Pocket money and spending for your DCs? What do you do?

[sparklins]

DS is 8 and we are starting to discuss pocket money and spending.
Currently also looking into a child account/card with parental controls as currently DS seems to think the money on the screen is a magical entity that is always there 😂

Me and DP would like a bit of advice from the wise collective of mumsnet to figure out how we are going to work it so would love to ask a few questions and get some insight if that's ok?

• how much pocket money do your DC/s get or got at different ages
• what are the general rules about spending their own money
• what are the rules about any monetary gifts £10 and over from family members (DCs have a couple of DGMs who like to gift 10-20 each from time to time)

My dc have gohenry cards. I set chores / actions for them that are age appropriate, and include bedtime routine, reading and homework. I pay them £1 for each completed finance mission. Their grandparents periodically put money on there, too.

when they were young, birthday money from grandparents went into their savings.

My DD is 13 and gets £50 a month, plus I pay her £8 phone bill a month. She has her own accout with Natwest.

Within that £50 a month is £30 for pocket money, and £20 for the school bus. We have an understanding that she can either get the bus in the mornings (I pick her up) or she can walk the 1.5 ish miles home. Sometimes she saves the money and walks, but some times she cant be bothered. If she walks she gets to keep the money. It works well and I think its taught her to make financial choices.

I think her Dad might give her a tenner or so, when he sees her.

And for her £30 she has to do chores - she cooks once a week, empties the dishwasher before school and feeds the cat.

I've got the hyper jar app.

I don't entirely trust it, nothing I've experienced but I believe larger sums have gone missing being transferred andnit was only because they had taken screen shots that they acted.

However...it's extremely easy to set up.
It tells me what she has spent and where. She adores her card and has set up some savings jar's already.
One is a saving jar.

I'm trying to get her to save and spend!

Older I try and give at least 10 per month, sometimes 30.
However I had already set up savings for her before she got her card so she has a few hundred already so the pocket money tops that' up.
Older is very good with £.

£1 is very low for an 8 year old! Do you have to be happy with what she decides to buy or can she choose? What would an 8 year old buy that was illegal???

Mine have a hype jar account which is great as gives the parent a notification when they buy anything. They get £5 added every Friday. Any birthday/Christmas money they save half in normal savings account and then half to hypejar for spending on what they want

Cash only. On principle. They do have bank accounts, but its not the same as counting/saving/spending physical money.

I think that around £3-5 a week is a good amount for an 8 year old to receive as pocket money.My 11 year old gets £5 a week plus extras for chores if completed and ticked off on their jobs lists.

Thanks for this thread, I have wanted to start pocket money for my 8 year old and wasn't sure how much.
Reading this and another similar thread I think I will do £1 a week but she can earn another £1 a week if she does her homework and reading with minimal moaning and procrastinating.
It's low but will only be for things like a pack of hairbands/clips she likes in primark, or if she wants a pot of slime etc from Amazon. We wouldn't expect her to buy sweets with it etc. if we are out an about, just extra treats so that we don't feel like we are spoiling her. She has grandparents who do that way too much lol

Meant to add that she already has a Hyperjar account where her birthday and christmas money go into (i sneak a bit i to her savings though!), and odd £1s that she is given from family. She loves it and likes to check her balance regularly.

£5 a week each for all my kids, aged 11 and under. And spend it on what they want but not sweets. Any birthday money is for them to spend as they see fit.
they have chores to do and I do deduct pocket money for bad behaviour/if they don’t do their simple chores

My DD is a bit older 14. She gets 20 a week but has to do some chores for it. She uses it for going for lunch with her friends and friends birthdays. She is good at not spending on rubbish. I pay her phone bill. At 8 she would have got a 5er a week

My 7 year old gets £2.50 a week and 11 year old £4.50 a week (goes up 50p on their birthday).
11 year old has a bank account so i just transfer it straight there.
It is up to them what they spend it on, they learn that they need to save for something more expensive. If they are given money they also can do what they want with this.
Myself and their dad save money for them in savings accounts for when they are older.

Mine is 15 and gets £20 per week and I pay his phone bill. Before that it was ad-hoc, which was fine when he was little, but as his social life got going I was ending up transferring him loads of cash. He is set up with a HSBC account now and has the app so he can control his own spending.

I think that anything that teaches kids about saving,how to be responsible with money,to save for things you want instead of instantly getting etc.is a good thing,whichever way/bank you choose to go with.

I cannot remember the last time i paid for anything in cash. Not sure what this approach teaches or achieves since our society is heading towards cashless. Is it your principle that society shouldnt be cashless?

I love the cashless aspect.No scrabbling around for change,remembering to go to the cashpoint etc.So easy to transfer money from your parent account to the child's account,or to/from their savings pot etc.So much less hassle,pocket money paid automatically on a Sunday morning.

Plus,the Gohenry card is a cashpoint card as well as a debit card,so if they want to use cash,they can withdraw it themselves from the cashpoint.So much better and easier for us.

We use rooster cards. Cheaper than go henry

Surely it's about the physical aspect when using cash. There is a huge difference between spending money and it physically disappearing, or seeing it build up in a piggy bank, and just some digital number you have to manually check. Children, who are used to instant gratification, will learn faster with the former. It also helps with general Maths skills when a child has to add up their coins, rather than just having a sum given to them. So I'd encourage cash every time.

Ours get half their age a week, so 10yo gets £5 a week but only if they do their jobs (10yo hoovers stairs landing and cleans & tidies play room, 13yo does front room and hall) .

We use rooster (NatWest) which was cheaper than gohenry and gave more control over different 'pots' of money than hyperjar. money goes in to the main account and then you can move it in to different pots for saving such as sweets, computers, trainers etc.

Any spend on their accounts comes through to us so we know what they've spent. If we send DD to the shop for milk, we know exactly what she spent and then reimburse her.

How old were children when this was started? I have a 6 and 7 year old and don't know what they would be spending it on? And the post saying £1 per week is too little for an 8 year old why I thought we were a few years away from regular pocket money, I sometimes give them some change if they have been helpful but didn't realise it was much of a thing as a regular amount yet.

At 8 they just got a pound a week for sweets tbh. We had a go Henry card for them for some birthday money etc.

At 12 and 10 we have just started an allowance. £20 p/m for the older and £10 (plus sweet money) for the younger. Older child now has a current account with a debit card and app, younger still has go henry.

Just turned 9yo DS gets £5 a week in cash. It's not associated with chores, he has those anyway.

This is for him to buy anything he likes, with some guidance if we think he'll regret it, and all birthday and Christmas money is his to do as he likes.

It's been a while since I've had an 8yo, so I can't quite remember the details, but I don't think mine got a weekly amount at that age? I think I just gave them some money as and when they needed it.

They were 10 & 11 when I set them up with a GoHenry account, and it worked well for us. They got £5 paid into their accounts on a Saturday morning, and could earn an extra £1 for doing extra chores.
The £5 weekly was dependent upon them doing basic stuff like keeping their rooms tidy, emptying the dishwasher, organising school stuff the night before etc.
The £1 extra would be for hoovering the front room and stairs, cleaning down the garden furniture, cleaning their bathrooms/shower screens - basically anything over and above what I would normally expect them to contribute towards the daily running of the household.

They are 13 & 14 now, and have both upgraded to a youth current account. I deposit £30 a month for pocket money. I pay for essential clothes, toiletries, phone contracts - they pay for socialising with friends, and any clothes they want over and above the necessary sort of stuff.