How much do your teenagers cost you per month?

[bodgersmash]

Before people say he needs to get a job - DS is too young for a proper job, has applied for paper rounds without success so far.

He's costing me a bloody fortune at the moment and I'm trying to work out what's reasonable and what's not.

If you have teens, how much do they cost you per month? And what are your "rules" about handing out money for clothes, shoes, trips out with friends and so on?

At the moment we have...
-lunch money for school

• phone bill
• clothes and shoes which seem outrageously expensive even for "regular" brand names like Nike
• hobby fees
• hobby uniform and equipment
• money to socialise with friends
• taxis for lifts to places when I'm working

It's all really adding up. We're not short of cash but I hate the idea of just handing out money willy nilly with no parameters. I don't have many jobs at home that need his help, but he does help out when asked to do so.

What do others do with their teens?

I have a 12 year old. He costs 40pm school dinners, 50pm school bus, 20pm football subs plus 6pw extra football training, 18pm iPhone contract (while I have a huawei which is far better and cheaper) 7pm xbox live subscription.

Clothes he generally buys from Christmas and birthday money as we have a large family and he is given a lot of cash but we do buy him the odd thing. School uniform is around 100 a year.

He also eats like a horse already and he's not even a teen yet!

No way would I pay for ‘designer’ clothing, expensive trainers, taxis etc.
And how old is ‘too young’ for a job? My DS was doing a paper round at 13.
We paid for a cheap phone contract, school lunch max twice a week (packed lunches easily made at home) & £50 pocket money per month to cover social life, clothes etc. Christmas & birthday money used to buy clothes. We did pay approx £100 p.a for his main sporting hobby, but any ‘clothing/footwear’ needed for the sport was definitely a Christmas or birthday present.
He still managed to save loads & is now coping well at uni & understanding how to budget and has a part time job.

I’m really lucky that my son isn’t into branded clothes and never asks for any so any I buy are gifts for birthday/Xmas.

He gets free school dinners, uniform grant and free bus pass.

Other costs:
Phone contract: £15/month (it’s brand new for Xmas so paying for phone as well as credit)
Hobbies: about £50/month if you spread trips over 12 months
Music lessons: £60/month
Milk: £30-35/month I’m thinking it might be cheaper to buy a cow for the garden.
Pocket money: £20-25/month in exchange for chores.

DS17
School lunch £50
Gym £35 (upto £55 when 18)
Phone £15
Clothing £85 (roughly £1k a year)
Driving lessons £100
Sports club fees £20
Tutor £120
Pocket money £80

He has a pt job too.

All the money.

To be honest, £50 trainers every 6 months isn’t the problem. It’s the food. So much food, they never stop eating.

DS is 16 and currently I pay out -

£15 per week pocket money
£35 phone contract

I will buy all uniform and essential clothes/shoes - so basic jeans, a pair of trainers, school shoes etc. However if he wants designer clothes, fancier jeans, extra trainers etc then I expect him to very much contribute, if not pay for the whole item. He gets more pocket money than he really needs and is good at saving. He also tends to save birthday/Christmas money.

I pay for my dd12 and ds 14 each per month,

School lunches £60
Phone bill £30
Pocket money £30

So around 240£ between them each month.

Clothing is not a monthly expense, things get replaced as and when, it could be month of not buying anything at times. Expensive clothes and a designer labels are bought as gifts only.

If ds or dd want to get any where the budget the travel expenses into thier pocket money, they also get £20 a month of thier dad, and I think £50 a month is more than enough at thier age. Far more than I ever had at thier age

And how old is ‘too young’ for a job? My DS was doing a paper round at 13

Anything under 13 is, legally, 'too young' for a job. And between 13 and 16, options for work are extremely limited. Did you not read the part where the OP said her son has applied for paper rounds without success so far. Your son was lucky to get one at 13; our boys had to wait for nine months before theirs became available.

We have two teen(ish).

DS12
Instruments £96 pm (three instruments)
Gym £16 pm
Pocket money £24 pm
Dinners £50pm
Phone prob £15 pm

DS14
Hobby £10 pm plus any trips/uniform
Pocket money £28 pm
Phone prob £15
He has very basic taste in clothes and is happy with what we provide but does enjoy school trips abroad. He is planning on referee training soon so hopefully will have a bit more.

