Talk to Roosterbank.com about pocket money - great prizes to be won

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

The online pocket money site Roosterbank.com just released their first Pocket Money Index and they want to know what you think about all things pocket money.

Here's what they say about it: "The PMI is a fun glimpse into the habits of young pocket money earners on Roosterbank.com with some surprising results. Families give pocket money differently and ultimately it's up to you as to how you approach it. Roosterbank.com can help provide some structure along the way."

Please do take a look at the index and post what you think about it on this thread. If you give pocket money on a regular basis, Roosterbank.com would also like to know:

~ Do your DCs have to do anything to earn their pocket money? e.g. chores, completing a reward chart etc. If not, why not?

~ Are your DCs on par with the Index, above or below?

Every Mumsnetter who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a first prize of a £150 Amazon Voucher and four runners up will win £20 vouchers each.

Roosterbank.com also have an exclusive offer for Mumsnetters - please do take a look at how it works and sign up here.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

[ThePskettiIncident]

My Ds isn't old enough for pocket money, but we have a "Days out" jar which I put change into and any little bits of cash from family. We save it up for a big day out to the zoo or a play farm.

I think we'll always have it. It feels like a good tradition.

I like the idea of earner pocket money so will do that in the future.

[ThePskettiIncident]

P.s I do love the idea of this site!

[TippiShagpile]

My dc are 7 and 8 but neither get pocket money. I feel really mean now!

[worldgonecrazy]

DD (3) doesn't get pocket money as such. She gets given money, usually between £2 - £5 when we are going somewhere and she can spend that on what she wants within reason. She doesn't get paid for household chores because they are part of living together as a family. She does get paid for extras like weeding, washing the car, recycling cans, or "helping" with DIY. Anything that is not a standard household chore earns her money. Of course, most of the jobs she does need me to go back and do them, though she is getting quite good at washing up. It's about instilling a work ethic more than actually expecting her to do the jobs well at the age of 3.

[500internalerror]

Here, they get pocket money from grandma - but I never agreed to it, she kind of sneakily established it! It's a fiver aWeek.... way too much for a 6 and 10 yr old. They save it, for holidays or a big purchase, & after the major summer hol the balance goes in their saving-for-bank tin.

But even if I was the source of the pocket money, they wouldn't do chores for it - they need to do household stuff because they are part of the household!

[trockodile]

DS gets £6 a week -he is nearly 8 so obviously gets a lot more than average. He does do jobs around the house but it is not directly linked to his pocket money. He is expected to save at least half towards holidays/Christmas etc (when we went to Disneyland he bought himself a skeleton sweatshirt and a duffy bear!) will save for a big purchase (last year bought an ipod touch with savings and birthday money) he also has to pay for his own sweets/magazines/music etc. if he does something mad (like wasting all my expensive bubble bath which he has been told not to touch!) he uses his money to replace.
I find that when he is using his own money he is more likely to look for bargains and to realise that some things are over priced and not worth it.

[Oodsigma]

~ Do your DCs have to do anything to earn their pocket money? e.g. chores, completing a reward chart etc. If not, why not?

Some jobs are expected ( tidy room/look after pets/ clear the table) other are earners ( dishwasher/washing machine/hoovering)

~ Are your DCs on par with the Index, above or below?
Dd1(13)- £22 a month so roughly on par
Dd2(11)- £2 a week ( mainly confiscated) so below par. This will increase in September.
Dd3(2)- collects everyone's coppers which seems to be approx £6 a month!
DS(6weeks) - nothing yet.

[swallowedAfly]

ds doesn't get pocket money from me yet. on the index it says average 6yo gets £3 pw and i'm guessing i spend about that on sweets and choc ices and the like in a week.

my parents do give him 50p a week which they save up so when he goes to a fete with them or we go on holiday he has some money to spend.

it's too young for him to need money imo. i will probably start when he's about 8 and rather than a weekly amount will come up with a chore he can do to get paid for i think then as the years go on the jobs and 'pay' can get bigger i guess.

[hytheliz]

My children are not yet old enough to earn pocket money but I do like the idea of the website. I think some of the amounts seem a little high for some chores that I would expect them to do anyway (eg. tidy their room) and £3.81/ week in general seems a little high to me. I would not agree with giving pocket money for nothing! I would always expect extra chores/duties around the house to give the children the sense that they must earn their money.

