Penny chew? Bag of crisps for 5p? What did you splurge your pocket money on when you were a DC? Share your memories of all things pocket money with Santander - you could win £250*! DRAW NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Santander have asked us to find out from Mumsnetters what you spent your precious pocket money on back when they were a kid. They'd also like to know how much you used to get versus how much you give your DC now.

Cast your minds back to the time when a packet of crisps was 5p/ 10p/ 20p/ cheaper than they are now and you could buy all manner of teeth-rotting sweets with a fraction of what your children are getting each week.

So indulge us - let us know what you used to love to spend your pocket money on. And tell us how much you got when you were a child, and how much you're now giving your children. Where did you prefer to spend the money? Or were you a saver?

Everyone who adds their thoughts to the thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 shopping voucher*.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Santander in further marketing material (anonymously, of course).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

• NB Standard MN terms and conditions apply - see here. Closing date 8 October 2014 10am

** Voucher can be chosen from www.voucherexpress.co.uk

punk
Mum used to give DSis and I ten pence each for church collection. We used to spend 5p on 2oz of sweets at the shop on the corner by church and suck them through the service :o

i splurgedon mcvites shortbread...mmm, i still do but occassionally.

my daughter however spends on anything loomband, thoguh i must say she has got into saving since a particular bank gives her £5 every 5 months if she puts in money,,

Pocket money! Im 40 now but can still remember my first ever pocket money - my granda gave me 20p and brought me to the shop to spend it! I must have spent 20 minutes picking - because it was mine - it was far more precious! In the end I bought 10 1/2p football chews - mint flavour and a 10p packet of crisps.
My sister got the same and I was a bit raging she got her first pocket money at exactly the same time as me and I was 2 years older.

These days my sons wouldn't get much for 20p - they are 9 and 11 and get a £5 I try to get them to do chores for it but I truth that can be a long drawn out process - the 9 year old always buys chewy sweets - the type that will deliver large dentist bills in the future! My oldest Joe buys the beano (£2 - £3.50) and a fizzy drink.

On the subject of pocket money he once said I don't know why they call it pocket money mum because it always ends up in dominics till ( dom is our local sweet shop)
one thing is for sure it doesn't stay long in my pocket!

I am loving this thread - bringing back so many memories of penny chews and fruit salads and prawns which I loved and also spent my "collection" money on. Aged 8 or 9 though I saved all my money and took my friend who lived next door to a cafe in Cleveleys where we lived - not for a milkshake or a hot choc or the sorts of things my dcs would like - but for a steak pie dinner (which we'd now call lunch)! Still can't quite believe I did it and not sure why, wasn't as if we were starved at home. We never ate out as a family though so maybe that was the attraction - going to a cafe on the highstreet to eat stew. Posh:)

I used to spend mine on sweets usually!
My daughter has just started getting £2 a week pocket money - shes nearly 7. She likes to buy anything she sees! Ususally sweets or maybe a cheap toy. I am trying to persuade her to save it up but shes not interested!

Soft foam bananas! Wow, can still taste them now! They used to be my regular cheap fix but I would also save. Whether for a Kylie, Jason or Sonia single from Our Price; an Enid Blyton or later Judy Bloom from W H Smith or whatever god-awful stickers I was collecting that month! I also remember my mum ironing a magazine for me that my mean younger brother curled up into a ball in spite! Pocket money was tight so she ironed it for me so I didn't miss out!

I've also just remembered how my best friend and I would save pocket money when we were older so after our Saturday swim we could go to the cafe in Littlewoods or BHS for lunch like 'the adults'!

I remember various levels of spends as I grew up, in the 70s going from 10p, to 20p, to 50p. When it went to a pound I used to go to a disco on a Friday night with it.
I didn't like sweets but I bought records. Or I'd save up to buy fabric to make my own clothes.
When I got my paper round at 14, I saved that £4.75 a week (in 1982) and kept it til I was 17 to pay for my own driving lessons.

My daughter, 9, likes to buy clothes and shoes. My lad, 12, spends on clothes, music and playstation games. And sweets! Which I can't fathom.

Mainly sweets and comics but occasionally would save up and buy myself a Sindy doll!!

I bought kinder eggs, especially when they were doing the turtle series pictured here! At our school these were the must-have items!

I had £1 a week, so 85p on Just Seventeen magazine, and 15p on pick n' mix. Sorted!

I was bullied at school, because I was really tiny. I used to be given pocket money and would then take all those bullies to treat them to sweets and donuts (so they'd be nice to me) until the money ran out- and then the bullying would start (again).

