To be gobsmacked at his pocketmoney??

[VirtualPA]

My little brother (big age gap) is 16.

DH and I went to visit the family this weekend and it came up in conversation that he gets £50 a month pocket money. Half in a DD and half in cash.

I asked what he does for his money and apparently he washes the car every now and then.

I mean..... WOW! Thats a lot of money.

My DD will have to do set chores each day (such as loading the dishwasher) for her pocket money.

Or am I being unreasonable and this is the going rate now.

"however, I think giving pocket money without making kids do chores is a BAD way to go. It teaches that you can get money for nothing which is obviously not the case if real life."

foureleven, exactly.

i dont get parents who say 'my child shouldnt have to earn to live in their home'
these are 'children' who are old enough to get jobs.

I have to earn money to live in the house and therefore be part of the family, so i dont see why a 16year old shouldnt atleast kno what that feels life. 16 is DEFINATELY old enough to learn that you dont get something for nothing!

also, i worked all the way through my important exams/degree
and so did my DD all the way through her A levels, and she isnt a naturally gifted superbrain either.

i dont really understand how some parents think 10 hours a week saturday job will seriously damage their childs education. do they honestly think that their child is revising and working every second of spare time?

I don't give any pocket money. My teens scrounge for odd jobs/ babysitting and manage to get by just fine on their earnings. They have all learned to trim their sails, taste wise and entertainment wise, according to their earnings. DD2 does about 10 hours of babysitting a week and DS does about 2 - 5 hours of odd jobs on average (lawn and garden care, gutter cleaning, feeding and walking pets, bike repair, etc).

I buy the family toiletries (very basic and cheap brands) underwear, one pair of shoes every year for school, a winter jacket nowhere near 50 quid a month each, more like 50 a year really. I don't buy them things as they feel like it if they want something over the basic stuff they have to earn it themselves somehow.

Our older ones got £50 a month (and at university £100 a week plus fees and rent paid and car paid for as I don't want them to have student loans) but it just depends what the family earns and they've had jobs too.

80 pounds a month for a 13 yr old!
dd1 is 13 - dont let her see this thread - she gets 40 euros...

I got 0 when I was 18, as my parents were going through a lean period. Then I left school and got a gap year job ah the first pay cheque was magic.

Before someone says Why didnt you get a paper round you lazy git? I should add, that we lived miles from anywhere.

I used to get 80 per month when I was 16 I think, which was about 6 years ago and prices go up so dont think £50 is unreasonable at all. I used to pay food and everything out of it though..

my dds get £40 per month plus £10 on their phones.

i did paperound at their ages and hated every second of it- dont want them to do that in the dark.

older one just started baby sitting and when they are 16 and finished GCSEs they will be devoting every saturday to sitting on a till. there dont seem to be jobs anymore that they can do before 16. me and my sister did shop work from 14.

Think I need to go and rob a bank. My dd1 (11) gets £2 a week and can earn some more with chores. She gets money for presents for friends, cinema trips, school trips and extra money for long weekends away and holidays.

I know some of her friends get a lot more.

Don't know how I will afford university if she wants to go.

From about 13 I worked on my dad's market stall for £5 a day. Started 8am and finished 6pm.

i was a couple of years ago when i found out my colleague gave her son around £200 a month but what made me go was to be told his girlfriend got around £600. This was all for non essentials on themselves.

Fast forward to last year they both got brand new cars before they had even passed their tests.

Im just glad DD is only 4 months and i dont have to worry about pocket money yet

kariba, NOOOO way. I want £600 for doing sweet f all a month!

Riven Do you include the cost of school lunches and travel to and from school as part of school related stuff that you pay for?

Do you pay for toiletries (soap, dental stuff, shampoo, deodorant, hair stuff etc), school trips, family birthday and christmas presents or do they?

I used to get £70 a month. Out of this I bought all clothes and shoes, phone top up, fares (not to school), toiletries (mum bought tampons), presents for friends but mum would put towards family ones, any social outings etc.

Mum paid for school related stuff (travel, uniform, lunch, trips), clothes for family occasions (weddings, christenings etc), fares/tickets/meals/snacks if i went somewhere with her.

