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?

mine get £5 a week each

I just voted YABU and I see an almost equal number voted YANBU, so it's true; it is how the other half lives.

My primary school age kids are on about 1/6 of that (£3/week) and compared to friends we are on the generous side.

I don't give my kids pocket money generally, I'll bung them a fiver or a tenner if the circumstances are right such as a trip out and they want to gift shop or fancy a tub of ice cream or something. £80 is a lot ..

urrrgghh! Just another boring goady post. 0/10

My primary kids get £10 a month it’s only recently gone up from £5 😂 it’s enough for a magazine a saving a few quid.

I think op is on a wind up.

This can’t be real 😂

Yep

This is a wind-up post. Nobody in the history of time thinks that £80 a month is stingy for a young child.

My 17yo dd gets £50 a month. I pay for her phone, her bus fare to college, and her food.

Yes it's insanity and possibly a wind up .

My soon to be 12 yo gets 50p for every year she’s been alive so it goes up on her birthday to £6 a week.

My 14 year old gets that amount but has to pay for everything except school uniform bfor herself ( so clothes, outings gifts for her friends etc)...

I disagree with this approach because if kids never manage their own money how will they learn? My DD’s dad was awful with money; it burned a hole in his pocket. I started giving DD £5 per week (let’s face it what can you buy for £1?). At first she would blow it as soon as she received it. Later she would ask for sweets and I would say “well, do you have any money left?”. Gradually it dawned on her that blowing it on a magazine with a tacky free gift was not the way to go. She got a lot better with money and budgets well now.

Mine get £300/month each and they are 6 and 3. I am not sure if I am being too tight either. It's so tough isn't it!

You are not average earners OP, and that is a lot of pocket money. I don't know any teens being given that much let alone primary age children.

My own teens both work so don't get anything from me directly (i pay phone bills, clothes when they need them and am saving monthly into a uni fund)

Is this supposed to be a stealth boast of some sort? Or just a wind-up?

Presumably you are aware that your household income puts you in an income bracket that is far higher than the vast majority of households in the UK, even if you don't personally feel that you are well off. And you must know that £80 a month is a huge amount of pocket money for a child of primary school age.

I find it hard to believe that anyone is so genuinely out of touch and lacking in awareness.

It seems a lot but if you're saying it includes clothes and activities/snacks then not so much.

If you can afford it then fine. But no it doesn't sound tight at all.

And I hope she does some chores round the house and has to keep her things tidy do well in school etc or risk it being temporarily reduced.

Is this a joke? £80 a month for primary school age??? 😂😂😂😂😂

We give £5 a week to my 9 year old. £80 is crazy!

My 14 and 17 year olds get £45 a month. They pay for their socialising and their clothing with the exception of school uniform and essential bigger items ( eg I will pay for a pair of walking boots, a good coat. If they want more coats, boots etc then they need to buy them). On £45 they manage perfectly well, area not short of money and manage to save. To the extent my 14 year old recently bought a £400 Lego set.

DSD 15 gets £15 per week and DSS 11 gets £11 per week. This is dependent on homework, behaviour and general helping. They save half each week. If they want to buy something they can or do an activity they sometimes pay or I split the cost with them. I spend a lot of time with them in the holidays due to my work pattern so they like having the flexibility to suggest doing x or y. I pay their pocket money. DH saves for them separately towards long term plans. The half they save with me goes towards their spending money if we go abroad or on holiday etc.

That's an insane amount! I'd cut it back to £20 - £30 a month anyway.

A primary school child doesn't need £80 pocket money a month at all.

Good grief; that is a ridiculous amount to be giving as pocket money, even if she was a teenager! A couple of quid here and there if she EARNS it by doing jobs around the house would be far more appropriate.

I strongly believe that children should learn to manage increasing amounts of money. Like you say, if they never have experience of spending all their money and then having to wait for the next 'pay day' as a child, then they are much more likely to have that experience as a young adult when they can get into debt. And it also teaches them the pleasure of delayed gratification when they have saved for something (another thing a lot of adults don't seem to have learned).

I also think it's essential for teenagers to have current and savings accounts. Ideally they will gradually have access to their own savings (birthday/Christmas money then any money saved for them when they were younger) through their teens. Otherwise they are the uni students who have never had access to more than £100 in their lives, get their first student loan payment of several thousand £s and spend it all before the end of October.