20p per week for me. 10 1 penny chews, a bag of crisps for 5p and a 5p box drink called calypso. I waited for Saturday with great anticipation and spent absolutely ages deciding what I would buy. It took me an entire day to eat my crisps (no exaggeration) and I hoarded my sweets. I did share with my sister and mum as well.

I used to get 50p and amazingly managed to get a quarter pound of Lemon Bon Bons (the proper big ones you needed to leave on the radiator in winter before attempting to chew) and a quarter pound of Midget Gems for that. I also loved Chelsea Whoppers, I would get a strip of ten of them but they wouldn't last very long.

I used to spend my pocket money on a twinkle comic and a packet of fruit pastilles!

My daughter likes buying the cbeebies magazine or saving her money to buy a new book, or something that she finds at the car boot sale.

I don't remember getting pocket money as such, but we were given £1 when we went places such as the beach or the shop! I grew up on a farm and honestly did not have the spending/wanting stuff mentality I think we have as adults and therefore that kids have, now. I think I would take this approach with my little boy when he is bigger as I don't think there's a link to giving pocket money helping kids understand either the value of money or saving. I'll use other methods to teach that :)

Our local corner shop had lots of pic'n'mix sweets for 1p or 2p. My particular favourites were fizzy cola bottles and chocolate tools. If we were feeling flush we'd get a quarter of lemon sherbert which would be eaten by dipping a wet finger into the paper bag. (You could never deny having eaten it as your finger ended up dayglo yellow).
In the summer we would splash out a whole 10p on a Sparkle lemonade lolly which I seem to remember had a joke imprinted on the stick? Ooh just remembered you could get "cider" lollies too - sure they weren't really cider but they tasted vaguely like rotting apples.

Back in the 60s I got 6d a week pocket money. I was allowed to spend 2d on a comic and 2d on sweets and was supposed to save 2d for things like an outfit for Sindy or some other toy. I can't remember the comic I usually bought, but the sweets were generally Fruit Salads because you got something like 4 for a penny, so I got 8 sweets, instead of, say, just 2 more expensive ones.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that there was a time when you got 8 for a penny.....?

I used mine to buy Stickers for my 'Animals of Farthing Wood' Sticker book - which my mum still has in her loft!! The spare stickers still cover the door of my childhood bedroom...

I didn't get pocket money as such as a child but I did used to get a paperback book once every couple of weeks (Famous Five, then Chalet School and then Sweet Valley High). I loved to buy books. I had older siblings so just used to eat their sweeties (they all had jobs!). I do remember having an Abbey National account & having my own passbook for my 'savings' - it was just for birthday money which I didn't really get a lot of so I never used to get any of the incentives
As a teen I had a bank account with a monthly allowance from dp's but I was at boarding school & had to get everything with this. It did really help me learn to budget & save up for things I really wanted to do (& that there will ALWAYS be someone with more than you do don't try to keep up spending-wise!)
DC's will be getting bank account & allowance on 10th birthday. They will then have to learn to budget for their 'treats'

I used to get 10p on a Friday and it used to go a long way then.

I was quite savvy at 7 and figured out that if I waited a week for my comic, it would go in a big box of half price ones, which meant I could have sweets too!

Sweets would always be half penny sweets, so I could get more. If I was feeling daring, I would go for a luck dip back- a white paper bag with surprise toy (plastic tat), stickers and sweets.

Sometimes I would get a 5p bag of football crisps or if I was feeling grown up and a bit 'gourmet' I would get fish'n'chip or scampi ones.

My 4 DC's don't get regular pocket money. I stuck to the idea of sweets and treats on a Friday, which they happily accept and really look forward to. If they get money at birthdays and Christmas it generally gets spent on books or (the latest fad) toys. The older 3 are better now at waiting, saving up or splitting their money so that they spend some and save some. My eldest is 10 and we will be encouraging him to open a bank account soon, just as I did as a child, so that he can start adding to it and learning how banking, saving and interest work.

I loved getting my 10p bag of sweets. Flying saucers, cola bottles and white mice were my favourite. If I had more to spend I would get a sweet necklace or watch - those that had sweets on an elastic.

At primary school there used to be a tuck shop trolley that sold chocolate cups - chocolate in foil cups - that I think were a penny.

As for magazines it was Girl & Dreamer if I remember rightly. And then Look-in and Just 17

I'd splash out on a 10p mix but I was a saver and saved up my pocket money (in my Nat West pig piggy banks!) for bigger things I wanted.

I didn't get pocket money regularly as a child, only £1 on special occasions like holidays or grandparents' visits. So I didn't waste it on sweets, I saved up for special toys.