Pocket money for 9 and 7 year old?

[Eeksilon]

Bit of a boring thread really but my two have the usual wants and asks of kids their ages and I have been thinking for a while to start giving pocket money (perhaps based on successful completion of usual weekly tasks/homework? IE being a good child to the usual standard for their ages). It's a bit tiresome trying to toe the line between randomly buying them little items and spoiling otherwise! I also lose track of what/when I've bought stuff (only small items but still).

Be interested to hear what other parents of kids their ages get, and what if anything they have to do to gain it?

Worth noting that they get £1 each on a Friday to buy sweets with (stops then asking through the week) which won't change, and that least one of them has suspected ADHD/ADD (IE behaviour sometimes being their control) so don't want to go too much down the 'only if you're good ' route!

DD has a GoHenry account, she gets £2 base rate and then we have tasks set up but it's her responsibility to complete set tasks and tick them off to get extra money, but she doesn't bother doing that bit. The £2 has added up and she only really uses it for taking on school trips or buying presents for her friends and family (we go 50:50).

She's 13 soon and wants to switch to a norm account.

Her pocket money is literally just for her own personal spending, for things she wants and doesn't want to wait until birthdays or Christmases for. I cover all extracurricular. Clothes, phone costs etc.

Hyper jar.

They can create pots for free.

The card is free.

Single My two would Love a GoHenry card! The thing is they wouldn't save at all... They constantly want new stuff so wouldn't be able to wait to save up. Give them a couple quid they immediately go out and find something they can spend it on (which is never much hence the £1 sweets money, that's their dedicated cash for sweets and they can't spend more or less on sweets week to week). Interesting that your daughter doesn't even spend her £2 though, especially at 13.. does she not ever want to go to Claire's or buy magazines or anything like that?

She gets about £5 per week for doing maths tuition.

@eliza but how much do you give and how old is your child and is it for doing anything?

Should have said in my Op can people include these details please?

Oops just seen the maths tuition thing, guessing she is older than 9!! 😂

Interested to hear especially from parents with younger/primary agree kids as this is the element I am struggling with... When I was their ages I don't remember getting Anything (more online with 13-14yrs getting cash for housework) but their peers seem to get given or bought stuff regularly and I want to let them have done means of gaining outside of Birthday/Christmas, especially as annoyingly both DC have birthdays early in the year/close to Xmas!

@Eeksilon no she's always been a saver, literally has £100s in her piggy bank from birthdays and Christmases over the years. She's not a big fan of going to the shops, if we go to our nearest city she'll get herself a new book from Waterstones etc maybe a funky t-shirt online.

When she was younger and I bought everything for her in a gift shop etc she'd always want the expensive things not understanding that that toy monkey she wanted but would never play with in 24 hours was £25+ or whatever. Now if we are going somewhere like that I'll give her a spending limit for what I'll buy that will cover a small keepsake like a rubber or bookmark etc but if she wants anything else she has to pay for it - now those big ticket items aren't seen as value for money so she doesn't buy them.

But she'll spend it on an occasional trip to the cinema with friends now she's older or food if they are at the park or beach.

I think payment for jobs is the way to go - I've seen it work really well, especially with my friend's kids who have autism/ADHD/ behaviour challenges.
I'd personally steer clear of GoHenry and go down the traditional route of actual money in their own bank account they can access. I'd also pay them on say a Monday, and then they've got the whole week or whatever until they go to the shops or say they can only order online stuff on a weekend so they've got time to consider what they actually want to get.

We're giving 10&12 £5 a week, but they have to buy and budget for birthday and Christmas gifts to the family (siblings, parents, grandparents) out of that. We started because one jeered that siblings gift to them wasn't really from them, it was from me as I bought it.
I've stopped buying sweets or small gifts throughout the year. At first they went every weekend to spend all of it, but the novelty has worn off and they are starting to save some.

@Lovetogarden2022 I like the idea of giving on a Monday to spend on a weekend so they really have time to think about it but in reality they wouldn't have the patience to wait!!