[ClaraOswinOswald]

£5.03 and £4.21 for my 2 according to the index. Maybe I should be doing pocket money, but the children know when they are onto a good thing. We tend to give them opportunities to earn money and spending money if we go somewhere and buy them stuff. Pocket money could actually work out cheaper.

If I did regular pocket money I would forget for a few weeks and end up owing them a fortune, though.

[JedwardScissorhands]

DC aged 5 gets none, so below average! I do give cash to be spent however they like but it's ad hoc not every week and not tied to chores.

[maxmissie]

Interesting info on the index, if the amounts for average pocket money for age is per week then my children (aged 3 and 5) are well under the average! At the moment they get 10p x their age per week so dd gets 50p per week and ds gets 30p per week. When they are older we'll review this but for now this give them an idea about saving a bit of money in their piggy bank and then they can buy something every now and then, take some on holiday and put some in the bank.

They don't have to do anything to earn the money, on the basis that there are certain chores that have to be done (which will increase as they get older), e.g. make their beds, pick up clothes, lay and clear the table. As they get older will also pay them to help with out of the ordinary chores, e.g. help wash the car, help with some gardening. I don't want them to think that they only have to do everyday chores if they get paid for it!

[Iamaslummymummy]

I Love the look of rooster bank.

D's is 7.9 but doesn't get regular pocket money. He gets bought lots of things though!

[sharond101]

My DS is too young for pocket money now but any loose change goes in his piggy bank for to buy something nice when I think he is growing away from his current toy collection. I intend to start giving him pocket money when he understands the concept and he will not have to earn it as I will give him tasks to do which he would have to do regardless and will try and make it fun for him so he does not require a reward. The roosterbank index is a useful tool to know what the ball park figures are for different ages and how much the going rate is for the toothfairy.

[januarysnowdrop]

I was surprised by the index implying that it's normal for 3 year olds to get pocket money - I've never heard of anyone giving it to a child that young! My oldest dd is 5, nearly 6 and doesn't get any yet - I give 50p each to her and her sister for school cake sales, and might give £1 if we're, eg, in a museum gift shop, but that's about it. I was planning on starting it when they go to Junior school, ie in Year 3, or maybe from their 7th birthday. Probably starting at around £1 per week, so way below what the index shows. I wouldn't want to link it to regular chores - I prefer to see them as something that we should all do to help one another around the house. Mind you, I might be tempted to pay them for one-off jobs that I didn't fancy doing myself....

[LackaDAISYcal]

WE never used to give pocket money, but in the last year, DS started taking odd bits of change from worktops and then my purse It transpired that all his friends had pocket money and he didn't and were buying sweets at the corner shop in the morning and he felt pressured into doing the same. He's 10!

Sooo, after a lot of deliberation (as we didn't want to be seen to be rewarding his theiving), we agreed to £4 a week, though he has to save half of this (though it has been confiscated since February for to repay my money spent downloading an X-box game on X-Box live without permission )

And, as he has younger siblings, who immediately started howling "where's my pocket money...waaahhhh", they get some too. DD, 5, gets £1.50 and DS2, 4, gets £1. Though not every week. So I guess they are all below the index. If it wasn't for DS1 though, my "little ones" wouldn't get anything at all.

Our own index is based on £1 at age 4, with a 50p increase per year. This will no doubt be revised for DS1 when he starts secondary school in September!

They don't have to do any chores for this pocket money, though there is the chance to earn extra by doing additional chores (not the usual likwe tidying etc, but helping wash the car, do gardening etc)

[MartyrStewart]

I have an 8yo DS and a 4yo DD. I don't give regular pocket money but still expect my DC to chip in with chores.

[BikeRunSki]

I rather like the site, it's fun.

DS is 4 and 7 months, he stared getting pocket money when he was 4. He gets 50p a week, for which he has to make his bed (duvet!), put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket and put his plate in the dishwasher. He gets an extra pound for his money box if he gets a certain amount of stars on his star chart for various jobs / behaviours (stars can also be removed). He's very good with his pocket money. He generally saves it for Lego! When he asks for sweets/comics I usually ask him where his pocket money is, but he always chooses to save it. All grandparents live several hours away, so he tends to get a bit spoilt when he sees them. My mum tends to send him a fiver for birthday, special occassions etc.

[InMySpareTime]

I feel a bit stingy looking at the Index, DS (11) and DD (9) have an in-house "cleaning company" with mutually agreed prices for jobs: 15p per pair of shoes shined, 30p per load of washing, 20p to empty and load the dishwasher etc. they don't get money for nothing, or regular cash.
They have bank accounts for birthday money, but can't think what to spend it on.

