AIBU to ask how much pocket money/allowance you give to your teengager?

[cariadlet]

My 16 year old dd would like to have a bank account and debit card like some of her friends. My dp and I have agreed that it will be a good chance for her to practice budgeting if we give her a monthly allowance.

Currently we don't give her pocket money as my MIL already does this (so as not to dripfeed this is a sore point with me as MIL started to give dd pocket money when she was a toddler without consulting me or my dp. I'd have preferred to wait until she was a bit older. MIL has also always given dd more money than I think appropriate - I would have liked her to have a bit less so that she could learn to save for treats from a young age).

DD used to have a part-time job but had to give it up because of health issues.

At the moment dp and I give dd money for her weekly bus ticket to school (next town so needs the bus), £10 a month for her phone (the rest comes out of her pocket money), I take her shopping a couple of times a year for new summer/winter clothes and will buy clothes/shoes in between if she gives me a good reason why she needs them. If she wants to go out with friends she used to use her wages to pay for this. Now she sometimes uses her pocket money and sometimes I'll give her money.

I'd love it if anyone with teenagers could let me know how much money they give them, what they expect the dc to pay out of it and what they still pay for themselves.

I'm supposed to be working so am going to log off Mumsnet for a few hours and will check back in this evening. If anybody takes the trouble to reply before then please don't think I'm being rude and ignoring you! Thanks

My Dd 15 gets £40/month in return for keeping the downstairs clean and tidy (inc emptying dishwasher, hoovering, preparing evening meals) all week. I give her 20/month for school lunches and she takes packed lunches when that runs out. I pay for her phone contract 12/month and activities which come to £35/week. She has a private tutor for £25/week too - I buy her clothes and shoes unless she's seen something she really wants to treat herself to. I figure that she saves me needing a cleaner so it's an arrangement that works. Ds12 gets £5 / week and he cleans the bathroom for that.

14yo DS gets £25 a month. Plus phone contract -£15, hobby which costs around £60, occasional lunch money and fares if needed and all his clothes bought for him.

My ds doesn't get a set amount but recently have been thinking he should as his football obsession is costing a fortune.

He's 15 and in year 11. He has an expensive phone and contract ( around £60 ) paid for by his dad and gets anything he asks for.

He's a season ticket holder for a premier league club but has been to every away game so far this season. I'm spending around £200 pm just on that plus everything else he needs. It's actually an obscene amount and whilst I don't want him getting a job during his GCSE's, he needs to learn the value of money.

I would say he's averaging over £100 per week.

£50 a month, paid into his bank account. We pay for his phone contract, food at school, clothes, toiletries. So his allowance is basically for him to spend on whatever he wants, games, going out with friends etc. He also gets £5 a week from a paper round. He's learning to budget and making good choices so far (he's 14)

Wow Warpdrive that's an awful lot of chores! I wonder how much that works out per hour?

My 16 yo ds gets £100 per month - in theory £15 per week is for lunches (that was his allowance pre 6th form) plus phone contract paid. I also buy basic clothes, coat, shoes pj's jeans etc. He buys anything extra he likes, plus haricuts. he is a canny budgeter already, buying cheap basics from the supermarket to make his own packed lunch, so manages to save about £20 per week for extras (Nandos mainly..)

We stop giving pocket money at 17 so you're almost too late to bother. We gave £16/month at age 16; for fripperies*, no strings attached.

*we pay for necessities like mobile (family deal £5/month DD), train pass (annual purchase), generous one-off contributions (like £25) for lunch+movie out on weekend which is quite rare, shampoo, booze for a party, etc. Which clothes we buy gets negotiated.

If we gave DD £50/month like other posters, she'd blow it on utter tat and not budget at all. She earns £20/wk in newsagent job and has finally stopped spending every penny as fast as she earns it.

ps: DD takes a packed lunch on weekdays. We all do.

DS had two job from 13 to 16 he had a once a week paper round and then he worked in a kitchen for six months. He saved up a decent amount.

We paid for his phone contract, clothes and he bought his own gym membership and some extra clothes. He had to stop working due to his A levels, he didn't want to but it had to happen.

He is now in sixth form college his weekly allowance is 15 for the bus to college, 28 driving lesson, 5 phone contract. Clothes as and when. If he wants extra money he does chores round the house for a fiver an hour typically does two hours chores a week.

DD15 gets £15 per week put into her bank account. We pay for her mobile phone contract and any major clothes/shoes etc purchases. She buys most of her own makeup, some toiletries and sometimes saves up for something she particularly wants.

They get their child benefit from 15 until it stops. So it's 20 a week.

