How much money do you give your younger teens?

[Yuja]

DD is 13 and In year 8. until now I’ve tended to just buy her what she needs plus the occasional want. Recently if she’s gone shopping with her friends I’ve transferred some Adhoc money. I think now I should give her a regular amount and she has to buy certain things from that. So I’m wondering how much you give your DC of this age? I mean, she goes to shop with friends occasionally but doesn’t have a very active social life just yet - she spends most of her time either at school or doing her sport.

We give our Year 7 DS (so not quite teen) £2 a week pocket money. He spends most of it on sweets so I wouldn't be happy with giving more. He also wants to buy books but struggles with the motivation to forego sweets and save up!

DSD 15 gets £50 per month.

My DD13 gets £5/week in return for doing the hoovering. She can spend it on whatever she wants but I opened a HyperJar account for her so she has a card to use and can put the money into different saving pots. She recently saved up £75 to take as spending money on a trip. She does have an account with a proper bank too for longer term savings.

Firstly work out what you'd want her to spend the money on. Just pocket money for sweets at corner shop or a more comprehensive budget to include other essentials. It will also depend on what you can afford obviously.

I think its a great age to introduce proper budgeting - so my dd (15) now buys all her clothes, makeup, shoes, etc as well as money for trips to cinema/ dates with boyfriend/ trips to costa to revise/ birthday presents/ etc. We give her £200 every 2 months.

I think it works out at £25 a week, but she learnt very quickly that if she blows it all in the first 2 weeks she'll then have 6 weeks of being broke and bored as we won't top up her account.

It has changed her attitude to money, she's become really sensible and usually still has a bit of money in her account at the end of the 2 months. Its also stopped all the nagging for branded hoodies, etc (she just gets them off vinted now).

I generally just pay for what they need. Id give them money if they were going out for lunch with their friends. And maybe £50 to spend if they were going to a shopping centre with friends as a day out but they don't do that often. They don't get pocket money but can earn for doing unpopular chores around the house if they want! They both have savings accounts they don't have access to but they probably both have £2-300 on the bank card they use day to day due to birthday/ Xmas money they're given.

It doesn't sound like you need to though?
You say she doesn't have an active social life and you transfer adhoc, is there a reason this can't continue?

So he spends what £1.50 on sweets per week? What can he even buy for less than £2???

I just think it’s a good time to learn about money management, and that you can’t always have anything you want immediately ie some saving might be needed if you want a higher ticket item.

thanks everyone for all the experiences - it varies a lot by the sound of things but yes I think I need to think about what it’s for. My initial thoughts are for the occasional shopping trip either with friends or me where she buys arguably unnecessary skin care items/ lip glosses and expensive drinks in Starbucks!

I also suspect that while her social life isn’t that active yet as she’s still quite young, within a couple of years she may want to go out more or spend more - she can learn to start budgeting around now

We give our 12 year old DD £20 a week.

She doesn't have a very active social life but is a bit of a 'wanter'. In the Christmas holidays she'd walk into our local town with friends a couple of times and go to Starbucks and pop into space NK or go for lunch. She also has an expensive hobby that she always wants new stuff for.

We've decided on £20 so she can either save up and get something bigger hobby related or if she spends it on expensive tat in space nk and Starbucks she won't be able to have the hobby related items.

We will buy all her essential and clothes still.

I think ‘wanter’ is an excellent description of my DD also!

We give ours £100 a month from y7 and 8 then upped it to 150 for y9 onwards. We did similar with our two older ones who have left home. They are both really good at budgeting as a result. So from that they have to buy all their own clothes/ shoes all socialising and any gifts they want to buy. I buy uniform or anything needed for school. I put X amount on their lunch card if they spend that They need to top it up as they can make their lunch at home and take it in. They will be expected to get a job in college but can keep the allowance. Not willing to get a job the allowance stops. It worked well with our older two ( 23 and 22) our youngest only boy tends to blow it on Lego and live in the same clothes lol 🤣

My 11&12 year olds get £6 a week. However they are also lucky that we can pay them to work on our farm. £5 an hour moving cattle or sweeping a shed soon focuses the mind on if you really really want that starbucks\space NK make up

@Nopenousername er sweets? How much do sweets cost where you live?!

We do £5 a week for our year 7 dd. But she only gets that if on a Sunday homework is done and room is tidy. If its not she doesn't get anything. We buy essentials, we also put ££ on her dinner money account each month. Once its gone its gone- now that has been a steep learning curve!!