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Preteens

Parenting a preteen can be a minefield. Find support here.

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Original poster

How much pocket money does your 12 year old get?

59 replies

Dancergirl · 26/06/2013 20:46

Dd1 is 12 and coming to the end of Year 7. She gets £5/month pocket money, same as her sisters. I know it's probably not much but we planned to review it at some stage plus we sometimes give her a bit extra here and there.

She doesn't spend a lot of money - she likes to buy a few bits from Claires, Lush etc all the usual places. But she likes the cookies they sell at school and drinks from the vending machine. Usually she asks dh for a bit of money most mornings. So we think it's sensible to now increase her money but she has to buy everything non-essential out of it including snacks at school. But how much would be a reasonable amount? She says some of her friends get £20/month! Is that really the going rate??

OP posts:

Notmyidea · 26/06/2013 21:05

mine gets 25/month into her bank a/c by standing order. She has to buy her toiletries/sanitary protection/gifts for friends etc. There is no extra if she fancies a trip to the cinema etc. She has to keep credit on her mobile, too. She has stuffed up before a big planned outing, (the guides big gig.) i got her to do some chores to earn extra then. I see it as a chance to learn money management.

CatsAndTheirPizza · 26/06/2013 21:08

Nearly 12. £1.20 per week, but we give extra money for different clubs/cinema trips/put money on phone/buy clothes and presents for friends.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 26/06/2013 22:00

In primary school ours get 10p per year of age per week. In secondary school they get £1 per year of age per month, along with their own current account with a cash card. So the eleven year olds get a massive raise at the beginning of Y7 from £1.10 a week to £11 a month. This is because in secondary school they are more independent and we want to give them more responsibility over their own finances.

Kaza80 · 26/06/2013 22:01

Mine get £10 a month in cash and then another £10 a month into savings

SacreBlue · 26/06/2013 22:15

None. I top up his phone and he has p/t job for everything else. I've never actually given him pocket money.

Startail · 26/06/2013 22:19

£10 a month and credit on her phone when she needs it (probably another £5)

However, she is very adept at forgetting her purse/debts and blogging money of me.

Not helped by older sister who needs adult sized clothes and shoe, so nothing is 'fair' in £ note terms.

Tigerblue · 27/06/2013 09:29

My daughter gets £6 a month, which up until recently has been more than enough as she hardly ever spends it. She's nearly 11 and in Year 7, so a couple of times recently I've found myself giving her money for things like the cinema, going out with friends family for the day, going to local fair with friends. In time I think I'd rather increase the amount she has every month and let her budget for time out with friends, so I can see it being in the region of £15.

Lancelottie · 27/06/2013 09:37

11 year old: £10 a month plus £38 into savings plus (in theory) phone top-ups, but as she's not yet used up her £20 free credit that came with the phone, the last bit hasn't been too arduous!

14 yr old: £12 a month plus £56 into savings plus £10 phone deal, but he has to wash cars/clean windows/do a LOT of ironing if he needs extra. Frankly I think it's time he got a paper round.

(The bizarre savings amounts are because family set up an account for their older brother but not for them -- aiming to catch them up gradually.)

TeenAndTween · 27/06/2013 13:17

13yr old. £15 / month paid directly into account.
She is building up a good balance with this amount.

She has to pay for:

phone top ups (PAYG), maybe £10 every 6-8 weeks. (Less now she chats on facebook)
small token presents for immediate family B-day & Christmas

She can choose to buy non essential toiletries, DVDs, books, accessories etc etc, but doesn't spend much.

When she gets to the stage she is wanting to go to nearest town by bus/train for cinema etc with friends she would in theory need to pay for that. But she doesn't do this at the moment and we would probably up the allowance to cover a certain level of socialising.

For comparison with OPs DD, our younger DD aged 8 gets £2 / week (when we remember).

BackforGood · 29/06/2013 00:01

Same exactly as 3Bee1Gee ! Spooky!

10p per year of age, per week for Primary (so £1.10 a week for my dd2 who is a Sept Birthday), then
£1 per year of age per month for secondary (so £12 a month for her when she goes to Yr7 in Sept).
Mine pay for their own phones, and anything they want to go to with friends. We pay for essentials, and subs for things they belong to. They also get £2.10 a day dinner money, which dd1 usually has 40 - 50p change out of and it's up to them what they spend this on.

