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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Pocket money

15 replies

Sopster · 02/09/2013 09:02

Hi all

DH and I were discussing pocket money this weekend. Am sure there have been threads on this before but am just wondering when people start giving their children pocket money and how much? DS will be 7 in Dec. He often talks at the moment about saving up for certain toys but given the only money he gets at the moment is from the tooth fairy he needs all his teeth to fall out right now to buy the toy he wants!! Is it time for pocket money??! Any advice would be appreciated!!

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CockyFox · 02/09/2013 09:10

I have never given pocket money and never will, I was never given it either, I don't think it is good for children to be given money for nothing.
As children if we wanted money for something in particular we could earn it by doing something outside of the normal make your bed/bring the washing down etc.
So things like wash the car or weed the garden earned 2 or 3 pounds.
Saying that, PIL don't agree with me and have given both children £1 a week since they were born. DH was given money from starting junior school until he got a paper round.

Galena · 02/09/2013 09:21

We give DD £1 a week. She is 4. She nominally gets it for doing her daily physio without complaining and taking her plate and cup through to the kitchen, but the reality is that she does these without needing a reward, so it's a pretty automatic £1.

She doesn't spend it often, but if she wants to buy something I don't particularly want to buy I can ask her if she's got enough pocket money for it. This sometimes means she decides she doesn't want it! She has saved enough to buy a couple of Sylvanian Families sets though.

The reason I've started pocket money with her is because I wanted her to get an idea of money and its worth, and get used to handling money.

HappyMummyOfOne · 02/09/2013 09:40

Everybody has their own views on this, we dont give DS pocket money as such but we do treat him regularly as dont expect him to wait for his birthday or christmas as we dont ourselves.

When he goes to high school i intend to give him his child benefit so that he learns how to handle a bank account and budget. Will buy his clothes etc but he will have to budget for socialising, games etc.

bigTillyMint · 02/09/2013 09:44

Mine didn't get pocket money at that age - we only started as they started secondary school.
We used to say that they could use their birthday/Christmas money, etc for things they wanted or put it on their Christmas list. Most stuff had been forgotten by the time Christmas came

ArkadyRose · 02/09/2013 09:47

DP and I have discussed this recently. Neither of us got pocket money until about 8 or 9, which is the age when I started giving pocket money to my eldest two (my ex and I had discussed it and agreed it felt right at that point; they lived with him, and I gave them their pocket money when I visited each week). DD3 will start getting pocket money from around 8, but she'll get a few additional chores then too.

Fuzzymum1 · 02/09/2013 11:38

DS3 gets £1 a week at 6 for laying the table every night for tea. He sometimes saves it up but often blows it on plastic crap spends it in the £ shop if we got into town.

Yorkieaddict · 02/09/2013 21:31

DS has been getting pocket money since he was about 4, and started showing interest in money. He is now almost 6. He only gets 50p a week, but I think it has done him good in that he is starting to understand the value of money.

He used to spend it on sweets every week as soon as he got it, but he has been saving up for the last 3 weeks for a little toy he wants. It also means if he wants some plastic tat that I would not be willing to buy for him, he has the option to save up for it if he really wants it. When he realises how long he would have to save he usually decides its not worth it!

BackforGood · 02/09/2013 22:01

Mine started when they were 7. It's about (obv., every child is an individual, but...) about the age when they can understand the concept of having x amount, spending y, and that will leave you with x. Or, If I want to buy 'a', then how many pocket monies will I have to save to get it. To my mind, it's about putting 'theoretical' maths into real life.
Never directly linked it with doing jobs, although they've always been expected to contribute to the household in an age appropriate way.
Mine all got 10p per week, per year of age, so started with 70p a week. They could spend it on whatever they liked, except were expected to get other family members a present usually from the pound shop on their birthdays.

QueenofLouisiana · 02/09/2013 22:11

DS is and gets £2 a week from us and £1 a week from grandparents. We also pay for a subscription to the Beano.

He knows it is pointless asking for random toys- he has to buy them. Books are different and so are things we know he'd really benefit from (bike, most favoured collectibles...).

We have found a huge decrease in whining for plastic tut!

Foxy800 · 03/09/2013 07:39

My dd is also 7 and gets £1 a week, this started just after her 7th birthday but she has to earn it by helping me wash up every night after tea ( just her stuff).

noramum · 03/09/2013 10:38

DD was just short of 5 when we started to get her saving a bit of holiday spending money.

I believe pocket money is great to learn about money, saving and budgeting. DD normally saves her coins and then treats herself to a larger toy.

We still buy sweets, all books and the occasional magazine.

I don't like linking it to chores or good behaviour. Chores are for all of us to do and I prefer having a well behaved child without paying for it.

Foxy800 · 03/09/2013 18:09

Should have added that once she has got the pocket money it is then put into a money box, when it is full she gets some of it to spend and the rest goes into her bank account.

Elibean · 03/09/2013 19:47

dd1 started getting 50p per week when she was about 8, it went up to £1 when she was 9 but so did the expectation that she would buy anything other than holiday presents for herself. She can supplement by doing chores over and above the usual (which she gets no payment for - to me, it's just part of being a family: she needs to do a bit to pull her weight).

In other words, we chose to separate out chores from money. The money is instead of being bought stuff, and it really has helped dd1 to budget and learn about value of money.

dd2 is not yet 7, and as she has a big sister is far more worldly wise than dd1 was at this age! She also gets £1 per week now, and is far better at saving up - and at doing extra chores - than her big sis

ilovepowerhoop · 03/09/2013 19:57

both mine get £5 per week and save it up to buy nintendo games, toys, etc. There is very little you can buy for under £1 and it would take forever to save up for big items with a tiny amount of pocket money

CircassianLeyla · 05/09/2013 10:47

We do a max of £2.50. They are 7 and 5.

They do have to earn it though. Over the summer they start each day with five stars, if they keep their 5 stars they earn 50p for that day. They can earn a max of 5 days worth of money. Each star also translates into 5 mins of screen time on the PC or iPad. As they lose them they lose time.

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