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Original poster

Trivial - but how much pocket money is reasonable for 11yo DD?

25 replies

Quattrocento · 17/01/2010 09:44

DD is trying to contend that pocket money of twice her age per week is reasonable. She maintains this is a market rate and all her friends get between £20 and £25 per week.

This seems ridiculously high to me. We give her £5 a week and she can supplement it by doing chores - of which we have a limitless quantity.

So, what exactly is the going rate for a secondary school age DD?

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 17/01/2010 09:48

she must be trying it on

I give £4 per week - she mostly spends it on accessories. We are about to go up to £5 a week for the new year. It won't go up again this year.

We do pay for her activities like if she wanted to go swimming or to the pictures with a friend but it's not often.

We don't tie it to chores as she is expected to do them anyway. But we do deduct money from it if there is poor behaviour or she turns up late.

if I gave her £25 a week she would come home with all sorts of unsuitable stuff - she managed to buy an adult tube dress in the sale which I made her take back - accessories only allowed from now on.

BigTillyMint · 17/01/2010 09:50

£20 - £25 a week!!!! That seems ridiculously high to me to, unless they have to buy their own clothes and pay for themselves when they go to clubs / classes, etc.

We are misers and DD (10) gets £1 a week (and has to keep her room tidy!), but we so shell out for lots of other stuff including all her classes and clubs.

I know we will have to up the ante in September when she goes to secondary and sort out a mobile, so I will watch this thread with great interest!

Original poster
Quattrocento · 17/01/2010 10:25

I thought she might be trying it on

OP posts:
HappyMummyOfOne · 17/01/2010 11:35

DS is not this age yet but I plan to give him his CB when he reaches secondary age so that he can learn to budget for clothes etc. Hopefully he'll have a good sense of money from it.

Original poster
Quattrocento · 17/01/2010 12:17

I should add that DD's mobile, clothes, cllubs etc are all paid for by us.

OP posts:
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 17/01/2010 12:21

DD1 is 12 and gets £20 per MONTH. She pays for her phone out of this and all her incidentals. If she wants to go swimming with her friends or to the cinema with them it comes out of this - also magazines, make-up etc. We buy her the clothes and she saves up for anything she doesn't need but wants.
I don't think any of her friends get much more than this - some get less.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 17/01/2010 12:22

Sorry, should read "we buy her the clothes she needs

roisin · 17/01/2010 12:48

I think what you need to work out is what you expect her to pay for with her pocket money.

We buy all ds1's clothes, pay for his magazine subscription, buy him books when he wants, pay for the cinema when he wants and all his activities.

If I were expecting him to pay for some/all of that himself, then we would give him far more pocket money.

He gets £22.40 per week, but has to pay £8.70 for his weekly bus pass and £7-£10 on his school lunches. I guess you could say he gets about £5 a week, but in practice he tends to spend it on extra food at school as the cafeteria is quite expensive and he eats a lot!

exexpat · 17/01/2010 12:48

£20 a week? DS is 11 and I pay his phone contract (£15 a month) and give him a pound or two a week for buying snacks on the way home from school. So total about £20 a month.
He gets money and vouchers for birthdays/Christmas from relatives, so if he wants anything else he uses that. I buy clothes he actually needs, but he is now getting interested in fashion, so sometimes spends gift money on t-shirts and so on.
I have never heard of anyone his age getting £20 a week, and tbh I think they are too young to be expected to budget for all clothes/shoes. I think I started having an allowance to cover everything except school clothes when I was about 15.

BigTillyMint · 17/01/2010 16:45

That's a relief - everyone elses budgets sound much more realistic!

exexpat, I used to get £20 a month for everything when I was about 15 too

Original poster
Quattrocento · 17/01/2010 21:34

Thanks for responding all. Am sure that £25 a week is not the going rate for an 11yo!

OP posts:
EccentricaGallumbits · 17/01/2010 21:37

she's taking the piss.

DD (nearly 12) gets £4 per week.

I buy essential clothes and top up phone very occasionally. She gets extras like magazines, sweets etc and saves the rest.

DD1 (13) gets £5 a week. same as DD2 for clothes - also i pay phone contract £8 per month. She saves and buys extras.

They both have to earn what they get by helping with simple things like walking dogs, loading dishwasher - and in DD2s case - going to school.

bellavita · 17/01/2010 21:45

DS2 (10) gets £2 per week.

