How much spending money do your 16/17/18 YO...

[SmellyWellyWoo]

... in full time further education, they have a part time job.

This money is purely for fun/recreation, not for essentials- phone/travel/basic clothes etc.

My 16 YO is leaving school and DP and I can't agree on this issue. We aren't well off but we aren't poor either.

Yep, my dd gets much more than the money from her PT job. It has been great for her tbh.

50 euro per week. They’re all teens and in full time school. They pay for all transport, entertainment, school lunches if they don’t make their own, and clothes (bar essentials, like underwear etc).

My dd gets her train fayre covered £60 a month which also covers her getting to work in her weekend job.

We cover her phone £30 bill and all toiletries and special food (she goes to the gym so eats lots of fresh and expensive things )

We also put random money in her account towards clothes and always buy her winter coat and trainers and any kit she needs for college.

At the start of term we spent £500 on kit and clothing

She probably gets altogether a month around £150 I'd say.

She does work more in the holidays and is very good with her money.

My 17yr DD gets £75 a month from me plus £80 for her train pass. She earns a further £125 a month with a very p/t job. I cover essentials and haircuts/college trips too.

18 yr old in FT school gets £150
16yr old in FT school gets £100

I pay for phones, travel cards, all school/clothing essentials, gym plus some extras and a small lunch allowance during the school term.

I pay for my nearly 18 year old’s phone contract and a few pairs of jeans and t-shirts, underwear and trainers each year. He started a paper round at 15 and has been working at least 16 hours a week since 16. I give him £50 a month to help out with travel to college (it is near enough to walk) and lunches, coffee etc but he pays for everything over and above this. Like others have said, he has increasingly refused money from me and we have agreed he will not pay me rent next year (he is staying locally to do his degree) but the arrangement there is he saves his student loan and only spends money he earns. I also expect him to work at least 30 hours a week or get an apprenticeship (his degree is one and a half days a week) to live with me for free. He recognises this is a good deal and will enable him to save for what we all recognise is an increasingly worrying future. I am a single,parent and have brought up my children without any input from their dad - I won’t be able to help with deposits etc so I figure this is the best I can do to help.

Mine gets £100 per month plus phone contract, £15 per week college drinks and has a part time job. I also give her extra if she’s going out for a meal.

ive just realised I’m being rinsed, reading this

Mines earns £70 a week and I don’t give her money. I do pay her phone bill, she has free bus travel (Scotland) and free rail travel through dh work. I buy anything she needs and pay for her driving lessons so that’s really just money for whatever she wants to do with it. Trying to encourage her to save a bit of it.

DD17 is full time at her school 6th form and has had a part time job for around 5 months now.

We pay her phone contract and half her driving lessons, she earns around £350-400 a month and we don't give her any extra. She's very lucky that she gets a generous clothing allowance and discount.

She adores her job and it's had no affect on her studies, she's doing the best she's ever done as she loves her courses.

I’m a rarity, but I never ever gave my kids pocket money - I paid all regular activities of course like Scouts etc, and would happily give them money if going to the cinema, occasional clothes etc beyond the wardrobe they “needed”, ie fun stuff.

Both happily got part time jobs at 16 while still at school and kept them on through college and uni.

I truly believe encouraging them to earn, rather than get pocket month, was a healthy choice.

In my experience (about 10 years ago) it was completely the opposite! Going from doing 10/11 subjects (lots of which hadn’t been chosen, for example having to do maths GCSE regardless of how difficult you found maths) to 3 or 4 that you had picked yourself was brilliant.

I did 4 A levels instead of 3 but I did do arts/social science subjects so appreciate it will vary subject by subject. I would say that the vast majority of my friends felt the same way I did but we were an arty bunch… nobody doing a maths/further maths/physics/chemistry combo 😳

My dd is doing maths/science A-levels and still has plenty of time for work/hobbies/socialising etc.

Obviously, all kids are different and some will need to put in more time than others, some will need more downtime than others etc.

Great to hear so many young people with PT jobs and whilst getting some spends from their parents where they can, being sensible with money and not expecting bank of M&D.

My DC a few years off this but some sensible suggestions here.

Both have £40 for spoils but both have part time jobs too.
We pay for clothes, haircuts, might buy the odd cinema ticket or extra for a lunch out. Neither spends a lot, if we go shopping then I might buy half and they buy half - it's pretty easy going.

The know the value of money (ish) both work and have social life's - it's nice being able to treat them occasionally too especially when their hobbies are expensive so they use their income for that - drones / airforce ones versus trains / camera bits etc

Whatever they earn!

I give her £10 a week but she has a part time job and spends half and saves the other half.

DS 17 still at 6th form(L6). We pay for school lunches, phone, haircut, toiletries, anything to do with 6th form. He shares our tv subscriptions & family plans that we pay for. We also bought him a car for his 17th & paid for his licence, lessons, test etc.

He works part time and pays for everything else, including his petrol, clothes, socialising, alcohol (I buy it, he transfers the money back), presents for Xmas & birthdays etc.

We had to pay for his car insurance up front for the 1st year (£850!!!) but he's paying us back monthly.

All pocket money stopped when he started 6th form in September as he was told he had to start working and paying for these things himself.

DD starts 6th form this September and the same will apply to her (surprisingly she's MUCH lower maintenance than him and costs us far less now than he ever did!).

£250? Wow!

My DD is fine doing 3 ALevels an EPQ and working 16 hours a week - she is predicted high grades in everything. She doesn't socialise a lot apart from at work but has enough downtime too.

In my case, I'd want DD to focus on her A-Levels. My plan is to give her £250ish a month and go from there depending on her spending habits...

I feel the same. There is a lifetime of hardworking ahead so I’m happy to support them whilst I can.

I will add we have no financial constraints. Many of their friends are in very similar situations and have extraordinary allowances. I want to keep a lid on the worst excesses but I do top up for specific things (e.g. festival tickets, holidays with friends).

Maybe how much time they have free to work depends on their timetable. My son does 4 A levels, then has a session with his tutor/coach and a supervised study session each week. He doesn’t get home from college til almost 6pm each night and then often has work to do on top of that. Weekends, more college work or revision for assessments, 2 hour driving lesson, seeing family, a few chores. He tries to do all that on Saturday so he gets one day off a week to go to the gym and see friends. I don’t make him work on the Sunday because I wouldn’t want to do that after being busy the other 6 days.

We did £100 a month but that covered all expenses too. (Except phone) they had that from 16-21. Once they finish uni and work full time it stops

DS1 is 17, in year 12 doing 3 A levels. He gets £30 a month from us, £15 from one set of grandparents and £20 from the other. I pay his phone bill and food for 6th Form.He has a part time job, just on a Saturday but will really ramp up on the summer as it’s seasonal work. He buys lots of stuff himself. He’s paid for his driving lessons but we contributed to his little car. We could afford to give him much more but I think it’s important for him to work rather than have it handed to him.

Thanks for all the input. A range of opinions, as expected. I've asked DP and DS if we can all sit down together and discuss as adults.

We could afford to give him much more but I think it’s important for him to work rather than have it handed to him

I agree with this! Earning money makes them really think about how many hours they’ve had to work to afford something. If I give them £50 they buy a designer hoodie, if they need a hoodie and pay themselves they nip into a cheap shop! Totally different value on given/earnt cash.