Come speak with me about Pocket Money...

[MayorNaze]

i know it's been done ad infinitum but i want a chat all of my own

ds is 11 (off to secondary in sept). all of a sudden he has "discovered" money and, strangely enough is getting rather miffed that when he says "i want to go to town/swimming/top up my phone" the Bank of Parent is not open all hours.

so how much, how often and what do you expect them to fund with it??

thank you muchly

dhs ready reckoner is thus
they need to be able to buy what he calles a "Comic" anda bag of sweets out of it.
in return must to duties over and above normal ones
eg recycling
emtpying dishwasher

we give ds1 £4 per week

oh and i am very very supportive of any suggestions that involve him earning the money...

oh marvellous that is the kind of thing i was thinking. do you fund swimming/cinema etc or expect child to??

i am not about to fund a social life more fun packed than mine but at the same time want him to have a leetle fun...

hmm i dont know
he doesnt really do cinema much.
Youd have to negotiate that with her

we have started early ds 5 gets £2 a week. Of course at this age we pay for cinema trips, swimming etc.

When ds says eg I want a comic when we are at the supermarket or says can I have an ice cream when we are at the park we say you can buy it with your pocket money

he has learned to get around us though.. I would like to have bought that managizine but I got ice cream and coke yesterday..

aye ok ..go get it

hmm

how about phone top up?

and what if they spend all money on sweets all the time...

DD (13) gets £30 per month, paid direct into a bank account. Pays for cinema with friends (family excursions excluded), sweets, extra clothing (above what I would class as essentials - jeans, Tshirts etc) birthday presents, phone topups.

DS1 (10) gets £20

DS2 (7) gets £15.

Reviewed every year

I recommend the direct debit into account process as they never have that £1 burning a hole in their pocket.

Over the last couple of years, ds1 for example has saved pocket money and birthday/christmas money and used it to buy a WII and last month he bought a green machine (go kart thing).

They really appreciate the value of money and get the saving habit early.

you see i dont SEE the point in giving a 5 year old pocket money.
are you really going o say " no you cant have something unless oyu pay"? if so
no point

yes ours goes into a cashpoint account - seperate to granny related savings account.

he has a contract £10 a month

oh gosh this is why the whole Money Thing is only beginng now - dds are 8 and 4 and NO WAY am i handing out cash to them, no indeedy.

ok

that is v useful breakdown

if it goes straight into the bank, do they have cash card? i can just see ds doing a del boy with a wad of cash...

so is it better then to shove the whole months worth in a bank account rather than dripfeed job by job, week by week etc?

my dd gets £17 per motnh at the moment - she is also year 6. the money goes straight into the Nationwide and then whhen she is in town she can access the money to buy what she wants - or if she is going to the pictures etc.

Some months she doesn't spend any and others months she will go to town and buy herself something

the mobile phone is done on contract and her dad pays for that as a christams and birthday present

DS1 13 gets £5 a week paid direct into his account. He loads and unloads the dishwasher every day. He pays half his mobile top up approx £5 a month. He buys little birthday gifts for family. Doesn't go out anywhere yet but would pay himself if he did.

DS2 currently gets none (was £2.50) because he refused to alternate days on Dishwasher duties with DS1! His loss!

DD1 7 £1 a week. Saves it to buy little bits that she wants.
DD2 5(6 next week) £1 a week. Also saves until she find something to buy.

i was thinking in the region of £15-20 per month.

i am also trying to see hte bigger picture is he will need more as he gets older and i also have 2 MORE who are going to be hounding me for moolah sooner or later.

i just have horrible vision of dcs drinking out of gold cups and me slaving cinderella-esque to provide the pocket money...

DD is 9, and gets £9 per week (£4 to spend as she wishes, £4 that is put into savings and £1 that is set aside for giving to a charity of her choice).

Allowance is not linked to chores, but she is expected to help out around the house:

• put dirty clothes in wash basket/put away clean clothes
• empty dishwasher
• set table, and bring dirty dishes to sink
• use small handheld hoover to clean crumbs from under table after meals
• feed fish daily
• tidy her playroom/bedroom
• keep bathrooms supplied with spare tissue box/loo roll
• make her bed each day
• miscellaneous requests

We don't yet have the issue of mobile phone expense or independent leisure activities with friends.

DS (7.5) gets 70p per week and £1 per tooth, very occasionally random old people give him 50p or so when we are out and about. This has happened a few times; he is a friendly little chap.

If he saves £5 we match it so he can buy something nice, he used to get 50p per week and would save and save and be heartbroken when he could't buy anything good, but we didn't want to spoil him so introduced the saving idea. I think it has taught him the value of money as he has decided to sell his too small football boots on ebay to partially fund goalie gloves.

If we are out and I offer him a drink or ice cream etc then I pay for it, if I feel he is just being greedy he has to buy his own! He has to do chores anyway. Pocket money could be removed for a heinous crime, but it has yet to be.

It is scary to see hoe the amounts jump up in a few short years.

it mounting up is the bit that scares me

ok £20 per month for first kid age 11

which as they do more will prob go up yes?

i do not want to be at the stage where 100s of £ of the budget is set aside for pocket money!!!

nor do i want them to miss out though

bring back child labour

are they still allowed paper rounds these days or has elf and safety outlawed it???

alaska.. I can see where you are coming from with not giving a 5 year old money

At this stage we are just trying to make him aware of money and how easily you can spend it ...

we hope it will introduce some sense of money and responsibilty without it being a huge issue

But he is our one and only and I'm quite sure more experienced parents are thinking .. aye right!!!

DS1 (13 last month) gets £5 per week paid into an account. If he wants cd's, phone top ups etc then he pays for them. He has only just started going into town but he funded it himself (I gave him the bus fare).

DS2 (nearly 11) gets £3 per month paid into his account. He has just bought himself some warhammer and a £5 i-tunes voucher.

They are expected to bring the washing down everyday, set the table and keep their rooms tidy.

DS2 always offers to wash my car and I will give him and extra £1 or so for this and he will usually go straight to the shop and spend it.

When I do my shopping, I usually buy DS1 a bar of chocolate and DS2 a bag of sweets, so they actually never go short of anything really.

What accounts do you have that allow cashcards - and presumably this only allows money to be taken out in multiples of £10?
My ds1 is 8 and just gets £1 a week - saved in a piggy bank...

this is all v interesting...will discuss with dh and report back

My 6yo gets 50p a week. He pays for his own stuff such as gogos, match attacks. I don't buy him stuff except at bdays and Christmas but obviously I feed and clothe him and pay for outings. My younger children get nothing so sometimes I will buy them stuff.

I don't think its a good idea to link pocket money to chores unless you have a plan of what to do when you want someone to lay the table or take the bin out and they dicide they aren't motivated enough by the payment to do it. Pocket money is necessary because you can't have good social relationships without being able to have a bit of money for cinema tickets or a bag of sweets or the latest trading cards or toy. Chores are necessary because for a household to run smoothly its important that everyone contributes rather than one person doing everything. I don't get why one should depend on the other.