DS1 (nearly 13) gets £3 - think I am going to have to up this...

They both have mobile phones (DS2 does get credit it on it now again but it is mainly for us to ring him when he is out and about in the village). We put more credit on DS1's phone because he has to get a bus to school and back and we need to make sure he can ring us.

If DS1 was to go to the cinema or swimming with friends then we woud pay.

Actually, DS1 is a good little saver and I put his money into a savings account for him. If he spends any money, it is on i-tunes.

Hulababy · 17/01/2010 21:52

DD is much younger but we started pocket money at 5y with £1, raising 50p with each birthday. So using that guide an 11y would get £4 a week.

Splishysploshy · 17/01/2010 21:56

Hi

I have a DS13 and a DD10, they get 50p for each year old they are per month, therefore my son gets £26 per month and my daughter £20 per month. Changed it to monthly a while ago as my DS in particular is useless with money and with most jobs paying monthly I wanted him to get used to making it last. I pay for his phone £10 a month, occasional cinema or trips with friends and clothes. he mainly spnds his on itunes and clothes.

My DD saves all of hers and as such has a money box full, she is very thrifty to the stage of being tight with herself. xx

Original poster
Quattrocento · 17/01/2010 21:59

Thanks all

I am saving this thread for DD to read.

I am waiting impatiently for someone to come and tell me that they give them twice their ages per week

OP posts:
RonNumber · 17/01/2010 22:00

£4 a week
dh said it has to eb enought to want ( and therefore do recycling, cat care etc)
a dn enough to save up

snigger · 17/01/2010 22:03

DDs are 9 and 7, but they get £2.50 per week, plus two climbing sessions (their hobby of choice, outwith swimming and music lessons that we cover) per month. If they don't go to the climbing wall, they get to pick 2 moderately priced, or one premium-rate DS game.

bumpybecky · 17/01/2010 22:09

ours get 20p per year age so..

dd1 (11) gets £2.20 per week
dd2 (9) gets £ 1.90 per week
dd3 (4) gets 80p oer week
ds (2) gets nothing cos he's too little to realise!

but then we have a new list of chores thing for the weekend and if they finish their list they get £1 (dd1&2) or 50p (dd3) extra

they can alo earn more money by doing extra jobs like emptying the dishwasher (50p) or making me cups of tea (10p)

we pay for clubs (Brownies, Guides, Swimming) and all clothes

seeker · 17/01/2010 22:22

dd is 14. She gets £20 a month. All her friends get something like that. I buy essential clothes, and essential toiletries and stationery and pay for clubs and her phone(she is vey sensible with her phone or i woudn't.)

I would want written evidence of the £25 qa week, personally.

RumourOfAHurricane · 17/01/2010 22:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

seeker · 18/01/2010 12:25

I've just discovered that my 14 year old niece gets £2 a week! Think the time has come for a chat about the cost of living with db!

barbarianoftheuniverse · 18/01/2010 12:38

DD(13) has £30 per month which has to cover phone and birthday presents for friends. She helps a lot in the house (because she lives in it- nothing to do with pocket money) but can earn extra with over-and-above jobs, like car cleaning if she needs it.
Her friends seem to get more or less the same.

titchy · 18/01/2010 12:58

dd, year 6, gets £3 per week to spend on what she wants. We buy clothes, activities, trips out and very occasional mobile top-ups (she rarely uses it, though expect usage to increase once she starts secondary!). Will probably increase to £5 when she starts secondary and that will have to include mobile costs.

On a seperate note - how do others pay for mp3 downloads? I want dd to pay for her own, but as she only downloads a few tracks at a time, and has to use my card to do it, I've tended to treat her? Can she save up and buy vouchers to download from anywhere rather than have to rely on me to put in my card detaisl?

underactivethyroidmum · 20/01/2010 01:55

My DD age 11 gets £5 per week for her pocket money which she can buy magazines,non essential toiletries and what we call trash !

We buy her clothes and she has a phone however her call charges are virtually nothing.

She is very sensible with her money and I will often go halves on a clothing purchase I consider to be a non essential.

She is however expected to feed the pets, empty the dishwasher and do a few other minor chores in return

We have said that in a few years time she will be allowed her own bank acoount with the CB in it however in return she will be expected to work in the family business every Saturday !!!

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