Tell RoosterMoney your thoughts about pocket money - £250 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Following the release of their latest Pocket Money Index, RoosterMoney would like to know your thoughts surrounding pocket money. RoosterMoney is a pocket money app that’s designed to help parents take kids from their first steps in understanding the value of money to their first bank account.

Here’s what RoosterMoney have to say: “The Pocket Money Index is a fun glimpse into the habits of young pocket money earners in the UK. Every Family gives pocket money differently and ultimately it's up to you as to how you approach it. As the world of money becomes more digital it can be harder to teach kids about money, so RoosterMoney aims to provide some structure along the way."

So, take a look at the Pocket Money Index and post your thoughts on it below. Also, if you’re a regular pocket money giver, RoosterMoney would like to know if your children are on par with the index, and what your children do to earn their pocket money – do they complete chores, have a reward chart, or maybe they get it on a regular basis without strings attached?

All those who post below on the thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 Amazon voucher.

Thanks, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

That's interesting. I think my teen DDs do pretty well as we pay for their phone contracts and give them money for outings, although they don't get a set amount weekly, it does add up.

Interesting to see that toys are the thing most spent on by children with pocket money, but I guess having smaller children, I fall into a different category here. I limit pocket money deliberately as they both just want to buy as many sweets as possible with it! So the incentive to earn pocket money is less if I don't let them spend it on this.

We normally give money for good work at school, or for doing jobs. Or we just give them a choice of a treat (not sweets, usually a cinema trip or something else) or a toy.

We don't give regular pocket money as a matter of course. Although I would like to give them an idea of saving to buy something eventually. At the moment they don't really grasp that idea though.

DS 9 gets £10 a month and is expected to do every chore I ask him. He tidies room every day, hoovers occasionally, mops floor when asked, lays table and has even cooked dinner before! The best request which was honoured was sweeping leaves from front garden. Bless him.

I give my 14 yr old just under the national average, but I pay for his phone contact (£5).

His pocket money is meant to be for things like the cinema, trips into town, birthday presents for friends, and to save for big things, but in reality most gets spent on food and drinks while he's at the skate park. We're addressing this, to try to motivate him to save more ( basically stocking the kitchen with things he likes and can take with him to the skate park and looking after his been card for him)

And Ds does whatever we ask him to do around the house. We don't pay for chores, and strongly disagree with rewarding good school work with money

My children get a set amount of pocket money each week. With the added incentive of a more/a top up if they do an extra chore or something helpful.

I think it's a great learning tool for children. Not just maths problems through recognising currency and counting their saved money. But also, they learn the true value of money when they purchase something after earning and saving by themselves.

My 6 year old gets a fair bit more than what is on the index. She does chores in order to get pocket money and a bonus for certificates at school, excellent work, being kind or tooth fairy etc.

She's quite wise to the fact that there is little or nothing that 20p can buy her so she will do a list of chores for me at the weekend for £5. Dusting, wiping, tidying, sorting..... whatever needs done.

She usually saves her money for holidays/toys but she will splurge every now and then and take some money to school to put in her tuck account so that she can get an extra treat a couple of times.

It works for us and gives her confidence with money.

Interesting to see four year olds get on average £2.04 per week!

I'd like to start teaching DS about money, he's nearly 4. Right now we have a sticker chart and when it's full it can be exchanged for one toy. So he is learning to work for things, but not that different toys have different costs.

It's an interesting site and I'll definitely spend more time looking.

DS is too young for spending money just now but it's interesting to see what the averages are! Thankfully they're a little more manageable than what I've been led to believe by my (obviously generous) family and friends! In the future I'll probably give DS a small basic amount of money which isn't earned but with the opportunity to earn more through chores etc. I was a bit surprised to see kids earning money for good behaviour, I'd be more likely to lower money given for poor behaviour, but I suppose if he went the extra mile I'd maybe give more money for excellent behaviour.

Mine don't get pocket money but get paid (v well!) for jobs they do to help out. They are now really good at helping me out and don't always expect money. Do get given money to spend if they are going out somewhere with friends and don't really earn that.

We started giving DS (9) pocket money but there has never been anything that he really wants to spend it on. He's not bothered about sweets or toys and gets plenty of stuff for birthday/Christmas. If we are out and about he might buy something from a gift shop for a few pounds but that's about it. The only thing he has said is that he wants an iPad and he's well on the way to being able to buy it himself.

Maybe we are too generous and he has most things covered right now. We are going to keep going for the time being and then consider whether to introduce jobs that he needs to do to earn his money!

We have never given our 16 year old or our 6 year old pocket money as we buy what they need when they need it, they do however get pocket money from their grandparents. The 16 year old spends it on trivial things like snacks and computer games but the 6 year old does not spend any. We opened them both a savings account when they were born to put money from birthdays and such in and while the amount is increasing for the 6 year old, the opposite has to be said for the teenager. It doesn't matter how carefully you teach them to look after their money, once they become responsible for it their nature will take over!

Have just started giving my DS (15) a monthly allowance of £40, although it's enlightening to see how much more frugal he is with it than he was beforehand! He seems to save most of it for desired items rather than just frittering it away which is all good. He is supposed to buy most of his own stuff from that allowance.

