AIBU to start regular pocket money for 9 to 10-year-olds?

[AmyJahabee]

Pocket money for 9–10-year-olds — how do you manage it?
I’m interested to hear how other parents manage money and pocket money with children around 9–10 years old.
At the moment, I don’t really give my two girls regular pocket money. I do give them money occasionally maybe £1, £2 or sometimes £5 but it’s not regular. If they receive money as a gift, I’m generally still the one looking after it.
I’m now wondering whether I should start giving them regular pocket money and allowing them to have more ownership over their own money.
Part of the reason I’m thinking about this is because of my own childhood. I grew up in Africa, and from quite a young age I was given money to buy my own school lunch. If I had change left over, I’d keep it in a piggy bank and gradually save it. Eventually, I’d have enough to buy something I really wanted.
Looking back, I feel that experience taught me a lot about money, saving and self-discipline, and I think it’s helped me manage money well throughout my adult life.
My girls don’t really have that experience at the moment, so I’m wondering whether I’m missing an opportunity to teach them about money and independence.
I’d love to hear from parents with children around this age:

• Do you give your 9–10-year-olds regular pocket money?
• How much do you give?
• Do you let them decide completely how to spend it?
• Do you encourage them to save, or just let them learn through their own choices?
• Do you pay for extra chores, or is pocket money separate from chores?
• If your child is naturally a spender and wants to spend everything immediately, how do you teach them to save?

I’m particularly interested in hearing about what has actually worked for your children and what you wish you’d done differently.

I’m not necessarily looking for a “right” answer — just trying to understand what other parents do and learn from people’s experiences.

Mine get £3 a week. They get to choose what they spend it on. It's great actually as they often decide not to buy the thing as it's out of their own money. I do limit sweets to one purchase per day. I've talked about saving, the eldest is better at it. Totally separate from chores as they should be helping around the house to be helpful not for the cash. The youngest is more of a spender but I think she'll learn with time. I'm considering giving them each another £2 a week and specifying that £1 is for saving in a savings account and £1 for charity of their choice. Eldest has just opened a bank account which they'll operate themselves.

My 8 year old has been receiving £5 a week for the last year. He has a monzo, he has his own card so pays for some of his own things and is interested in how much he has.

We have a big holiday coming up later in the year and we have decided to split the money into pocket money and travel money savings. So we pop £2.50 a week into a savings account. This has opened up a conversation about savings and interest etc.

It has helped him take ownership and understand how much things costs and the consequences of buying something more expensive etc.

This works well for us.

My daughter got rooster cards for her children and I transfer pocket money to her weekly which she puts on the cards. They get £1 for each year of age. She can monitor their spending and they are learning that they can save up for things they want. The eleven year old now goes on very occasional (supervised) shopping trips with her friends. She is learning to consider her purchases very carefully because it's her money buying them. The little one still needs guidance as she's never met a piece of plastic tat she didn't covet but she's become really interested in counting the cost of these items, if she has enough on her card and calculating what will be left on her card if she buys them.