I reckon if you even it all out (ie some kids get more but have to buy more themselves) then apart from a few outliers, the variations probably arent so big

I stopped getting pocket money when I was 16 and got £70 a month for everything- clothes, toiletries, lunch at college, books etc. I had to load and unload the dishwasher every day, feed the pets and do my own laundry for that.

I used to earn £25-35 a week on top of that working in a couple of shops and also got petrol for my car in return for doing deliveries for my dad's business (that took an hour every evening).

When I went to Uni and PT work was banned the fall in my disposable income was a big shock!

from the age of about 14 i used to have a paper round and work in the kitchen of an old aged home ( generally washing up and loading unloading dishwasher). in total of my 2 jobs i used to get about 50 pounds a month but if i wanted to go ten pin bowling/cinerma/hottest new tape( cds were just coming in but no one really had them!)or a new top i had to pay for it. i want to be your brother!

My dc are on a complicated points system administrated by my dh that gives them very small amounts of money as it's for chores that they are very inclined to do. So we've not got it at all right yet! They are 9 and 11. They spend their money on whatever they choose though.

I had some tiddly amount of pocket money from my mother that she frequently forgot to give me, and I am afraid that I stole from her purse an shoplifted too. So I don't want to have my children do that (obviously I knew it was wrong, but I felt very hard done by - my parents were fairly wealthy and all my friends had spending money). Once I was 12 or so I got an allowance from my father, which was paid quarterly into my post office savings account. That was for all my clothes and other needs. I can't remember what it was, but I remember being lined up with my siblings ever New Year when he would negotiate raises. Then I had babysitting from about 14, and suddenly I was rich!

It depends what they have to buy themselves though. ds1 (12) has a current account and gets a dd from us every month of £85, which sounds like a huge amount of money.

But from this he has to pay for:
his weekly bus passes - £36 per month (term time only)
school lunches - c.£40 per month (TTO)
phone top ups
cinema trips
clubs/activities
gifts
etc!

I don't envisage increasing this amount significantly at any time as I want to encourage him to get a job as soon as he's old enough.

Babysitting is so wellpaid for doing bugger all. DS sat for 5 hours on Saturday night, only the first hour actually looking after the little boy, the rest of the time doing revision/watching telly & got £25 for it. No wonder he's not interested in washing up in pubs.

I used to get 50 a month back in the 80s but was supposed to buy clothes with that too (not coats or shoes though).

it all depends. You may get only 5, but your parents pay your phone, clothes, gadgets, trips to cinema, pool etc. and it works out the same.

I don't give mine pocket money regularly but put a voucher pack on dd2's phone once a month for £20 if she goes out she might get £5 but that's only once a month she used to save up any left over dinner money up for weekends but she now takes packed lunches. For ds he doesn't get cash he might get a game when his DLA comes in but apart from that I have a savings account that I put in for him monthly that will go into trust for when were not here.dd1 worked from 13 and a half so only got money when she needed clothing.I never got a penny off my parents but would never of dared ask my father either he controlled the household including any money my mum had.

Blummin eck!

I used to get (only 16 years ago) £1 a week or £4 at the end of the month lol...

DD is 11 and gets £1.10 as we're working on 10p per year of age. It us dependent on having a tidy room though so she rarely gets it. I'm thinking of upping it and getting her to buy presents for family at Christmas and birthdays.

DH and I allocate ourselves pocket money of £50 a month each so there is no way she's getting the same as us each month. I used to have Saturday jobs so will be encouraging her to do something to earn money.

I never got any pocket money.

DS1(13) gets £160 a month
We pay for his phone, most of his clothes and most things really.

He pays for cinemas, skiing, all his BMX stuff, bowling,climbing, train fares to meet his mates, his weekend food if he is out all day and any clothes that he wants above and beyond what I pay for.

He doesn't have a set list of chores but is expected to do what I ask eg ' Would you just go and hoover the stairs? could you sort out a white wash? The dishwasher needs running and so on.
If I've got a bit spare I may slip him a few quid.
He saves some of the money for his bigger purchases (bikes, kit etc)

I don't begrudge him a penny. I was treated the same way when I was his age up to the point I earned a wage.

I never got any pocket money so I got a paper round when I was 14 and got £5.50 a week from that, if I wanted to do anything or buy anything I had to save up my paper round money.