We buy all basic clothes (from somewhere like H&M) as well as uniform, school trainers/boots. Anything more jazzy they either get as gifts or have to save.

The pocket money is also meant for socialising. DS14 basically spends very little but DS12 loves shopping and all that it entails.

All school related stuff we pay for, though I have on occasion asked them to save towards spending money for the many trips they seem to go on.

My young teen isn't into clothes really so is happy with Nike/Adidas sale clothing from JD, Foot Asylum Etc His priciest hoodie is £25 iirc. I currently buy 1/2 pairs of trainers a year and 1 pair of school shoes.

No transport costs really and he eats school dinners once a week tops? (Prefers to take bits from home as they taste better)

He's studying Food and Nutrition GCSE and there's quite a big ingredient cost

He doesn't spend much of his pocket money but buys stuff like computer games out of that sometimes.

I have two teens (13) that cost around £280pm, excluding general expense of food, school trips, uniforms and haircuts, (birthday/xmas presents) which would go way beyond £500 pm.

DS1 & 2: £140pm
School lunches £60pm
Phone £10pm
Bus pass £40pm
Hobbies and travel £40pm
Clothes - not into clothes Nike trainers at Xmas/bday and the odd Nike sports top

Quite a bit. School lunch £75 per month, music £70 plus reeds, services etc, gym £20, swimming club £35, tennis £50, pocket money between £25 and £40 depending on how generous I am feeling, haircut £45 every nine weeks, endless amounts of clothes, growth not anything else. Phone contract £13.50 per month.

Clothes are all bought in sales or outlet stores.

Sadly I think DD thinks we are poor (single parent) compared to her friends.

I would move to paying an allowance to cover most costs. Then they have to make the choices we have to as grown ups - a £50 hoodie or a £25 hoodie and £25 socialising money. Or expensive lunches at school or a free sandwich from home and more money for branded trainers. There’s nothing like a fixed amount of money to focus the mind on what is worth it and what isn’t. DS asks for certain things repeatedly, going on about how much he wants it. As soon as I suggest he pays for it himself, he thinks again and doesn’t need it after all. It’s great training for being a grown up.

DS(16)
Mobile (iphone 6s) on giffgaff £12
Allowance £40 pm
Music lesson at £30 an hour = £120 pm

DD(12)
Mobile (iphone se) on giffgaff £8
Allowance £25 pm
Music lesson at £30 an hour = £120 pm.

Just as well, they're not too fussed about branded clothing although I do scour on their behalf at sale time for putting aside for birthday/Christmas. Where are all these cheap music teachers? I'm not in London and I'm certain that I am paying the going rate for music lessons.

Dd 14: (per month)

Footy £20
School Dinners £50
Socialising £50
Phone £32
Gym £10
Clothes I buy as and when but create about £80 month as she has expensive taste in trainers

Dd12

Phone £31
Gymmastics £40
Cheerleading £40
Dinners £50
Socialising £30
Clothes £40 average

17 yo DD
£150 per month dance lessons, plus exam fees and costumes as and when - yes this is a huge amount of money but it started at about £3 a week when she was 3 and she loves it and it is her exercise and a lot of her social life.

We buy all.necessary clothes - so couple of pairs of jeans, 1 pair not branded trainers, few tops etc. Maybe £20 a month over the year.
£40 a month allowance - all going out, friend's presents, cabs, school lunches (food available at home to take or eat at home), extra or branded clothes have to come out of this or the money she earns from babysitting or tutoring. She mostly buys second hand clothes, eats out infrequently, walks everywhere unless late at night, and saves every month.

If she didn't dance she would be very cheap to run!

15yo DS has 2 or 3 (total count) £10 hoodies from Primark & £20 sneakers from Sainsburys. He has a £30 fleece that he adores but only wears on weekends; his sister borrows it weekdays to wear to school.

"rules" about handing out money for clothes, shoes, trips out with friends and so on?

These are rules until age 18.
A very low pocket money amount (no strings attached).
Clothes & shoes: I only buy a bare minimum, supermarket quality.

