Pocket money - how do you do it?

[froot]

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Froot - based mainly on suggestions gleaned on here over the years this is what we do:

We have a pocket money book - i.e. no actual cash changes hands, but everything is written in the book - debits and credits. I'm a bit of a dragon re sweets, and they are only allowed to spend 20p per week on sweets. But in reality they only choose to do this about once a month anyway, as they are always saving up for something special. Also any cash they are given by doting relatives, or for birthdays and Christmas also goes in the book.

They usually spend their money on Lego or sometimes books.

In the past we have had 'grace' pocket money, and then additional bonuses for chores and/or behaviour targets.

In my mind I have a figure of 10p per year of age per week being a reasonable sum. (i.e. 50p and 70p for my boys - aged 5 and 7).

Atm we have pasta jars - discussed at length on other threads. At the beginning of the week they get 5 pieces of pasta in their jar. Theoretically during the week pasta can be removed from the jar, but in practice this very rarely happens in our house - the threat is enough. Then extra pasta can be earned by doing chores, or special behaviour targets. At the end of the week the pasta is ceremoniously counted up, and converted into money for the pocket money book at the rate of 5p per piece of pasta. (I know, I'm stingy!)

Sorry this was long - HTH

Personally I like the idea of a set amount of pocket money, but they have to contribute a reasonable amount to the household chores in order to get it each week, rather than our system whereby a chore earns extra, as this tends to reinforce the idea that chores are optional, rather than an accepted part of living in the family.

But my suggestion of moving to this model was thrown out by our "family council meeting"

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Pasta jars here . Mind you, we pay 10p per piece... Again, I rarely have to take any away as the threat works well. It also links the idea of "earning" into getting money

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ds and dd pocket money is £1.00 a week, was 37p when I was there age but that was about 100 years ago,

Sometimes they save it, or mostly spend it straight away....a few days ago they asked if it could go up as ds's friends did after he did chores like tidying his room...well I have agreed £2.00 a week and gave them it today...but this is what they have to do...

each day they have to do a chore for at least 10 minutes....they include...hoovering, unstacking and stacking the dishwasher, tidying their toys up, helping to set the table/ cooking the tea, feeding the cat and keeping their rooms tidy...so in total they do about 1 hour a week of house work a week (feet up) no really it's not so I can relax but they are becoming more helpful and know that they have to work for this extra £1.00 and they have to buy mags out of it....if they then do extra jobs on top of one a day, we will give them 25p a job (tonight dd peeled and prepared the veg, ds hoovered and they hepled with the dishwasher)....I can't help but praise them for it

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froot, ds is just 9 and dd is 7 1/2

My DS gets pocket money of £1.50 a week. He is five. It sounds a lot, but out of that, he has to pay for his Wednesday evening club (which he loves going to) and that costs £1, with some sweets thrown in. He has to save at least 20p a week in his money box. So in reality it's 30p. Out of which he has to buy all his sweets for the week, because if he nags me in the supermarket, I tell him it has to come out of his pocket money!

Don't know if it's teaching him about budgeting, but thought I might as well try it.

Oh, and I'm determined not to link it to chores, except "extra" ones - don't want them to think they have to paid to put their toys away!

ikwym MeanBean but my ds and dd get £1.00 and they asked for more and so said if they do chores they can have more (agree pocket money should be just given for the sake of giving)

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