Pocket money for 5.5yo DS

[teekay88]

Hey there. I have a 5.5yo DS. To date we haven't given him pocket money as such. Every now and then we might give him a little spending money if we're out to buy a toy or something on holiday and of course things come up day to day

We're thinking about introducing actual pocket money weekly to start giving him an early sense of the value of money and a little bit of a reward for contributing to the house). Probably an amount we always give (maybe £2 a week?) plus a little bit more attached to a couple of age appropriate jobs around the house. So perhaps laying the table, helping to fold washing etc. I don't want to do it for basic tasks he should be doing anyway like homework or tidying his toys

How do others with young children handle pocket money? How much fo you give and does it come with strings attached or just given weekly? Thanks! :)

Mine didn't get pocket money until around 9/10 when they started playing out with their friends and popping to the shop near the park. Even then it was only £2 a week.

Not attached to jobs round the house, we do jobs round the house because we are a family and all need to contribute. You dont get paid for that in my house.

Mine is a similar age to yours but I haven’t thought about pocket money yet. I think they’re still a bit young so will wait some more years yet.

I don’t think I’ll do it for household general chores as they should be done without a monetary reward but perhaps for more unusual less regular chores such as washing the car, weeding the garden so it might not necessarily be a weekly thing that they get pocket money. If they were going out to an event etc I’d give them spending money. Obviously it’ll evolve as they get older. I think the focus should be on managing money rather than actually getting it too.

By all means I would suggest you match the amount to a physical item, e.g. packet of football or Pokémon stickers or cards. Having a valued item matched to the amount will help teach currency value.

So X packets of cards equals a transformer figure etc.

My method is controversial but it works for my family.

My 5 and 7 year olds get £3 each per week.

However if they are unkind to each other, don’t listen, back chat etc they get a warning and then they lose 50p at a time. We have visual representations on the fridge so they know when it’s been lost and how much they have.

To add, I don’t give them anything else for days out. I will buy an ice cream but anything else like sweets, gift shops, animal feed at the farm park, paid rides etc all come from their pocket money.