Should consider giving regular pocket money to DD (10) but know that she would just fritter it away, so haven't gone down that avenue yet. However, when she goes to secondary school we probably will give her some, otherwise she wont' come to understand the true value of money.

My DS is 3 and I have started to give him 50p-£1 a week when I remember. He enjoys going to the charity shop/ pound shop to spend it. Any extra goes into a piggy bank.

I wouldn't give money as he gets older for doing chores because I'm not going to reward him for meeting basic expectations of being part of a family.

My DD is 4 & has just started school. I suspect some of her classmates probably get pocket money, we're going to give her £1 a week to start with, plus a bit more for tidying her toys / clothes etc (she currently just throws stuff randomly & leaves dirty clothing on the floor). As she gets older we'll tie part of it to chores but she'll get a basic amount to build on.

I don't believe in promising rewards for educational achievement, but I do agree with rewarding effort put in to education, sports, music practice etc.

The app looks fun.

Dc1 is 6 and gets £1 a week - on a Saturday or Sunday at the point his floor is free of Lego! Additional pocket money can be earned for chores, but I tend not to bother with that much.

We give our two £4 a week and it's usually spent on software for their latest Minecraft addiction. They're 8 and 7. I would rather give them the physical cash so that they begin to appreciate the value of money and how much (little!) it buys. Ieuan is quite good at saving up to buy something he really wants but Caitlin is easily seduced by anything Shopkins and we have to walk really quickly past Claires Accessories! We decided on this amount because it's about the price of a child's magazine which we were buying them anyway.

My DD (6) gets £2 per week, which is slightly below average, but if she saves it up for 'something big' I match her savings. So she's about to buy a £20 Draculaura dress for Halloween, she had to save for 5 weeks for that.

For that, I expect her to get herself ready for school in the mornings, keep her toys relatively tidy, help around the house without moaning when asked, generally keep her bed made etc.

She started with £1 per week aged 4.5, when I got sick of being pestered for magazines/treats etc, and it took her about a year of buying a Kinder Egg every weekend before she clicked that saving up was a good way forward. She then negotiated her pocket money doubling and we worked out what extra jobs would be expected of her.

So far I'm really pleased, and she's already started looking at the relative cost of toys and figuring out for herself whether to buy them.

DD is 8yo and gets £1 a week pocket money regardless and this goes into a savings account. She can then draw it out when we go on holiday so she has some spending money. She also gets a monthly comic for around £3-4 a month.

She earns extra money by helping out around the house and is currently earning money towards a Brownie trip. I want her to know that you have to work for things in life, that it they are not just given to you.

I buy her whatever else she needs/wants. As she gets older, she will get more money and it will have to pay for everything she wants, books, comics etc

My 8 year old son gets a base rate of £1 per week. He then has the opportunity to earn more on top of that. He earns 10p for opening the blinds in the lounge (there are five), he gets 50p for emptying the dishwasher and 50p for putting his clean clothes away and helping sort out socks and 30p for putting out the recycling. Occasionally there are things he can do for my business which he gets a better rate for as an "employee".
His money goes straight into his bank account. Every so often he will see something he wants to buy and asks if he has enough. He isn't allowed to buy anything food related and is always encouraged to buy something meaningful. A few times he has wanted something expensive and has saved up for it, such as he bought a Kindle and also a Lego train. I think he forgets he has the money in the first place half the time! He took some of his money on holiday.
Birthday money and gifts from grandparents also goes into his account until he decides what he's buying. He knows that the bank pay interest for his money. As he gets older and wants to borrow money he will be introduced to interest being charged for borrowing.

My DD is 8 and gets £1 a week pocket money which as I expected is lower than average. She occasionally gets £10 from grandparents and other family members as well. She's definitely a saver, if she wants something she asks for it for her birthday or Christmas rather than spending her own money. She occasionally spends a small amount on stationery, ice cream etc and bought me a bar of chocolate the other week!
I think learning to budget and save is very important but interestingly she disagrees with me and would rather not have the responsibility of having to decide what to do with her money.

I don't agree with pocket money

My DS is 5 and we haven't started regular pocket money yet, we just buy him the odd comic or give him a set amount to spend (usually £2-5 depending where we are) if we are in a shop. But I think we might start giving him pocket money soon - I'm not sure if we would do it based on chores, helping out etc, or would just dock it if he had done something particularly naughty

We tried pocket money, but kept forgetting and our son started asking for money when he was just doing jobs around the house. My point was that we all live here and should all help out and so pocket money has lapsed, but I do put an amount each month into a savings account for him. Luckily he's not interested in spending it and so it just accumulates.

My 11yo is getting above average at £20 a month, I started this over the summer holidays as every time we went shopping she asked for more and more things. Now if she wants something she buys it herself so is learning that if you spend it all in the first week it's a long time till payday. A lesson I wish I'd learnt at a young age. I don't ask anything of her to earn her pocket money but if the time comes when she asks for more then we can top it up in payment for jobs around the house. So far stationary is her fave thing to buy, but that could be the start of secondary school excitement. The pocket money index is great to get ideas from and to show the children that their not hard done by when we put limits on money.