonable.

My two get £25 per month.
DS is 16 and about to go to 6th form with no uniform. I think I might increase it to £75 and tell him to buy all his own clothes from July onwards

Seem to remember £20 pm plus a bus pass (mostly for school) but we paid for additional things like cinema trips etc.
The £20 was for bits and pieces, we bought clothes, etc.

I'm curious... why does he pay for his own deoderant?

13 year old gets £30 per month. She has to buy anything she personally wants from that. I pay her mobile and school clothes - she pays for everything else.

She saves up for big ticket items, she bought herself a record player, she goes to vintage sales for clothes and is able to alter them on her sewing machine to fit her - she buys all accessories, fabric, needles etc... with pocket money, also all presents (which is why she tends to make little felt and embroidery animal key rings as presents).

£30 is never enough to get what she wants immediately so it's instilling a bit of a savings habit. At 14 she gets a large chunk of birthday money that has been saved up from gifts over the years and she may use that to pay for a specific hobby, or she may blow it on clothes and hats - I'm hoping that she uses it wisely but it's her money so really she can do what she wants with it.

We paid for anything we thought they need or that we wanted them to have - so phone (not particularly fancy), bus pass, basic wardrobe, basic toiletries, music lessons and paraphernalia, karate ditto, enough on school dinner account to cover the odd meal (though I didn't monitor this closely and S2 especially tended to snack).

Pocket money covered all going out with friends, sweets etc, souvenirs, any clothing beyond standard (though neither of them was sufficiently bothered after Year 7 Trainers, tbf), anything extra they wanted. Also it was made clear that they would be expected to choose and buy certain family birthday and Christmas presents.

They're both at university now but the last few years it was £35 a month. This was ample because they didn't want expensive clothes and didn't tend to Go Out.

Mine has always got his age a week- so he's 11 now and gets £11 a week. Plus £15 a month from Grandad.

It's just fun money for him. If he wants to save up for a bigger item (i.e a Switch) we pay half once he's saved half.

I buy all clothes/phone bill/toiletries/etc.

Dd 14 £40 a month- buys all clothes except school and essential sports gear. Buys make up, hair stuff, presents for friends, eating out with friends, cinema etc ( we get toiletries and phone and any clubs). It means she plans well for what she actually needs. Supplements with babysitting and some car washing or bigger chores. Has to do usual household jobs, shared with siblings like dishwasher/ wash up/ some hoovering.

I am a foster carer and Social Services have a chart for pocket money according to age. My foster son is 15 so he gets £9.35 a week. We round it to £10 a week. He has complex SN. He buys sweets when we go to supermarket, an ice cream off the van sometimes, occasionally a comic. If he does an activity we pay and if he meets friends at McDonald's we pay. We pay for all clothing, toiletries and everything really except his sweets. He spends some but saves a fair bit. When we go on holiday we give him 100 euro to spend but he also takes any saving he has from pocket money too.

£50 per month. We pay for everything. If she gets a job we will continue.

About £150 a month. They paid for non essential clothes and toiletries, phone top up, school lunches, socialising, DD used to pay for Netflix for herself, DS1 paid for Spotify for himself, saved a bit for gifts and if they wanted a better phone handset.

Dd nearly 15 gets £40a month and £20 a month from DGP’s. I pay for her phone, toiletries, hair , uniform.
She buys birthday presents, most non uniform clothes except ballet kit ( dances 5 x week) , train fares if she goes into town with friends, meals with friends etc. She also has a holiday job so can earn more money that way.

We give our near 14 yr old £15 a week and if she helps with housework or odd jobs she can get an extra 5er. I pay for her phone and clothes. She often doesn’t spent all of it and is good at saving for her friends birthdays etc

My son is 11 and since he went to big school gets £10 on a Friday. His little sister gets £5 on a Friday and will get £10 when she goes to big school too, then my two little kids don’t get pocket money because they don’t need it. Even that doesn’t feel a lot to be honest, but it’s all we can afford. £3.50 seems a tiny amount, it’s the cost of a Tesco meal deal. It’s not even enough for a cinema ticket or a McDonald’s. I also think if I gave my son that he’d be put off from saving up because it would feel like a pointless exercise as it would take so so long to save up for anything. Right now he can say if he wants a new switch game ‘okay I can save half my pocket money for a couple of months’ and he can see the reward but saving £3 a week it would just feel too far off I think.

If it’s all you can afford then that’s that but it doesn’t seem a lot.

My kids also do jobs but it’s not linked to pocket money, I just give the pocket money. And the jobs are done because it’s just like part of life. They all eat off the dishes so can help empty the dishwasher, all throw rubbish in the bin so can take a turn of emptying it and so on.

Mine had £20 a week from the age of 14.
I paid for phone contract, toiletries, clothes, meals out etc, even relatives birthday gifts.
He paid for taxi fares, fast food when out with his friends and general teenage stuff
Mind you, it was 12 years ago since ds1 was 14 so I expect I would be giving more now!

£40 a month.
She spends it on books, art supplies and occasionally clothes. Pays for her own socialising.
We pay phone/toiletries/transport/everything else.
She has considerable savings as is not a spender!

14yo. £14/month for fun, not tied to chores, but we sometimes pay him for doing stuff around house.
He earns about £140/month delivering papers.
We pay separately ourselves for his data package, basic clothes, sport clothes, fun events, trips out.

Wow, DS was just invited to a birthday party I guess we will cover gift cost, too. I can't recall last party he went to. age 10?!!

10 year old ds £30 pm
Spends it on fortnite battle pass (around £10), golf lessons (£5 twice a month) and £10 to save or spend as he pleases, he's currently saving up for a PS5.

16 year old ds £40 per month
Spends it on youth club (£1 p/w)
Playing football at leisure centre in a team (£3 p/w)
And the rest he spends on whatever he wants, usually going to maccies with his friends, or going over the social club to play snooker (£1 to have the light on for 1 hour).
We also pay for their clothes, phone contracts, xbox gold subscription, netflix, amazon prime and amazon music in addition to their pocket money.

I also do the amount= school year per week for my DD after reading about it on here. I pay for phone and clothes but she budgets - or doesn't - for everything else.

Dd is 12 and gets 5 per week. She also is keen to do other jobs for money (weeding the garden etc) to earn more. This helps me out and good to see her keen to earn. She mainly buys snacks and bubble tea after school but also likes stationery and jewellery making stuff. And books.

Ds got £50 a month at 14 plus £20 off my mum.
Everything else also paid for including phone, hobbies etc.
If your ds isn't meeting friends independently just yet then he doesn't need a lot right now. I would raise it to £5 though because £3.50 is nothing to a 14 yo. I don't tie pocket money in with chores as myself and dh weren't brought up having to do chores for money . Children helping out should be naturally be a part of family life not jobs they only do to receive money.

In year 7 my ds got £25 a month paid by standing order into his bank account. At the start of each school year I increase it by £5. I pay for his phone and clothes and put £10 a month on his school dinner card. He pretty much saves all of it and puts it towards big purchases, we went halves on a gaming pc last year.

I pay my children DD17 £100 a month, DS15 £83 and DD13 £72, based on something like £5.55 per year of age. They buy all their own clothes, books, snacks, bus etc. XH pays for their phones.

I found I was paying more with the odd £20 here and there so decided to give them a monthly payment and then they're responsible for it. I realise this is a lot looking at PP although they buy most things apart from school uniform themselves.