How much pocket money for 15 year old?

[Simionfab191]

DS is 15. We're thinking £20 per week on the understanding that homework is complete, room is kept tidy and bins are put out. This is to cover food when out with friends/girlfriend, cinema trips and to allow him to save for any particular clothes or video games he wants. We'll still buy his basic items.

Does this sound reasonable?

On reflection, I agree with you. I was thinking 'aloud' on a chat thread and asking opinions.

I've already thanked you for the suggestion of asking DD to use her savings for her spending money.

But the reason I may be coming across as agitated is that I'm feeling frustrated at having to justify so much.

Why should I have to justify how much money DD has?
Why should I justify what sort of account it's held in?

And why should I have to clarify that she doesn't have ready access to it? It's invested very well. I hadn't realised that needed explaining to you.

What jobs, and why? I didn’t have a job until I went to uni, which meant I could focus on school and get top grades. My 17 year old would not be able to get a job if she wanted one as her school commitments together with volunteering means she has no time left. She gets a generous allowance but saves quite a lot and learning budgeting from that.

I think it’s fine for teens to focus on school work, in the same way that SAHM focus on home responsibilities.

I don't agree with the comments about budgeting .
Neither my husband nor I ever had pocket money . My 2 teens don't now.

Not everyone reacts in the same way to their circumstances. Those who had pocket money and now are adults who can budget without being in debt may feel it's down to this, but also not having money that appears on a schedule can teach you to use the money that you do receive wisely.

DD is 16. She gets £25 a month. She is in year 11. She currently does a lot of volunteering in the area she hopes to work in so doesn't have a job as she needs to focus on GCSEs when not busy doing this. Seems we are quite mean compared to some!

It depends what you expect him to buy out of it.
My ds14 doesn't get that much, but I pay for his gym membership, school lunches, clothes and phone, and he doesn't spend much on going out yet. I might slip him some extra for train fair and lunch on the odd occasion that he goes into town.
He also earns extra by doing chores (over and above what is expected just as a member of the family) eg cleaning cars, mowing the lawn.

I give my 16yo DS an allowance of £50 per month. He has to get his clothes and toiletries with that as well as pay for social activities. I still get him clothes/toiletries for presents, though so he doesn't pay for those things in their entirety. His dad gives him £10 a week pocket money. He also gets £10 a week from grandparents for college expenses. On top of this he works. He saved up loads over the summer (which he is using some of to build his own computer) and now works every Saturday.

Oh just a note I do pay for his phone (£10 pm) and also his gym membership (£30 pm)

It's a little low. A bottle of vodka is £22 and he is too young for a clubcard to get cc prices.

£25 a month. But i pay for her phone, travel, clothes and toiletries on top

She babysits for extra.

Yes. DSD’s mum asked DH to stop maintenance and divert it to DSD as spending money, as the things she was into were very expensive.

LOL at dissing the teens! Mine has his own Tesco CC account as they go there for lunch

DD1 gets £40pcm. We'll increase it to £50pcm when she turns 16 but she'll be expected to babysit in the evening for both her siblings once a month for that. She has also been told if she gets a PT job when she's at college we'll stop the allowance. Her allowance is just for fun stuff, we pay for school meals, essential clothes and shoes, sports clubs and gym membership etc. She does spent a lot buying clothes in charity shops though.

For context we live somewhere where the cinema is £4.99, a Big Mac meal is £6.39. We have 3DC (second one is about to start getting allowance as well) and have a 6 figure household income.

DD 15 gets £40 per month. She has a PT job but can't do many hours do probably only gets an extra £20-30. We cover all necessities so this is if she wants extras.
DS13 gets £5 per week on GoHenry and DD10 gets £3 per week. It's been good as they are able to see their savings building.

@JaninaDuszejko womt that put her off getting a part time job 🧐

Where can a 15 year old get a job these days really!

We give our 17 year old £30 a week but he travels by car (he bought his own from savings) to college and back 4 days a week, so that’s his petrol and lunch. But he has a job to cover the rest of his spends. We do buy his toiletries as part of the weekly shop and but some of his clothes. I think a 15 year old should be working, it’s good for their self esteem and it helps them learn how to prioritise how they spend money. It’s amazing what they can do without when they are spending their hard earned cash.

I give my 15 year old DS £40 a month ( I pay for his phone as well) and since the age of 13.5 he has a job, just 3 hours a week so he gets an extra £70 ish a month from that.
He hardly spends anything even now has a girlfriend so saves most of it.
When is 16 he will be doing his lifeguard qualification so he will be earning alot more then.
I will still give him his allowance as well as don't want to penalise him for working.

@Mumof2girls2121 mine us a kp in a pub for a few hours on Sundays. It does depend where you live I think. In the small city we lived in before, there were uni students, so they had all the jobs for young ones and 15 year old didn't work. Now, we are in the countryside, most kids work from 15.

@JustAMinutePleass like what? That's an insane amount of spending money for a 15 year old.

My 17yo FS gets £12 a week which is literally just pocket money for when out and about. It’s not a lot but I pay for everything else - clothes, iPhone contract etc and he has a bus pass from college plus college meals and a bursary which he wastes within a couple of weeks! He is more than capable of getting a job and earning his own money too but doesn’t make this a priority so it’s up to him. Pocket money only goes on fast food and vapes anyway :-/

No, she's desperate to get a job, lots of her friends are already doing some work (family connections mainly).

I've not actively encouraged her yet because she plays in her football league every Saturday and does voluntary work on a Sunday so there's not really much time. But there will be post GCSEs.

Mine gets £10/week. I go halves with her on tickets and buy her basics in terms of clothing. She earns anything over the top of that.