@AndAnotherOneJoinsTheQueue yes I think that would be the Hope that the novelty wears off from blowing on junk!! Also in my book a reason to make it a reasonable amount - say a fiver - that could conceivably buy something of real value to them in 3 weeks (IE Lego) as opposed to £2 that in there weeks could barely get them a magazine these days 🤷🏼‍♀️

Just had a an idea of offering £2 immediately for whatever or £5 in an account redeemable 3 weekly?? 🤔 Think the 9 year old might get this, the 7yr old notsomuch!!

Thoughts?

Anyone any good resources for reward charts?? 🤔

@Eeksilon no, don't do that, that makes far too much work for you! Will you remember every third week? I know I wouldn't!

We have a homework chart which is an A4 piece of paper inside a plastic wallet, mark it with a marker pen and wipe it clean each week. Also means I can tailor it to what we need as a family and easy to replace if the options are not working.

My 10yo dd gets £5 a week on her revolut card. She uses it for sweets, accessories like fluffy hair bobbles and cute bags and anything else she wants. She's good at saving and will often pick up little treats for her brother too which is sweet. She says she's saving for a kindle fire atm.

When DD was 7 she got £2.50/week, at 9 she had £3.50/week.

No chores involved as we see pocket money as a tool to learn to budget, not to pay for something I expect her to do anyway as she is part of the family. So setting table, bringing out rubbish, put away clean washing is part of living together.

The amount of pocket money depends on what you want to achieve. We always covered all basics, we have sweets at home for all of us, we buy clothes and normal toileteries. All necessary school items are paid for by us.

So pocket money is for the stuff she wants but can't wait for. Toys, magazines (unless a treat when ill or waiting somewhere out of her control), extra sweets, fancy stationary she can't live without. It does teach her to budget.

Around 4 months prior to our main holiday she gets a bit extra she has to save.

She also never got birthday or Christmas money at that age.

If you were going to do £2 a week or £5 every 3 (which sounds hard work) - surely there should be a reward (? Interest?) for waiting?

Shouldn't it be £2 every week or £7 if you wait 3 weeks?

Oh, one thing OP. DD is on the ADD/ASD sprectrum and never got the hang on reward charts. That's not unusual for these children and could backfire if you try to implement a good behaviour chart for pocket money.

I have a 12 year old and a 10 year old. Up until last year they each received £5.00 a week and more for complicated chores.

I have recently upped that to £10.00 for the 12 year old (which is tied into him participating properly in games and PE which formerly he flat out refused to do) and £7.50 for the 10 year old. The younger one will negotiate extra chores as well.

They also usually get birthday and christmas money for family, The older DS is very good at savings now and delayed gratification- he bought his own Nintendo switch last year after some heavy duty saving plus the extras at Christmas. The younger one spends most of his on roblox but has recehtly started saving for a squishmallow.

I don't like GoHenry because it has a monthly fee which is a pretty high proportion of their pcket money. The older one has an HSBC account that he got at 11. The younger one has a separate part of my current account that is in his name and we check together online and when he turns 11 that will be transferred into an HSBC account.

My 7yo was like this too when I first got her a GoHenry card last year.

She gets £4 allowance each week with options of extra chores (all only worth about 10p!).

She is now learning that if she wants something she needs to hang off and save it, but she did do as yours… spend spend spend.. immediately! 😂

it just takes time and you standing strong and not giving in, and they get there in the end x

To add- my older one has ASD and ADHD and used to be appalling at impulse control when it came to spending. But after a couple of (literally) years of frittering on stuff I consider to be absolute shite (but it's his money) he realised that if he wanted something special (The Nintendo switch) he had to save and he is exceptionally good at budgeting now. He will sit down with a pencil and his bank statements and work out what he wants to use things for. (This week he asked to use £2.49 on an apple app and thus £7.51 into his savings account as he calculated that his next 'big spend' could be achieved by Christmas and so he could redirect some pocket money). he has SEN and learning issues so this has been an utter joy for me to see.

Cash only at that age. They need to learn to count. Maybe around £10 a month?

At that age they need cash. They need to physically see the coins - or an empty purse / money box - to "get" money, IMO.

Ours all started having pocket money from 7th birthday, once they had the "maths£ to understand "If I spend X on this, I can save Y per week and in 4 weeks I will have enough to buy Z" etc.

We've never linked it to jobs around the house - they were expected to do those because they live here and are part of a family that doesn't have any servants.