Pocket money/allowance for 12.5 yr old

[thehorseandhisboy]

We've never given our children regular 'pocket money', just given them small amounts as and when they've needed it, but realise that we need to be giving our 12 year old more financial autonomy and independence.

What would be a reasonable amount do people think? I was thinking £10 a week into her bank account. This will be for clothes additional to the ones we buy her, birthday presents for friends, the pricey lip balms that they all seem to like...

We will buy clothes/shoes as we usually do ie basics and for school, pay for phone, days out, music/dance lessons etc.

How much do you give our preteens?

My eldest is 12 this December, I would be interested to hear people's opinions x

DD gets £25/months. £20 goes into her account to spend as she wants, £5 go on her savings account to save for gifts for school friends. At the moment we expect her to pay 1/2 as most gifts are around £10-15 but she only now has 4-5 parties a year plus Christmas gifts.

She buys make up, clothes at Primark and New Look (in addition to what we buy), fancy stationary and more notebooks. She also has to save to have spending money for holidays. Every 2-3 months she moves money onto her saving account.

No chores attached to it, learning to deal with money is more important for us.

We buy all general toileteries and skincare, clothes, days out, all school items like books, stationary, bags, phone and all hobbies. If she goes somewhere over lunch we pay but she pays for sweets and drinks unless she opts to take stuff from home.

DS (aged 12 Year 7) gets £15 per month, but he never spends any of it! We buy all clothes and shoes (he's got zero interest, so I just buy basic stuff when it's too small or got holes in). We pay for his phone. He's not that interested in a 'social life' yet, but we would expect him to pay at least part if he was going to the cinema etc. Interesting point about friends' presents; he hasn't had a party since starting secondary, but maybe I would expect him to pay half? He occasionally buys a snack at school, but usually chooses to take something from home. The only things he ever buys are books and Lego. He's probably got more in his bank account than I have .

Dd gets £5 a week. But she is supposed to do chores which she doesn’t stick to

My 15 & 13 years old dds gets £5 each every week for pocket money

£20 a month here for my 12yo.

£20 a month here for 12yo too

I just looked at GoHenry to update DDs pocket money now she’s had a birthday and it has a table of averages (hopefully attached). Seems very high to me - we just give 50p per year of age. Worried now we are being tight.

DS is 12, and we give him up to £10 a week, but it's tied in with behaviour, being independent, doing his school work etc.

He generally probably saves £5 a week of this and it gets added to birthday money so he can save up for PS4 games, or branded clothes he wants (happy to buy him normal clothes, but if he wants to spend £20 on a t-shirt, he can fund it himself!)

GrandMoff My DS is similar - he's a natural tight-arse and rarely spends his cash!

I give him £10 a month, paid straight into his bank account that he has a card for. I also pay for his phone contract, buy all necessary clothes and pay for extra-curricular activities.

He uses his card when he goes into town with his friends which is not that often, usually only in school holidays and buys McDonalds and snacks and cinema tickets. He also sometimes goes to the supermarket with friends for snacks. But he rarely spends the full £10 a month. He also gets a decent amount of birthday money, which he's hoarding.

I think once he really starts having a proper social life and going out and about a bit more, I'll up the amount and insist it covers things like bus fare too but for now he seems to have plenty for his needs.

Ds year 7 gets £15 per month, this pays for some sweets and stationary but generally sits in the bank. He does suffer from anxiety and I've reassured him that when he starts going out with his mates it will increase (within reason!). We also pay for his mobile contract, £8 per month.

DD12 gets £1/week and I usually pay this in lumps. Every so often she points out she hasn't had it for several weeks. Since I pay for a wide range of necessities, she doesn't need a lot of extra money. Currently, she's quite the homebody so isn't constantly asking for cinema trips, or shopping in town with friends.

Some relatives give her cash at Christmas & birthdays so if there are things no one gave her she can plug the gaps but she still often has money left over for her piggy bank.

Dds 15 and 11 get £5 a week each into their bank accounts. Dd1 was getting £10, but she was just spending it on rubbish rather than clothes as she was supposed to, so I reduced it back down and will go with her to buy clothes when needed.

Dd1 also baby sits 1-2 times a month, so earns an extra £20-40.

She baby sits for neighbours kids that is.

£20 a month (13yo). It was £10 a month but when she started going to town with her friends she kept asking for money for the bus and McDonald's etc so we said £20 a month but she can't ask us for any top ups! She mostly spends it on shopping trips but also stuff like if we're going out somewhere for the day and there's a gift shop they have to use their own money.

I should add the pocket money is earned by various weekly chores and general good behaviour

My 14 year old gets £8/week but rarely spends any. My 16 year old gets £45/month but now has a part time job and basically pays for everything bar some clothes (I pay his phone and insurance on his moped).

At 13 many ( many) years ago I got an allowance of £30 which had to cover bus fares, clothing ( etc school uniform) and any other treats or gifts I wanted to buy.

We have done the same with Dd1 except we have upped it to £50 ( although for the first 9 months it was halved as she broke an expensive item in rage so was paying back ). It has worked really well for us as dd is learning to manage her money, and if she was a nice branded item she has to save for it. We will be doing the same with Dd2 later this year.

My 13 year old gets £30 a month. He has to buy birthday and christmas presents out of that (we do usually give him a bit extra at christmas so he's go enough for grandparents and us).