Entertainment: Mine don't go out much so I have tended to cover everything (transport, cinema ticket, snacks) except I am a miser about meals out. The current deal I have is I pay for half of any meals out (with their friends), and half of transport if it's just to the local city & they use their young person's rail card. In reality, DS insists on pay own cinema tickets so I cover the rail fare. DD taps me for the max she can.

Haircuts & Hobbies: I tend to cover up to age 18. That includes transport costs.

Phone & streaming music: they pay for themselves from age 18 if not younger. We make sure they buy the phones outright (may be Xmas gifts) & DH haggles with the phone companies to get monthly fee down to around £8/month.

Games (steam): they cover themselves!

Per teen...

School lunches £80
Music lessons £70
Phone £15
Pocket money £20

I give them extra to go out with their friends and buy presents for birthdays etc. I also buy clothes a couple of times a year but they mostly wear h and m which is fairly cheap.
I also pay school fees which includes all their sport activities and gym.

I have four teenagers and they cost us a fortune !
Ds1 is at Uni - we pay accommodation and car insurance and frequently bale him out financially. he does work part time but is limited in what he can do by doing a lot of voluntary work relevent to his course also.
Ds2 is at college and gets £100 a month allowance and earns the rest of what he needs himself. We pay for a bus pass which costs £400 a year, college is some distance away.
Ds3 is at college, gets £120 a month allowance, he buys some lunches out of this. He is very limited by long travelling times as to getting part time work, but is planning on looking.
DD1 is 14 at school and probably costs us the least. £3 a day on school lunch and then paying for the usual stuff like clothing and haircuts.

Ds (16)
Mobile £30
Haircut £15
Various toiletries etc £10
Contact lenses £25
Treats £50
He is doing an apprenticeship so costs me much less than he used to. Which is a good job because he has VERY expensive tastes

Dd(14, almost 15)
Allowance £60
School lunches £60
Phone contract £25
Contact lenses £30
Hair/clothes/toiletries etc - variable but around £50, sometimes way more sometimes much less
Treats £50

They cost us ALOT but we can afford it so it’s ok.

and dd(14)

Two teens, I pay:

School lunches
Music lessons
All school equipment
Phone contracts
Hobby supplies/classes
Essential clothes/toiletries

They then pay for other bits out of their allowances.

They’re expensive

1x 15 yo.

£15 per week lunch money
£80 per month allowance in her bank account
£20 per month phone.

I cover basic clothes and toiletries eg there is shampoo and deodorant etc. Any socializing or designer labels should be on her. I do also put a bit in the Uni savings account. I am not always as strict as I should be when day to day cash is in question ;-)

I wouldn't say day to day he costs me that much, apart from food of course. We pay for school lunches, cheap phone contract and essential clothes / shoes.

Anything expensive (£100 trainers for example) he has to have for birthday / Christmas.

He has £20 a month pocket money from us and a paper round which he job shares with a friend that gives him £9 a week. That's enough for him to save up a bit for things he wants and have money to go out with. I might pay for his train fare or lunch if he's out with friends, especially if I know he's a bit strapped for cash (and if he's being nice).

The start of the school year is the most expensive time - rugby/football boots, PE trainers, school shoes, rugby kit, uniform, PE kit, rugby subs, gum shield (£50 for a properly fitted one) etc etc - probably about £400-£500 in September.

£30 pocket money that's for whatever he wished.
Lunch money varies.. Its not cool to take or buy lunch
Clothes £80 pm he has his child benefit..
He's now in men's clothing.. So trainers ( they all wear trainers to sch are now around #80-100)
He wants some vapor max trainers at 170..i said I'd pay half. Hell use his Xmas cash for the other half.

Lifts?? Walk or cycle, I won't fork Out for taxis. A bus if into city.

He doesn't have hobbies but I'll give him mo ey towards things if he Goes out.

Dd1 - 16

Phone £20
Money £25
Hobbies £120
Lunch £30

Anything else, she buys out of her earnings (she's worked for the past 18 months), or if it is essential, I buy it.

I also pay for trips etc as and when.

DD2 - 13
Same as DD1.
Again, I buy essentials as and when needed. If it's something DD wants, she needs to pay it from her pocket money or earn it through extra chores.

Clothes - I buy anything they need, but for designer / more expensive they want rather than need, then they to save up and buy, sell stuff to buy, earn (jobs or chores), or have it as a present (birthday / Christmas).