QUICK POLL - how much pocket money for my 11 year old...?

[mollyroger]

We are permantently skint. He starts secondary school in sept. We will pay bus fares, etc and 'essential' clothes and family trips to cinema etc.

He gets £2.50 a week from his grandma but we know we need to start giving him some too.

How much do you think? Scope for earning 'extra...?'

ah. not going to be a quick poll, I see. More of a long, drawn out sorta thing....

Please help! DS is expecting me to bring the first sum for negotiation to the table tomorrow

Hmmm. I suppose it depends on lots of things? Your income etc? Maybe the same as his grandma gives him to make it up to £5. More for chores is a good idea.

We give dd1 (going into yr 8) a monthly allowance of £15- we've done it since last Sept, and she has soon learned that if she spends it all in one week, there's nothing left when she wants to go shopping with friends the rest of the month!
In the summer holidays she gets an extra £20 for the 6 weeks.

Started off paying £1 a week into DD's bank account when she was born. Have upped it by £1 each year, so I suppose if she starts asking at age 11, she will get her £12 per week (in the meantime, she has amassed some premium bonds - unknowingly)

so £20 a month ok? too much?

my 11 year old has to earn his pocket money, it doesn't hurt them to learn that nothing in life is free... (well I don't think so)...

he tidy's his room at the weekend,
puts his washing out,
helps lay the table/clear the table

has been known to earn more by helping in the garden...

13 year old sister does nothing... gets nothing!

I'd make it up to a a fiver... what will he do with it?

DD1 will be 11 next month. She gets £5 assuming she is deemed to have done her share of the helping out (emptied the dishwasher a few times, maybe hung up some washing and put away her clean clothes).

ds1 has to spend £8.50 per week on bus fares. What we do is we give him £20 for bus and lunches and anything he has left over from lunches he gets as extra pocket money. This encourages him to drink water rather than buy a drink, and look for offers on school meals.

In addition he gets £1.30 pocket money.

Tbh he has stacks of money saved up from pocket money and birthdays/Christmasses (about £250 I think ) and there's nothing he wants to spend it on. So he certainly doesn't need more pocket money now.

We send £5 to each of my partner's children (11 and 13) who don't live with us (they live over 300 miles away), so we can't ask them to do anything for it.
We give £3 to each of my children (6 and 8). As far as my children are concerned, they are very good at saving it and use it to buy books (ones that are not in the library) mostly, but they both saved for a DS game too. I think it's teaching them the value of things, and how you can't just have anything you want, when you want it.

DS is 14 gets £5 a week but ONLY if he helps out: keeps his room tidy, puts the bins out, dries any dishes, brings his laundry basket down on a saturday morning, makes a brew when I want one
If he's having a lazy week then he gets nothing, simple.
I've tried, in the past, to have a go when he "forgets" to do his share but eventually it got to the point where "You're not a bloody baby, if you want your money you have to earn it but I'm not going to remind you every bloody day"... or words to that effect
The thing is, he never wastes it, always saves it for something he really wants - he's still got £200 in his wallet from christmas and birthday (April) so I don't mind giving a fiver a week (if it went on crap I'd be more concerned).