How much does your teen cost?

[candlelightees]

I am a teacher and yesterday I overheard some cheeky chappies saying the government pays for them in the form of child benefit. This opened a discussion. Other students chipped in. It seemed some were self aware, others not so much.

I added up my own teen cost minus the grocery/household share. Didn't realise how expensive they actually are.

Transport- £20
Lunch money-£60
Counselling- £180
Clothes-£50 (always something wearing out)
Horesriding-£100
Pocket money-£100
Phone bill-£50
Total £560

Plus the commom texts. ' please can I have £20 to go out with so and so?' Can I get my nails, eyelashes, highlights done?

I realise a lot of this could be cut. But I think lots of people spend a lot on teens. They are bloody expensive.

Ah but, to answer myself, if you included food, which some posts have and sone haven't, they might not be!

DD:
Phone £15
Pocket money £40
Toiletries maybe £10 ish

Lunches taken from home
Used to do more activities but stopped now
Most clothes are birthday and Christmas and then she likes Vinted so I may purchase the very odd little thing but not much

She will be at college from sept so will need more for transport etc but will have a part time job so pocket money will probably stop.

Never had nails/lashes done. Hair cut maybe 3 times per year that I pay for.

My elder DC is at uni so I would definitely say they aren’t stupidly expensive until driving and uni which then went absolutely crazy!

I’ve got 2 teens. I get £184 per calendar month in Child Benefit (£170.20 every 4 weeks). That’s £92 a month each. I’ve just added up all their direct costs (not including food, house bills, holidays etc) and they cost me at least twice that per month each. And they live walking distance to school/college, one of their extracurricular activities is highly subsidised, they’re on the lower end of the pocket money scale amongst friends, and they don’t (or vanishingly rarely) get handouts above their allowance. And university is looming!

Mine is 400.00

which is given monthly directly to her.
that is to cover everything
I don’t contribute anything else she is in charge
of phones / subscriptions/ lunches / transport / friends and families birthday and Xmas gifts.
trips out, clothes, skin care etc

It’s about £1 for 12 at Aldi but that’s not good enough. I’ve created a monster.

you’re stronger than me. I can’t bear to see her hungry!

This is an interesting read and how it differs. My eldest DD is 16, nearly 17. She has had a Saturday job for the last 18 months and she also works whenever she can in half term as long as it fits around study time. We cover all of the expenses around home, school and travel. But we don’t fund much outside of these.

• pocket money £10 per week
• monthly phone bill £30

Social spends, clothes, food out with friends, hair and beauty she pays herself.
My youngest DD is 13. We pay for everything

• £10 pocket money
• £30 football subs
• £50 season ticket
• £30 phone
• £30 haircut every 2/3 months
• £30 clothes ( in addition to essentials)

As others have mentioned then there’s the ad hoc “please can I have” . It’s an expensive business.

I forgot the gym but she does pay that herself from her pocket money.

DD14

We give her the child benefit for pocket money.

On top of that
Train to school £54
Phone £15 (plus a new phone £200 every 2 years)
Music lessons £78
Clubs £20
Essential clothes £50
Place on our family holiday £60pm/£700pa
Haircuts £20

There's probably a lot more I'm missing out there too.

@NormaleKartoffeln

She has ARFID so it is tricky.

Phone bill £50?!
You can get refurbished phones which are a couple of hundred for a decent one, and a contract for £10.

Horse riding fair enough.

Clothing should be coming out of the £100 considering there's such a large amount of pocket money.

Counselling is a large part of your cost which is obviously necessary but not a standard cost too.

Our teen is - packed lunches (hard to work out as buy at the same time as the other 2 DC)
Walks 20 mins to school
Phone outright was £200 about 18 months ago, contact £10
Clothes about £30 a month averaged out
Pocket money- I top up her card when needed but average spending is probably about £30 a month, less in winter more in summer.
Music lessons - about 80 a month.
So total about £150

Im always amazed by the people who pay a cleaner £60 a week for 3 hours cleaning, while giving a teenager pocket money.

Obviously the answer is to pay the DC to do the cleaning. I'll be doing this as soon as my DC are in secondary.

I don't spend £50 a month on my own phone so absolutely won't be spending that on a teenager. A second hand or lower spec/cheap brand phone will be a birthday gift & they'll get a cheap monthly cost sim.

I pay a lot for music & sport coaching but i don't count this - clearly its non essential and a choice we make because we can afford it.

That's really interesting @2025isnotshapingupwell

How old is she? Does she manage it well?

I'd be interested to see the choices mine would make if I gave them completely free reign.

DD16 per month
£40 transport to college
£30 clubs/activities
£5 phone (no idea why anyone is paying £50 a month, ours includes unlimited calls, texts and loads of data), device itself bought outright for £120 over a year ago
£8 pocket money but she doesn't really need it as has saved up loads from working Sundays.
Takes packed lunches or eats at home
I buy necessary clothes/shoes she ocassionally/rarely buys something herself
Art supplies for course, no idea on cost
Driving lessons soon will be £120-£150 a month plus insurance etc.