CatsAndTheirPizza · 29/06/2013 10:57

SacreBlue what part-time job does your DS have? DS2 is desperate to work.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 29/06/2013 11:33

BackforGood:

motherinferior · 29/06/2013 11:36

Quid a week, we pay her phone bill and quite often she gets a treat

SacreBlue · 29/06/2013 11:42

He does voice over work for the radio and is an 'apprentice' as he puts it to a s/e builder which involves carpentry, painting, plumbing and light labouring. He only works about two days in a month but he gets paid really well and he is learning a trade which is important.

He has been offered online work via the gaming community but he has to wait til he's 16 for that (which he is very annoyed about and required a lot of talking down from 'I'll just say I am 16')

He also buys sweets in bulk and sells them in school but he hasn't done in a while because technically it's against school rules. We haven't moved on it but he has helped his granda make some equipment for my business which isn't readily available here in Ireland so he has plans afoot to make more and market them to my clients and local schools.

He's a right entrepreneur and it partly makes me sad because I know it's a reaction to when we lived on benefits and were very poor but my goodness I am so proud of his ingenuity and determination.

Shanghaidiva · 29/06/2013 11:46

DS turned 13 last week and gets nothing.
I expect a reasonable amount of help in the house - keeping room tidy, unloading d/w, occasional trip to corner shop and reading to his sister. There is no financial reward for this. He is, however, rewarded for performance at school - report card, exam results etc. He came top of the year in every subject (9 exams in total) and will get 100 pounds.
From this money he is expected to buy birthday and Xmas presents for his sister and pay for any cds or games he wants.
We pay for all sports and other activities.

CiderwithBuda · 29/06/2013 11:47

£5 a week if he does his chores. Nothing if he doesn't.

It goes into his bank account. He uses it to buy presents and saves up for games and wastes a lot of it on something on FIFA on line.

BackforGood · 29/06/2013 11:58

CatsandTheirPizza My dd1 delivers the free paper. It's only once a week, doesn't involve getting up before the crack or dawn, and brings her in an average of around £7 a week (the amount varies depending on the number of leaflets you have to stuff in). You can do it from 13. ds used to earn about £11 a week doing his round (was a bigger round).

TantrumsAndBalloons · 29/06/2013 12:12

Ds1 is 14 he gets £40 a month into his bank account.
Once it's spent, that's it. There's no borrowing or "earning money by helping in the house"
I don't pay for housework. They do it because we all live in the same house and all have to contribute.

Ds1 and dd have a little neighborhood "business" to earn extra money, they do lawn mowing, car washing, sweeping driveways, weeding. They have 8 "regular customers" so they do ok

cece · 29/06/2013 12:15

Those with bank accounts - which ones do you use and would you recommend? I'm thinking of doing something similar for DD.

BrevilleTron · 29/06/2013 12:27

DD gets £5 per week from her resident parents (DDad and DStepMum) and gets treated by me but has to do chores
DD is 12 and at end of YR 7

SacreBlue · 29/06/2013 14:20

We use a local bank, just a basic account and he has a debit card so he can buy things online himself. It would be handy if we were with the same bank (to transfer money etc) but mine is pita to deposit in so we went with the closest one to us. Tbh most banks offer the same basic acc so which one you go to doesn't really make a big difference imo

BeGoodElliot · 29/06/2013 14:32

My DD gets £20 a month from me that goes straight into a bank account with a cash card, she rarely touches this. She also gets £15 on her phone every month. I pay for her bus pass, lunches, essential toiletries and clothes.

My mum gives her £20 per fortnight, this mostly gets spent on rubbish! unless there are holidays/birthday/Christmas coming up or she wants to save for something in particular.

valiumredhead · 29/06/2013 14:35

Ds is 12 and gets 2 quid a quick from us and another pound from my mum per week.

His other set of grand parents put by 2 pounds per week and give it to him in a lump sum when we visit.

He's good at saving it up for things he wants plus buys sweets with it. It's made him very aware of the value of money and doesn't take anything that is given to him for granted as he realises how long it would take him to save up for it himself.

shazyt · 29/06/2013 20:03

my dd is 8 she gets £2.50 per week cash, purely because i refuse to pay £3.99 plus for a magazine every week, so i compromised and said she could have that each week to save towards a magazine. and £20 per month into a savings account.

BellaVita · 29/06/2013 20:08

Ds2 (13) gets £24 a month and pays for his own top up. But he earns £30 a week from his paper round.

I buy all of his toiletries and clothes.

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