Pocket Money - Teenager

[Nomoreplease23]

This topic has been covered before - just this maybe more specific. DD16 receives £10 per week from us, we also pay for her mobile phone and also all food and drink when she is out and about with friends. Also twice weekly music lessons that are quite expensive, toiletries and haircuts.

She has a part time job and earns about £70 per week. We are soon to pay for driving lessons as part of a birthday present - we don't envisage her getting a car just yet so no vehicles running costs to consider.

This leaves her money for -
Train fare / Cinema tickets / Clothes (we sometimes buy exceptional items that she needs, coats etc). She has built up quite a balance in her bank.

DD starts college next week and we plan a sit down to discuss money - to determine what we will continue to pay for (eg phone) and what she must now pay for.

Part of the discussion would be to stop the weekly £10 pocket money - based on £70 wages that is circa £3.5k per annum. DD is very careful with her money and will always consider things that we as parents 'should' pay for eg piercings.

As parents stopping her £10 pocket money seems a bit wrong, however we feel she receives enough money and has a lot of benefits such as the music lessons.

Are we being reasonable and if so how do we approach stopping pocket money with DD? My thoughts were to set out the beneficial outgoings in monetary terms (music lessons, driving lessons, phone and other items) and show how much DD is earning to give her an idea of how much she is receiving rather than concentrating on the £10 'reduction'.

What do others do?

Honestly I'd up her pocket money, but make her pay for her phone/food & drink while out etc. That will give her much more experience budgeting.

Id giver her more than £10 a week but she needs to cover socialising out of it.

Give her £10 a week for food out and about, and a clothing allowance. In practise that probably means she’ll more money from you per month, but you’ll no longer have to sub ad hoc expenses and she’ll be forced to budget.

I am just currently trying to work out a sensible ‘allowance’ for my Dd so this thread is interesting. She’s just turned 13 so no chance of earning money for a while.
It obviously partly comes down to what can be afforded but £40 a month doesn’t seem like much if they’re buying their own clothes?
I was thinking of covering a small basic wardrobe for her and then she pays for anything else she wants alongside socialising, trips and treats, toiletries and make up.
I’ll pay for stuff for school unless she looses it!
Anyone else got any experiences?

Mine got the child benefit monthly and phone and travel paid for.
Everything else was their responsibility.

I give £150 a month to a 17 year old. She earns about £200 a month.

I pay for phone, haircuts, music lessons, toiletries, essential make up, clothes and shoes, school uniform and lunches.

I wouldn’t stop my contribution unless I couldn’t afford to do it. Not sure why you would tbh.

Gosh parents are a lot kinder these days than in my youth. The second I got a job at 14 ( i say job...£10 a shift at a pub as a food waitress - sure it was illegal somehow) it all stopped for me. I got clothes paid for and bus fare but that was it! Granted things cost a lot more than they did 20 years ago (god thats depressing )

No advice as a parent, my only one is a toddler, but in general I would say if you pay for phone maybe suggest also getting clothes but any other socialising is on her maybe. That way she has the basics she needs but learns that socialising is a luxury...?

Thank you for your replies - my thoughts now are to continue with the £10 per week pocket money she could use for her social travel and we continue paying for music lessons, haircuts, toiletries, phones, driving lessons and food and drink and she use her £70 per week wages for 'usual' clothing and other items and we pay for more expensive items eg. shoes, coats etc. DD is quite grungy so clothing costs aren't exorbitant.

DD's socialising is limited by her job hours and the cinema is her highest cost social event. Concerts we continue to pay for.

From the comments above this doesn't seem generous, my thoughts are that she is building up a balance in her account and we can increase her pocket money in future if need be.

This is what my mum did. It was really, really good for me.