And 20 a month pocket money from stepdad until they're 18. 100 a month is pretty fair.

At 16 we paid phone contact, gym membership and other sports clubs fees. We gave £10 each month into his bank as basic and sent across extra for doing chores eg £5 for cutting the grass. By 16.5yrs he had a weekend job so cut back to just paying for gym and phone. He suddenly had more disposable income than us! We expected him to buy all nonessential stuff for himself then. He is now at uni and by all accounts managing his money very well.

2nd ds is now approaching 16 and we do similar. If he wants to go somewhere special we will give him extra but it's not often. To be clear we pay for everything he needs it's just pocket money. He volunteers so has less spare time for a job than ds1 did so we shall have to see how it goes.

My 18 year old is at uni, but I also have a 14 and 16 year old. They get phone and Spotify paid for them, plus £75 pcm. We buy basic clothes and uniforms. The allowance covers school lunches, or they can take a pack up from home for free.

DS2 17- at sixth form. DM gives him £15 per week pocket money. I give him £15 per week for lunches, plus pay for his phone contract. The he gets random handouts on top for doing jobs. He should really have a part time job. V long story () but he hasn't and at the moment I want his focus to be college and passing his course.

DS1 19, first year uni, living at home. Gets a maintenance loan, so I don't give him and money, but I do pay his phone contract.

I pay travel and lunch money for my teen DC, DH pays their mobile contracts. They don't get any other money unless they do 'pocket money jobs'.
(They are fed and clothed, obviously)

DS had £25 a month until he was 16, then I increased it to £50. He also got a weekend job at that time that paid £15 per shift. I covered the cost of his bus pass, clothes, toiletries, food, school trips and cadet activities, he only had to buy games, any more expensive designer clothes he wanted, the costs of going out with friends and getting his hair cut (he changed his hairstyle a lot). When he reached 17, we paid for his driving lessons as well. We always said that if he needed money he would need to work for it, so he has always pitched in with chores and cooking without being asked.

Mine had Mobil phone contracts paid plus family allowance split equally and paid into their bank monthly

Mine's 15 and she gets £40 a month and I pay £10 for her PAYG phone - 3rd hand iPhone 5s. I also buy her clothes as when she needs them, which isn't often as she lives in leggings and t-shirts. But she pays for trips out with her friends, Spotify and computer games out of that.

When she hits 16 I'm wondering what to up it to? I was thinking £100 and then she can factor in saving into her budgeting, pay for her phone and clothes as well then. Hopefully will get her ready for Uni.

DD14 gets £30 p/m for non-essential clothes (out of the maintenance money her father sends), £5 p/w from DGreatNan and earns £10 p/w looking after a neighbour’s dog while she’s at work (feeding and letting out for a wee). I pay £10 p/m into her trust fund and £30 into her savings account, her Nan adds another £20 to the savings.
She has 2 hobbies, one cheap (football) one not so (cheerleading). She has a budget of £10 for lunchbox stuff (but most of it is fruit and salad and I don’t mind paying a bit extra if she’s being healthy) Bus fare is £13.50 p/w but I usually give her £15. She does alright!

I don't give my 12 or 8 year old pocket money. But I buy them all sorts, like books and treats fairly frequently. My 12 year old dd has a phone contract paid for and both obviously get all clothes, equipment and activities paid for. My dd doesn't yet go out much with friends but if she does I'll give her a tenner or so to spend. I guess once she starts wanting to go out more often I'll rethink regular pocket money!
Neither really ask for much money though or expect it.

I don't have a set amount. 15 year old gets his phone contract paid for (£25), I give him money as and when he asks, which probably amounts to somewhere between £30-50 a month. He's not a shopper but does like going out with friends, and goes to school in a different town so pays for train fare etc

DS is 13.

£25 a month subs for football training
£13 a month phone contact
£5 a month into his bank account as pocket money
£15 a week drum lessons

He has jobs he has to do round the house for that - cleaning his room, doing the dark washing, setting and clearing the table at meal times, emptying small bins and putting big bins out.

I buy all his clothes, except his football shirts, which he saves up for.

17&18, they both get $200 a month plus phone. They’ve been getting that for the last 3/4 years.

DD1 (17) has £65 a month paid into her account. That's the £12 a week that she would have had for school dinners, plus her £25 pocket money that she gets. She can keep the dinner money aspect for herself if she takes packed lunches.

She has little social life and would only spend more money on junk if she had extra. She pays spotify for herself on a student rate and I pay her phone contract (£5!).

DD2 is 14. She gets dinner money paid direct to school and gets the £25 into her bank account. I also pay for ice skating lessons at £6 a week.