How much weekly pocket money for a 7 year old?

[Pocketrocket777]

DD is ready for pocket money and most of her friends get it, she says.

But I have no idea how much to give her! I thought £1, although that won’t go very far - but I want her to get the concept of saving up.

I wonder if giving her £5 will mean she’ll spend it all each week on trash! But - if I gave her £1 - she would be able to see how long it takes to save to £5, and maybe that’ll make her more careful? I don’t know.

How much do you give your 7 year old per week?

I do half their age, so for a 7 year old it would be £3.50. With mine I had a discussion with him about saving 20% of it for something he wanted long term and he was on board with that. However if he chooses to not save that money, I won't be ponying up the money for the thing he wants, and he will have to wait longer for it.

£1 is pointless. I think £5 is fine. DD is 9 and gets £5 but can earn more by doing little jobs around the house.

I think it purely depends on how much you can afford. My DD gets £10 a month and she's 9. It's all I can afford, I do put £20 a month away into savings account for her that she can have when she's 18.

She has her own savings (she's saved £500) from birthday/ Christmas money over the years.

Dd gets £3 and can top it up to £5 by doing jobs around the house. Keeping her room tidy all week, bringing her laundry to the washing machine etc. Nothing too tasking

Some people give their kids lots of money - my 9 year old gets £2 a week but then I would buy him stuff on top of this - like books or art things. He would just fritter away any more. His Grandma and Grandad also give him £2 a week but they save it up and he gets it when he wants to buy something in particular.

Pocket money for a 7 year old? My son is 6
and this had never crossed my mind. What do they need it for?

I’ve got a seven year old and not doing pocket money. He’d just buy sweets each week and they eat enough Crap as it is.

I started at 7 and do their age per week! (DS is 12 now so gets quite a lot) But they have to buy their own toys/crap/Vbucks out of that money.

Every time we go to the supermarket or into a shop that sells stuff she likes, she asks for stuff (magazines, collectible toys, etc). I say no about 95% of the time, but I figured pocket money would mean she’d stop asking me and see how expensive the things are / save up for the thing on her own!

My 6 year old gets £2 a week. A first she bought trash, now it’s just stuff I think is trash but is precious to her.

My 7 year old gets £3 per week. We have a Go Henry account and she has set it up to transfer £1 per week into a savings account (within the app) that she dedicates to something specific. She then tops it up when her regular account has extra money. So, for example, it took her only 12 weeks to save the £35 she needed for a toy she was desperate for.

She's too young to buy sweets etc by herself so she uses it for toys or magazines or things that I refuse to buy her because it all adds up.

DS is 11 and has been getting £5 per week but I'm about to put it up. He buys sweets/snacks when out and will also use his money for games/vbucks etc. I feel that £5 is a bit low considering how independent he is and he tends to dip into his birthday/christmas money unnecessarily. I just haven't decided how much to swap it to.

Zilch. I don't think they need any. My dc already have too much stuff - they're 9 & 12 & maybe when they start to do things to help round the house, that will change but they don't know what to do with birthday & Christmas money as it is & we don't encourage them to waste it on e.g plastic toys.

We helped ds buy a pc when he started secondary & made him pay back an amount of it. Friends give their dc of a similar age £10 a week & imo it just makes them entitled. I don't have much spare to spend frivolously myself!

Our 4 yr olds have £2 per week. It's just to get the idea of money established. Things like a weekly magazine, sweets or stickers or whatever we still buy for them it's just to get the idea of budgeting and making decisions on how to spend it started.

£1 per week, if they make their bed every day.

Oh, just remembered we give them £1 for every book they read but it's been a while on that front too!

For the 12 year old especially, what happens if they're out with friends? Do they spend birthday/Christmas money? I'm not talking big stuff, but if they pop into the kebab shop or get themselves a drink after playing football?

I don't think pocket money makes children entitled at all. Too much, probably. But a bit of control and spending ability is not a bad thing.

The 12 year old needs a big push to organising stuff with friends so still has birthday money to spend on stuff. Maybe if he or his friends were more motivated to organise meeting up, he'd be more inclined to want Money.

I know on MN a lot of folk don't like chores relating to pocket money but I'm coming round to that idea - we are both working FT & dc do nothing without nagging & I've no time or energy for it. We're in a small backward town though that may have an impact on our position?!

£3 per week and £5 per month from grandparents. Having their own money is important as it helps them understand the value of things and make decisions about what is and isn’t worth spending their money on.

@buckeejit I hear you re the chores. I aim for an in-between level - some chores must be done and there's no pocket money attached. But bigger chores I pay for. DS has a nice sideline in household window cleaning around here!

Our 6yo gets £2.50/week and has since he was 5. We don't tell him what he can and can't buy, it's up to him, but we do try to explain the benefits of saving! Maybe too much to be honest as he's desperate to open a savings account and I may have over egged the concept of interest

We do half their age, into a gohenry account, with savings goals attached so they decide what to save and what to spend but can see the trade off if they miss their savings goal.

DS8 gets £1 a week on his Go Henry card but extra money for doing chores or good behaviour!

Very important to help them learn finance literacy. My eight year old gets 5 euro a week, the teen gets 15. Eldest is very good with money. Younger one beginning to get the hang of it.

My 9yo gets £3 a week, and my 7yo gets £2. Transferred straight into their hyperjar accounts (like go Henry but no monthly cost). Then they can use their cards in shops or online to buy what they want. The 7yo barely ever spends hers, she seems to enjoy seeing the total amount she has go up! 9yo is a bit more spendy!

I went for £5 a week because I wanted my son to have enough to be able to buy something each week (magazine, sweets) so he could experience what it feels like to have spent all your money vs saving up for something bigger like Lego. I think the best lesson is experience!

Now he’s got Go Henry so he gets £1 each week which he can increase to £5 if he does all his weekly tasks. It motivates him to help out around the house - empty the recycling bin, load the washing machine, tidy his room etc. And I also ask him to do more bits for no money - part of caring for our house, keeping it nice and helping each other.

The Go Henry money lessons are great and well worth the subscription fee on their own I think - my son is dyslexic and reading/learning phobic but he’s been hooked and loves them.