Going rate for pocket money

[Sundance65]

Just a quick - what is the going rate for pocket money for 9 year old?

And dependant on chores or not dependant on chores?? Enough to save for bigger items or just a bit of fun money?

I imagine there are lots of variations of views.

We have never given a set regular amount but feel it's probably the right time.

I'm not showing this thread to my kids! They get 10p per year - so 50p a week for the 5 year old; 80p for the 8 year old and £1.10 a week + v basic phone allowance for the 11 year old.

It's a difficult balance, because they can really only buy sweets with such small amounts, which I don't really want to encourage. However, since I made a virtual bank on my computer, they can see the value in saving and have all managed to buy their hearts' desires in recent weeks - Captain Underpants book, notebook and Dr Who sonic screwdrivers.

They seem fine with it (until friends tell them how they get a fiver a week etc). It probably helps that we never go shopping together, and neither me or DH have much money to spend on ourselves, so they don't have much opportunity to fall in love with stuff in toy shops etc.

10p a year! I hope they don't want to save up for a comic!

Interesting. I’ve recently started giving my 2 dcs £1 per week. Dd1 is 8 and dd2 is 5. I’ve kept them the same but many would disagree. Eldest didn’t get any when she was 5 but got a lot more bought for her. I do put £25 per month into a building society account but that’s more for me to draw back out to buy uniform and bigger purchases that they need/want. We also have a jobs list on the fridge and they can get things like 10p for putting washing away, 50p to tidy their room once every week or so (generally kept tidy so only every so often), 10p for dishes, hoovering per room (hand held vac) etc. Some weeks they are keen to earn extra and other not so. They love 50:50 between me and exh. He doesn’t give pocket money. Their £1 usually goes in their money box and they tend to spend it when it’s grown to a bigger amount for something they want to buy. I usually have sweets in the house left over from Xmas and Easter or parties so rarely buy on a weekly basis! They took all their saved cash at half term on holiday when we went camping and bought their own ice creams and souvenirs. My mum was going to start giving them £5 a week on the basis they save £1 but they only got it twice and it seems to have been forgotten about. She pays for one of their weekly activities anyway so as and when she gives them pocket money goes down well.

UnicornMummy27 Great post!
Sundance65 Thanks so much for the thread, it's actually what we need at the moment, are considering what to do for out 9 and 11 year old.

TBH it's such a minefield. We used to get a pound a week but saying that we'd regularly get a surprise of a comic or a treat to the pound shop or Clares where we didn't have to spend our own money. We didn't help much around the house (I'm so ashamed of this now), but kept our rooms clean and helped with the washing up. My two older boys have to be roped into everything but I've never liked the idea of bribing for money. I also don't know what you do to turn them into good savers, as it is when they get money it goes on lego or magazines, they sometimes save but it ends up being spent on themselves down the line. The very odd time they've put some money in for father's day or a birthday, but they need to be coaxed into it and I don't know if it's a personality thing or that we're not doing it right

Mine get £2 weekly until the age of 14 when they get £40 a month out of which they are expected to pay for social stuff with friends such as train fares/cinema/snacks etc.
There is an expectation that they help out with chores but pocket money not dependant on it.
Major jobs they will be paid for like helping with garden chores for hours or doing all the housework. My 15 year old often does the cleaning for £20

£10 a week for my 8 year old to spend it on whatever he wants.

I was a bit at £100 pet month for an 18 year old, but have just realised that by the time I pay my 18 year olds phone bill and driving lessons, that's about what I am giving him per month. Plus I buy clothes (what he needs, not just random requests) and give him the odd £10 or £20.

DD1 is 10 and gets £10 per month which she never remembers she has! Every so often she'll remember and find she has £30 or something on her Osper card. I'll probably raise it to £25 when she goes to high school next year because the school is right in the town centre so that's when they start heading into McD's or Starbucks for milkshakes etc with friends.

DD2 is 6 and doesn't get anything yet. Pocket money in this house starts (randomly!) at 7.

But why are you paying your 18yr old (adults) phone bill & giving them pocket money? They are 18. A grown up.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t help your kids out but at 18 they should be taking financial responsibility for themselves - paying a phone bill and budgeting for clothes etc is very basic. Young adults need to be taught how to manage their own money - how to earn it and how to budget.

I'm paying it because they are still at school and don't have the ability to pay their own bills. I worked as a teen and had some awful jobs - I wanted to spare them that experience and let them concentrate on school, but I do think, in retrospect that I have made the wrong decision and a saturday job would have been good for them. They do sometimes think that money grows on trees and don't realise just how easy they've had life.
That said, saturday jobs are hard to come by where we live - most places want kids to work in the week too, which I'm not in favour of while they are at school.

Ds1 & ds2 are, in theory, grown ups and they pay us dig money. Ds3 is 11 and has been getting £5 a week for the last couple of years. He is going to secondary school after the summer and from next month he will be getting £40 a month paid into his account. He has always had to tidy his own mess but is going to take over the hoovering. He's actually quite handy anyway and loves to bake and cook.

His friend (also 11) gets £2 a week and feels quite hard done by. However he gets sweets and a magazine bought for him each week, regular Lego sets and computer games and money from extended family so probably gets more than ds.