Pocket money, how much, how old, do they have to earn it, and are they allowed to spend it on crap?

[haychee]

My dd is starting to understand much more about money, where it comes from and how much things cost. Ive always given her odd pence if she tidied her room well etc, but im just wonderong whats the going rate? Do some kids get pocket money every week on a certain day for doing nothing in particular or does it have to be earnt by doing chores? Also, i know for a fact my dd will want sweets and lipsticks both of which i dont want to encourage. Advice please.

My dd is 11 and until she got her mobile phone, she didn't really have pocket money regularly. I tolf her that I would top up once a month with £5 and anymore top up would be with her money and she had to earn it. She now gets £20 per month (paid in arrears, so I can dock it if necessary!). For that she has to:
Empty dishwasher everyday
Empty all bins in the house and put bins out for dustman
Tidy her bedroom every day
Clear stairs of stuff that belongs upstairs
Anything else that I ask her to do, which isn't much
She also does some of her on ironing

MM - exactly same rules as me except I am a skinflint obviously and mine gets £3.50 - is it time for a raise? My bugbear is that I still have to remind her to do all the things she's supposed to do anyway!

And what are they allowed to buy with their money? Anything they want or do you say they cant buy crap like sweets?

My girls get £3 a week each. We introduced it initially so that we had something to take away for bad behaviour! However, I still give in and buy them things if they can't afford it. Also sometimes I forget to give them the money for weeks on end if we're busy. All in all, pretty useless at this really.

DD is 5yo and gets £1 a week, on a Saturday. Started at easter, to tie in ewith school numeracy topic of money. Not linked to chores, didn't feel need as DD is pretty good anyway. She can save for something bigger, or spend. She normally saves. Has so far, using pocket money and other money people have given her, bought jibbitz for her Crocs, Sylvanian Families bits and GBA game.

Wehave found that DD is much less likely to spend her own money on rubbishy bits or sweets than she is ours!

Mine get 10 per year of their age times 2 - which is the going rate that their school. This is automatic -they don't have to do anything for it and they can spend it on whatever they like.

They have jobs they have to do because they are members of the family - not pocket money related.

There are then other jobs they can do to earn more money. Ds waters the garden(ish), dusts, tidys stuff that's not his, washes the car. Dd makes card for me, washes the car, cleans the bathroom, runs errands.

dds are 7 and 5 they get £1 a week. in fact we don;t physically hand it over we write their running total on the calendar. They can spend it on shite if they really want to but we do use the fact that we have to hand it over at the counter as an opportunity to dissuade them. they tend not to spend it on sweets in actual fact. they like spending it in gift shops of any places we visit. I do like the fact that they're spending "their" money and not ours - it gives you a very easy-to-understand limit. You don;t need to say something is too expensive/not worth it/ a load of rubbish - all of whihc are very subjective. it's just a case of can they afford it. We're about to go on holiday and I'm thinking that it would be fair to give them a bit extra

Our ds (5) gets 50p each week and can earn extra for doing chores and generally helping out a bit. We don't ever hand over the cash though cos I'm too disorganised and he would only lose it. We have a list on the fridge which keeps a running total.

He can spend it on whatever he wants if he has enough. Usually sweets or magazines. He hasn't had the urge to save up for anything special yet.

My 4.9yo gets £1 a week on a Saturday. We started in January to try to get him to understand money (which worked alarmingly quickly).
He doesn't have to do anything specific (although he did have a task for the week when we started it - things like putting his seatbelt on himself, which he had been doing for ages then stopped), but he does know that he can lose it for particularly bad behaviour, after warnings.
He tends to save it in his money box and see things that he wants when we are out shopping, so I say he can buy them himself if he wants, at which point he then weighs up the price.
He usually gets little things - like a new pack of hama beads, a toy car etc. He never spends it on sweets, I haven't ever given him that option and tbh I don't think it has occured it him, he certainly has never asked if he can.

ds1 is almost 6 and gets £1 on Sundays. Either saves it for something big, or I take him to local car boot sale where he can get more for his money than in the shops - he does his own negotiating and usually manges to find quite a lot of books and small (or sometimes not so small) toys for his £1. He has a great technique of asking people "how many pence is this?" - and they usually then give him it for pence, even if they'd probably have been thinking of asking more.

dds get £1 whenever dh remembers, very erratic. They can spend their money on whatever they want, I'm not one for heavy parental control.

Ds1 (5.6) gets £1 a week from his grandma. He has to put 50p of it in his holiday jar which means when we go away next week he's got about £13 to take away with him and he can spend it on whatever he likes.

The other 50p he can spend on whatever he likes week by week, but he tends to save them until he's got £3 - £4 and then buy a small toy.

He can also earn 50ps by doing jobs - hoovering/cleaning/putting the washing away.

My Mum started giving him the pocket money when he started school last September and it works really well - he's grasped the value of things (he wants) really quickly and is willing to save to buy things. Ds2 (3) also knows that when he starts school that's when he'll get pocket money!

Mine can spend on whatever they want but have never bought rubbish tbh. DD2 has bought an electric guitar and amp this year and is about to buy a new bike. DD1 is not quite as frugal and spends more on 'girlie' things but is still fairly sensible. I run a spreadsheet system and only hand it over when they ask me for it. I'm also quite good at deleting amounts for bad behaviour and am pleased with them so far as they seem to be fostering a healthy attitude to money in general and are very aware of the cost of things like school trips etc, often offering to pay for their own tickets if it's expensive. Spending money always comes out of their own money.

My DS is 4 (not yet in school) and I feel a bit too young to understand the value of pocket money yet so will start when they cover money in school so that he learns the value of things.

Until then, i'll just continue to buy him toys and treats I know he will like.

She only ever wants to top up her phone, because she's also not allowed round the park with no credit on her phone, so she's never got any spare money for anything else. Its a learning curve - she'll realise that if she uses her phone less, she'll have money left over for things like clothes or going to the pictures!

Mine don't get regular pocket money because I can't always be sure i'll have it to give.

They all have their own money box and I will occasionally give them 20p or 50p or whatever if they have been particularly helpful or something. Sometimes I just pop some in without saying because then they are ecstatic when they count it and have more than they thought.

I do prefer that they save it up for something in partic, as if they just buy junk it would just get chucked out after a few days.

9yr old Dd1 is hopeless at saving anything, but Dd2 is fab, and loves the fact that the amount grows and grows.

They also get a load of loose change from my dad every few months which is divided between the 3 of them.

Thanks for the return messages.
I think i will be giving £1 per week and extra for any jobs they do probobly 50p for each job well done. They are useless at having initiative to tidy their rooms or help me with any chores, so maybe the incentive of extra money will help them to want to help me. Seem to be very good at making a bloomin mess though!
I think i will say they can spend it on whatever they want but within reason (dd2 has a fascination with lipsticks, especially adult ones that stain). This way she should then find the value of things and discover about the benefit of saving up for more expensive things.