Money for teens

[ilovevegcrisps]

I don't have teens yet but when I first moved out I incurred mega debt as I'd never had money before.

I always hoped I'd give them a set amount (£150?) a month to pay for everything - school lunches, bus fare, clothes, phone, extracurricular, social lives - and make them budget.

Is this what most parents do AIBU to ask how you teach budgeting skills?

Mine are 14 and 16. They get a monthly amount into the accounts (it's in $ but comes to about £110/£120). We pay their phone and take them clothes "top up" shopping twice a year. The rest of the time they have to budget. Before they had bank accounts the eldest used to burn through his money as soon as he got it, now he has to wait till he goes to an atm and seems to be making the money last so much better. The youngest rarely spends and has a 4 figure sum in his account!

I did it gradually using direct debit, added clothes budget at 14. It is strange when out for a coffee they are happy with water when they have to pay their own cost. DD is a eBay queen and can spot a jack Wills bargain and horrified at the real cost in shops. They also have to earn this money and like with everything you have to be in a fortunate position to be able to do it for them.

DD1 is now nearly 21 and at uni. Whilst still at school she had a Saturday job and earned around £100 per month. We funded her bus fare to school as it wasn't catchment area so local authority wouldn't pay. We also paid for school meals, all stuff related directly to education and also phone contract, but anything over and above that she had to pay for, including clothes and outings with friends.

DD2 is 17 and has had a paper round since age 13 earning around £80 per month. She now does a college course and also works two mornings a week in a local shop, adding about £170 per month to that. Same arrangement for her really, though what we pay doesn't work out too much these days. We fund her bus fare to college, but that ends this summer. Think she will be on her own much more after that

DD3 is 13 and earns £80 per month from a paper round. Her school bus is LEA funded. We pay her phone contract and school stuff and school meals. She pays for extras if she wants them, clothes etc.

DD is 15 and gets £70 a month from us to buy phone top up, clothes, toiletries above the basic stuff I buy and socialising. She takes lunch from home and has no bus fare to school.
I give her extra in the school holidays and give her lunch money at the weekend if I am taking her brothers out for lunch.
We buy school stuff, coats and shoes.
She is desperate for a job but there's not many places here taking on an under 16 and she has been on the waiting list for a paper round for 3 years.
We used to give her £20 a month plus £15 phone top up plus I spent around £50 on clothes etc on her. Since we handed over to her she has bought a lot less crap and has saved up for things she wanted.

DS1 is 11 and only goes out with friends about once a month so I give him £10. We pay his scouts subs and buy him the odd magazine, book or Lego set. He doesn't have a phone yet and is happy with the clothes I buy him. When this changes we will start giving him a monthly allowance too.

Young teen and give £30 a month. It's just for treats. Days out, school stuff, phone and clothes I pay for. I pop extra on for the holidays and he can gain extra via good school results.

At 13 they get a bank account and £20 p.m. which is essentially pocket money.

At 16 they get £100 p.m. for everything except - school supplies, school clothes/shoes, phone contract. If we had a special occasion such as a wedding, bar mitzvah, smart wear then I would buy what I considered needed. They could always top it up with their own money if they wanted something more expensive.

16 yr old earns £60 a month and gets £25 pocket money from us and £10 a week from gps.
14 earns £20 a month doing a paper round and gets same pocket money as above.
We buy everything else - clothes, dinner money, shoes, activities, phone contracts and any other extras.

My ds1 is nearly 17 and in the sixth form. When he turned 16 I started giving him £100 a month but then he started earning about £250 a month doing a part time job. he still manages to blow all his own earnings on following his football team around the country and somehow we have still ended up paying for his season ticket and phone !!

OMG ! Reading the amounts they get ! DD is 14 (nearly 15) and gets £14 per month. We also pay her monthly phone bill, her scouts subscription, essential clothes, school related stuff. She uses her money for going out with friends, clothes and make up shopping - that sort of thing. Perhaps I should increase the amount she gets?

DS1 is 12 and gets £12 per month but that is essentially spending money as we pay for phone, all clothes, and trips out.

I was just wondering about this. My teen will be starting sixth in sept and I was thinking about what money to give him. His bus is £75 a month. I was thinking of giving him £75 - £100 a month for spends. I don't mind buying his clothes as he doesn't care about brands and doesn't really ask for much clothing at all so easier if I just buy it.

Does that sound fair?

DS at college gets £20 per wk or £80 a month

does the odd bit of work but not really counting as is not regular enough

i pay for mobile,bus pass,clothes,college related,basically everything,

We gave both of her DC monthly budgets, I sat down with DD1 and we worked out an annual budget for everything she may need and divided it by 12. This excluded paying for extra curricular activities, equipment and school uniform. When the got to the sixth form the allowance was increased as they didn't have school uniform any more. DD1 was very good at budgeting and ended up with a surplus for when she went to Uni. We have to support her through uni but have she is very good at budgeting. DD2 is more of a challenge but is learning slowly.