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Well our son's 4. He actually doesn't get pocket Money - we get him what he wants if deemed appropriate & his behaviour has been good. But ExP gives him £8 a month which I think is a lot for a 4 year old.

Looking at the index, DH and I think it's a bit high for the pre schoolers & a bit low for teens. We think £1 a week until starting school is about right, £2 per week throughout primary, £5 lower high, £10 upper high - with options to earn more doing useful chores.

[tomorowisanotherday]

we have one DD who is 9. she gets, and h as got since she was 5 years old, £5 per week. she never had to work to get it...

BUT she has to work hard to use it. In the early days, if she wanted something for 40 pence I would ask her 'how do you make 40 pence?' and she would have to work it out. I would never ever give her a pound and let the shop do the work for her. often we would come out of the shop to count out her pennies before going back in to buy the item.

also this gave her the idea that money isn't limitless. you can have that but then there is no money left for anything else.

We have also used cash whenever possible, going to the supermarket and handing over £100 for the food in the cupboard, makes you think about it (at 6 £100 seems A huge amount ... which it is)

as she has got older we introduced the concept of value for money. if she wanted a toy for £10, how many weeks pocket money was that? do you think its worth it? you can get two of these for one of those? but if you wait three weeks you can have that?

then we introduced the concept of saving. we bought her a tin, and gave her the pocket money in pound coins. this means that her tin gets heavier and heavier.

then we introduced the concept of saving for an event. currently she is saving for 'spending money' at Disney Paris, when we go in the autumn.

We have never ever introduced the concept of lending from next weeks money. if she doesn't have the money, she has to wait for 'payday' like the rest of us. (loans were the bear-trap that I fell into when I was 18 and its taken me 20 years to get out of that particular trap)

when she gets to 10 we will introduce the concept of earning it. she will still get the basic £5 but will be able to top it up by doing extra chores. Your website seems like a great place to start.

When I was growing up, money was a very abstract concept. it was a number on a page in a bank book and didn't mean anything. we had no concept of value, choices or limits. Money was something that was controlled by other people; mysterious cards that seemed magical and could pay for anything chosen, without seeing the reality of the monthly bill.

Subsequently I have a very bad relationship with money, and I really don't want my DD to fall into the same trap as I did. I want her to understand that with money comes a responsibly, to spend it wisely and it is in limited supply.

[Babycarmen]

My eldest DD is 5. I don't currently give her pocket money but it is something I have been considering. I don't think children younger then 5 should get pocket money. My DD is starting to learn about the concept of money at school now so I think its a good time to start. £2 a week sounds very fair. She will have to behave and help around the house for it though, for example keeping her room tidy.

[JakeBullet]

DS is 10 and has high functioning autism, as such he has specific difficulties and things like "money" can be difficult concepts for him. At 10 he is just beginning to get the idea that money does not grow on trees and I am starting to hone in on this to try and give him a better idea of how money works.
I like the child friendly appearance of the Roosterbank website and want to see if this is a tool I can use to give him more of an idea about money not being limitless etc. He loves using the computer so will try it out with him.
I am just starting to compare things such as days out/shopping/petrol to the cost of certain key coveted items. So for example he would love the Skylanders Starter Kit for the Wii which is around £50, so shopping which comes to £50 or above is officially " a lot of money Mum".
He doesn't get pocket money yet but I am starting to think about giving him a small budget which will last all week from which he has to pay certain things like his football training fee (it's only £1) and a magazine etc. This will take preparation though.

[CarrieDon]

Attractive site. Dd probably too old for it now.

DD15 gets £20 pm put into her bank acct plus we save quite a large amount for her in a savings acct.

She earns £5 ph in the holidays doing gardening and housework and gets lobbed the odd £20 for working hard for exams, then another £20 when she gets good grades. Also bit of holiday spending money.

She's naturally frugal so hopefully she'll always be able and willing to live within her means.

[whattodoo]

Crikey, DD is 5 and I haven't even thought about giving her pocket money.

She does little jobs around the house ('dusting', putting clothes in was basket, etc) but these are just part of her role within the family.

We buy her treats from time to time, but she earns then via her reward chart.

Having read this thread and looked at the site, I realize we should be giving her pocket money as a tool to learn about budgeting, saving, value of money etc.