How much money should I give….

[Sortofdontwantto]

To my 10yr old per week? Currently she gets £3 and then £10 a month from grandparents. So a total of £22 a month. I’ve looked at guides and the advice seems to be about £12 a month at this age.

I’m trying to encourage me not buying the extras she wants and her saving for it, but the issue is £12 barely buys anything these days! And even £22 isn’t much.

For instance she wanted some double ended felt pens (she’s really crafty) - cheap ones on Amazon are £18. So that’s a month wiped out. We went on holiday recently and she bought some little souvenirs - again all gone.

what does everyone else do?

We give dd pocketmoney equal to her age every 2nd week. She's 10 and gets 10 twice a month. She is very careful about spending it.

What about £2 a day but she has to do a couple of straightforward chores each day for it.

i can’t remember exactly how much we gave ours, but it didn’t include what we called “tools of the trade”. Things like drawing pens we would have provided. Guitar strings, paper, anything they needed to pursue a proper interest.

Pens - I do provide usually but these were superfluous fancy ones. I paid half and she paid half! I don’t make her pay for basics don’t worry!

I definitely don’t give money in exchange for chores. Chores are done as a contributing member of our household and not for a fee. No-one pays me to empty the dishwasher!

Paying for chores is a good way to get them used to earning money rather than just receiving it. But I understand your view also.

You could pay her to do tasks if she's short one month.

I absolutely agree with no payment for routine chores. We live in a family-we all contribute to it. I did pay for extra things, but not the day to day.

I have 2 DC. 9 year old doesn't get pocket money, however I will buy him treats within reason. If he had money he'd spend it all on sweets the next day! 11 year old gets £5 a week since starting secondary school as he's now doing more independent things. He generally spends a bit here and there on a hot chocolate in town with friends for example. If he was meeting friends and had run out of money I'd top it up as I'm keen to encourage his independence.

They don't get money for chores as I'm of the same opinion that they shouldn't need financial gain to contribute. However if there's something specific they want I can usually find an "above and beyond" task like washing the cars or organising a cupboard to make some extra money.

We don’t do pocket money. My 12 year old gets some money at the end of the term for good behaviour, like £40. But I don’t expect them to buy things for themselves day to day. I’d either say no you can’t have that or yes, that’s a worthy thing to buy and I’d pay for it. I don’t think they learn much buy having a little bit of money to spend on random junk.

Oh I think they learn a lot! My daughter has savings pots where she puts money aside for bigger things. She saved for 2 months for some perfume she wanted recently. I think it’s important they learn the value of money and of waiting and saving for things, not having everything instantly.

And it helps that she’s making the decision on whether something is worthwhile - not me. She’s learnt ‘tat’ is a waste of money but if she still wants something two weeks later it’s probably worth saving for.