Ds14
£20 transport to school
£100 tuition
£10 bike servicing
£6 pocket money but has saved up loads of money from paper round job
£70-80 school dinners despite me nagging to take lunches
£5 phone
£80-100 clubs/activities (includes sailing in summer)

I definitely wouldn't be paying for beauty treatments (not that mine want them). Obviously spend a fortune on groceries, and other costs on days out etc.

15 year old dd - £490

£150 allowance.
£200 hobbies
£100 savings account
£10 phone
£30 subscriptions
We buy most of her clothes. She gets a lift to and from school and takes lunch from home. She saves a lot of her allowance.

17 year old dd - £450

£250 allowance to cover petrol to college, lunches at college, phone, subscriptions, any extra clothes (we buy most) and any other bits she wants. We also pay car insurance.
£100 savings account
£100 hobby
She works 8 hours a week and saves.

19 year old ds at uni - £610

£500 to top up loan.
£100 savings account
We also pay for his car insurance and send extra money now and again. He does paid work for between 6 and 10 a week but hard to do more around his course and doing volunteering relevant to course. He saves.

Mine is pretty cheap to run.
She gets £150 a month for travel, food and spends. I tend to buy more expensive items like shoes/boots/coats.
Art club - about £40
Phone - we're on family tariff but hers is maybe £30?
She takes a packet lunch to college and is very frugal with clothes - has discovered the joys of vinted.

Dd is 16 (17 next month so driving lessons will make this shout up)

she only gets £20 pocket money a month (she works and I’d give extra money towards cinema etc but she’s an introvert and she and her friends just hang out at home most of the time.
i pay for her phone (paid off so just £8 a month contract)
i buy some toiletries like face wash and moisturiser but not makeup
she’s stopped clubs so no more horse riding
school bus is £1200 a year
trip to Italy with school £1400

I feel pocket money is low but we will cover driving lessons/insurance and I have 3dc so need to be fair.

I'm not a parent of a teen (yet!) but am finding the unsolicited advice being given on here pretty funny. Parents are sharing what they spend, not asking for ideas on how to cut back! I'm sure they've thought through what they want to spend.

Overall this thread is actually making me feel excited to get out of the childcare years. Whoever said 'they get more expensive as they get older' clearly must not have had to rely on paid childcare.

Some girls don't want hair or nails done all the time, or expect their parents to pay for it!

I'm finding the teens not realising how privileged they are, based on what their parents have written anyway, equally sad. In many cases they get as expensive as you let them! Teaching budgeting is definitely the best way to not have to spend silly amounts....constantly handing out money makes them think that there's no end to it.

DD(17) has become remarkably cheap now she has a Sunday job and she's dropped 2 lots of music lessons:

Pocket money £43 (£10/week)
Transport £0 (live near centre of town and 15 mins from school etc) friends are mostly a 10 minute walk away or a lift-share away for parties
Phone £7 (uses refurbed iPhone11)
Clothing (probably about £500/year - had big expenses last year for sailing, hockey and hiking gear, which will last a good few years)
Swimming £60/month
Lunches (paid for termly - she takes in teabags as hot water is free!)
Random stuff from Amazon on my Prime -£5?

She saves half her wages and spends the rest eating out/Vinted/Thrift shops. Toiletries get added to the grocery online order.

She starts driving lessons next week (I've not asked how much DH needs to pay).

£400 for food for one person? Have you got mug stamped on your forehead?

£100 pocket money is huge!! My 16 year old gets £30. My 18 year old has now stopped pocket money as she's working at weekends. We do pay for one driving lesson a month.

£30 is an increase on last year!

What does your teen spend it on? Wondering if maybe I'm just paying in other ways.

I definitely don't spend £50 a month on clothes for them though. 16 year old in uniform so barely uses casual clothes. Expensive clothes items are for Xmas and bdays or a special treat. I buy tights pants and socks when they run out.

I will say though that I spend around £200 a year on bras for one of my children as she is a bit special in that area.

As teens I paid their phone bill £10 each on giffgaff (handsets were bought outright and secondhand, not the latest) they got £60 allowance (5 years ago so perhaps say £80 now), then I bought clothes twice a year plus kept them in basics like underwear. I paid for orchestra subs (£75 a term) and instrument lessons (varied, lots but one is now pro) but that's it. Certainly no nail money etc. I paid for basic haircuts twice a year at local salon I went to I suppose. My dc are now young adults and very good with money

Decent phones are more expensive than a £120 handset 😂 Mine loves his phone, as do I with mine, so neither of us would be happy with a crappy phone. More than happy to pay £60 a month for two £1000 handsets and unlimited calls, texts and data.

And no school lunch money in my house, you make sandwiches, all of us.