To ask what you let your kids spend their pocket money on?

[early30smum]

Just that really. DD is 8 and DS is 4 and they both get pocket money and also they sometimes get a bit of cash for their birthdays from relatives. (Anything more than £10 goes in savings but I let them keep anything under £10)

DS is obviously a bit young and we often 'forget' to give it to him but when we do he likes to chose a magazine and maybe a lolly from the shop.

DD never forgets (!) and had some money for her birthday so went on a bit of a spending spree today- bloody shopkins, num nums, those awful lip glosses from Claire's that look like trolls which she doesn't even use as lip gloss just collects them, moam joysticks sweets (these are strictly rationed though!), smiggle scented pencils etc.

Basically just a load of tat as far as I'm concerned. So, AIBU to ask, do you let your kids spend their £ on whatever they want or are there rules? To be fair, she does also save up for things she wants sometimes.

No they can spend it on what they like

I try and steer them towards sensible choices but at the end of the day if they want to buy tat or sweets it's their money. They get 50p per week per year of age so at 6 & 7 they can spend a pound or two and put the rest towards a bigger buy as well.

Whatever they like.

He helps me round the house with little jobs and that's his 'pay'.

Mostly goes on PS games. Although he also recently ordered a Nerf gun, pocket watch and a fez.

Mine can spend their allowance as they like, it's there for fun things. I buy treats so it doesn't get spent on sweets etc.

They also get to keep birthday/Christmas money as it was given to them to spend.

Our have both been saving theirs since Easter to spend at the summer fair which was on Sunday. They spent it all on bouncy castle turns, kids' raffle tickets, "second hand" toys (which all look brand new and amazing and the teacher selling them was wildly underestimating prices!), throwing wet sponges at their teachers and little games like nerf darts or guess the sweets.

Dd (8) gets £5 a week and she can spend it on whatever rubbish she likes- that's the point. I'm still waiting for her to realise saving for something substantial is more rewarding that £5 worth of tat though.

Whatever they like. There is something quite about watching the DC Choose what they want to buy and paying for it. Dd1 loves to go to poundland and buy Little bits.

If they save bigger amounts of money I think it's fine to spend pocket money on useless tat. As long as they know once it's gone it's gone and there's no extra top ups. That's a valuable life lesson, if you spend your money on rubbish you can't also spend it on something bigger and better.

I think it's like junk food, the tighter you control it, the more they'll go nuts when they finally do get freedom. Better to have freedom at 8 and but useless bits from Claire's than at 18 and waste it on booze!

Mine don't get pocket money but do get some for Xmas and birthdays. They usually buy clothes, cds and books. Both are teens (16 and 17) and have started saving half of everything they receive. When they were younger they bought instruments, games, books, arts and crafts, some sweets etc. At the end of the day it's their money and I've never stopped mine from buying what they want within reason.

I let mine buy whatever they like. My favourite is when they ask me to buy them something and I say they can use their own money then they put the item back!

My daughter is the same age and I laughed at your list - mine would buy exactly the same!

I let her buy what she wants, but I will chip in opinions.

Last week, she wanted erasable marker pens and scented pencils.
Damn Smiggle!

I said "ooooh, erasable? Nice! Those pencils smell lovely, but you have a tin full of them so, I don't know... I don't think I'd buy them because they're just the same, and I'd rather know I still had the money for something new and better".

It worked.

Sometimes though I just give her the face and say "really? £3 on that rubbish?"

Mine spend it on tat.

They've got a thing about hand sanitizer at the moment! Tweens are seriously weird.

Not food - I don't want them blowing it all on sweets.
Pretty much anything else.

What she likes, usually its hatchimal colleggtables though before they existed it was shopkins, nom noms, monster high minis,kitty/puppy in pocket, tsum tsums etc.... She plays with them so not bothered as she gets out every day. I loved those sort of things when I was same age. Yes they are over priced tat but daughter adores. My son just wants cars