Am I being too stingy with pocket money?

[Helenmum3]

DD is primary age and we give her £80 a month. I was with friends with similar age kids at the weekend and each of them give their own kids a higher amount.

We aren’t particularly well off, certainly not ‘Mumsnet rich’ but I’d say we are fairly average earners for this day and age. I earn about £50,000, DH nearer &75,000 with bonuses.

I thought £80 was fair personally?

That sounds like a lot to me!

How old is she?

Just wow!!

My 18 year old gets £50 a month.

£80 a month in primary school!?

I give my 9 yo £1 a week and younger ones nothing!

In primary?! My 7yo gets £2 a week and I think that’s quite generous as most of her pals don’t get anything! £80 a month is nuts.

Jesus.

My son just turned 10 and doesn’t get any pocket money, because he rarely wants to buy anything.

What is she spending it on?

£80 a month is loads for primary age! What do you expect her to buy with that?

Wow that’s a lot of money for a primary age child, but I guess it depends on what you expect her to pay for out of it. If it’s just for sweets etc then definitely a lot. If she’s to pay for extras like cinema, a wander around Primark to get a few clothes, put some into savings etc then yes OK amount.

I guess it depends on what the money is expected to be used for and what you buy for DD?

If you buy everything and that’s just money for toys/treats, then I would say it’s too much.

If she pays for bits for a hobby etc out of that, then maybe not unreasonable. Hard to say.

Is your DD saving a large proportion of it instead of you putting that particular amount into savings you are doing for her, to teach her financial responsibility?

Having worked with a lot of older primary kids, I would rather be slightly stingy than over generous as I saw a lot of spoilt kids…

Crikey that’s a huge amount! How can a primary aged child spend that kind of money independently? Does she pay for all her clothes ,activities etc ?

Pretty much as you say!

That's a lot of money!

What are you expecting them to spend it on? Knowing my son he'd spend it on 80 donuts per month

That seems a lot to me. Maybe they buy all their clothes, toiletries etc but it still seems a lot to me. Wow.

£80!!!! Our 11 year old gets £5 and our 9 year old gets £3, but they only get that if they do their chores!

My DD is 18 and I give her £50 a month. She has separate childhood savings, but never spends £50. In primary she had money added to her savings, but no direct pocket money.

Yeah its loads, we give our 18 yr old £15 a week, and he works. What is a primary age kid spending £20 a week on?'!

Blimey. My Yr9 gets £15/month and manages fine on that. If she wants more she asks if she can do an extra job around the house to earn it.

My 16 year olds get £20 plus £20 clothing allowance. Anything else they have to earn. At primary age they had £1 per week. Seems a crazy high amount

that’s a lot

I didn’t give pocket money to my now young adult children, because we don’t believe in it.
You know when people say “money doesn’t grow on trees”, in my opinion giving a young child £80 a month, for no apparent reason, is almost literally showing them that actually, money does just appear from nowhere, and once it’s gone, low and behold next month it’s there again.

So you don’t buy her clothes or is this her spontaneous buys?

OP the first post very misleading! If you had said’ we spend £80 month on primary school childs activities ,clothes etc ,is that too much? ‘ the responses would be so different!

That's mad money for a primary school age child. Does she have to buy presents for birthdays out of that as well as her clothes?

And really - you are pretty well off, given that you're in the top 5% of UK earners.

My 16yo gets £80 a month so yes I’d say it’s pretty generous! At primary age, neither of mine were doing enough independently of me that they would need that much cash.