£25 is a lot, £100 per month
but you’re doing this back to front. Once kids get to 16 imho, you need to sit them down and teach them budgeting.
so with our 2 ds we sat them down at 16 and said you need to come up with budget of what you will spend each month. This included EVERYTHING including pay as you go phone charges, toiletries, all clothes EXCEPT. school uniform and undies/nightclothes (otherwise they’d never have bought new undies🙄🤣). We also covered basic shoes as both ds have enormous feet and shoes are stupid prices.
we made them itemise stuff like going out with mates, music travel, games, clubs, hair cuts etc. everything.
we also told them what we were allowing for birthday and Xmas gifts to them so they could plan that in to cover bigger things they wanted to buy or ask us for.
we then helped them put a budget together on their computers. I think it was £60 a month at time but was over 12-15 years ago now and they were both boys which I really do think means it is cheaper- even young girls get hit by “pink tax”
we got them both a loadable card (just coming out then- can you still get them ? ) but they mostly paid cash as you could back then. I think we did the phone top up at standard amount by dd for them- but if they used all their credit that was it. Bear in mind social media hadn’t really taken off then.
we said that ALL we would give was this monthly budgeted amount. No bailing out. If they wanted a “rise” they’d need to come to us with their expenses vs budget clearly detailed to show us why they needed the raise, or why it was they had run out that month .
we then said clearly if they wanted more to do other things not budgeted then they needed to find work. Which they did, having the budget made them realise if they wanted to be in control they needed to make their own money they could keep all for themselves.
the point was we were preparing them for when they reached 18 and went to uni/work. Managing their own money and a proper bank account was a breeze for them. They were used to budgeting and setting out what they needed form us by way of our uni contribution. We expected them to drive their financial dealings and didn’t spoon feed. They applied for their grants, decided on halls and costs and presented us with outline budget n what we needed to pay in maintenance costs to top up loans. In fairness neither asked us for a raise during their 3 years undergraduate, just youngest one needed a rise during his Masters.
but then I have always budgeted, still do, and a, pretty financial savvy, and wanted to teach my kids that lesson
the amount of pocket money you give is largely irrelevant frankly. They’ll always be coming back to you if they “feel” it’s not enough for everything they think they “need”. But if they don’t understand where their money is going they’ll always be “needing” more.
budgetting teaches them the difference between “needs” and “wants” and puts the onus on them to prove why they need you to bail them out by providing the data to support their argument.
I think paying for chores concept is pants, imho. I expect kids to do reasonable chores irrespective of pocket money. Mostly stuff they’re contributing to- I was a stickler fo making them do their own washing at 16 onwards cos I figure if they could play complex games on a computer they could use a frigging washing machine and sort laundry into colours and lights 🤷🏼♀️. I don’t iron by religion so said to them if they wanted ironed clothes their dad would teach them and they did it themselves. Sorry, I worked a very full time long hour job and seriously hate ironing. We did expect them to do more over holidays if they weren’t working, like mowing lawn, though we put a stop to our 17 year old hedge trimming when he trimmed through the 2nd cable on 2 consecutive occasions 🤷🏼♀️🤣🤣 . It gets way too complicated making pocket money contingent on chores as you’re then forced to deduct, or make constant bargains around homework assignments, revision needing “time off”. Just all a bit bonkers. They need to do housework full stop. BUT education, exercise and sleep does take priority over those chores, always.