When did you start giving pocket money?

[lemonworld]

I’m debating starting pocket money with my four year old. I think he’s ready for the concept and I need a way of countering the ever more regular demands for me to buy him stuff whenever I end up in a shop.
Can I still get away with coins in a money box or is it best to go with those ‘Go Henry’ tupe cards?
TIA

4 is too young for a card. The youngest is 6.

However Rooster will let you use their free virtual pocket money tracker, so you can show him he has £3.50 in his account. You can add in each week and deduct off what he's spent.

Or you could do it the old fashioned way money in a piggyback or wallet.

I started and stopped pocket money over the years tried to tie it to keeping bedrooms tidy but I now feel I need to be more consistent with it and forget the tidy rooms. Both kids help downstairs happily but rooms are a riot

I've just started to give my 4 year old pocket money. He has cash as I want him to understand that once it's spent, it's gone. The first week did not go well when he spent it 😆

We are on week 4 now and he's getting it. He chose to save last weeks!

I'm waiting til mine can under how to count money. I have a 4 & 5 year old and they think any money they get for birthdays etc can buy anything. The older can grasp when I say there is left over money or it's not enough but the younger just thinksJJ one piece of money can be exchanged for any one item

I started mine on pocket money much older - around 10 years old. They do have go Henry cards which they really like. My eldest uses the saving function on hers. She is 14.

I really wouldn't be into paying for GoHenry but Rooster is free if your with NatWest and Hyperjar is free to everyone.

We started when DD turned 8, we do 50p for every year so it goes up 50p on her birthday and we do cash. Some weeks she puts it in her money bank to save, other weeks she spends it on tat in the supermarket toy aisle.

When she turned 6. I just put it in a pot in my bank account. She's very good at saving it up for toys and Lego, but that's possibly because she doesn't realise sweets and magazines are also an option. Not looking forward to that day.

We were going to do cash but we never have it so it would be stressful, and the amount charged by all the cards was ridiculous compared to the amount she gets so that's also a no go right now.

I have a 4 yr old and have just introduced the idea of saving money up for something she wants. She saw a toy she reallllly wanted in a shop, but it costs about £18 and I thought it was a bit much. So I have decided she gets £1 towards it each day if she takes her plate and cutlery into the kitchen after meals, and if she puts her dirty clothes in the washing basket after her bath. In a few weeks she'll have earned enough to go and buy the toy.

I don't plan on doing regular pocket money but just on and as and when basis if she particularly wants something, to try and teach the value of money.

Thanks all. Good suggestions. I think we will start off old school for now and see how it goes.

I think four is a good age. Coins, or some physical representation that can't get lost like paper coins on a chart is best IME. I made DS2 a little paper chart that he can put items on that he wants and see himself save up over the weeks. Curiously he is much better about this than DS1 ever was. He doesn't have any understanding of value yet so he will just point at random items and ask if he can have that and not really understand which things are likely to be affordable or not, but he'll get there.

I keep track of it digitally on my phone too so when we are out if he wants something I say "You have £X in your pocket money" and he decides whether he wants the thing or not, if he can afford it.

It really helps with the "Can I have this, can I have that??" If it's a very expensive item, too much for pocket money, then we suggest that he puts it on his birthday/Christmas list instead.

We start from YR £2 a week and use the free Roosterbank app, then in secondary they have Starling debit cards and £5 plus their bus money. It saves a lot of arguments ‘I’ll just check your Roosterbank - oh sorry you don’t have quite enough, you can save up for x weeks or you can put it on Amazon wish list.

We give 10p a week for the age they are so 8 year old gets 80p, 6 year old gets 60p. We started when oldest was 5 as a way to stop the asking for bits on the rare occasions we went shopping, sadly that was 2019 so we then went to not being able to spend cash in a lot of places, but they had saved a lot up!!!

We now have hyperjar cards which they love, and we add pocket money automatically weekly, if we are away for a holiday I may add an extra £10 or so for treats. They still have a bit of cash from selling toys etc but not much.

We started at that age. We use cash. Sometimes if they ask for something I don't want to buy them I say I'll buy it and take the cash out of your pocket money at home if you want it. Or sometimes they bring the money out with them. It works really well and helps with the idea of the value of money etc.

I think with this age it's useful to use actual coins as they love counting it and learning what each coin look like etc.

Personally we started at 12 and even then only because my son asked for some gaming upgrade and I said no as it was about £25-£30 and it felt like a birthday present kind of thing. Only when I stopped and thought about it I realised we didn't give him pocket money - previously he had no need for it - do now we give £5pw.

We started with £1 per week at age 6, when they were pretty confident with the value of each of the coins and could work out if they had enough money to buy something. Practiced at home with our kitchen sweetie shop and ages 4-5! Still sticking with cash at age 10. Will switch to a card for secondary school.