Allowances for teens

[Chairmum]

My 14 yr old DD has requested she receive an allowance instead of pocket money. Does anyone else do this and if so, how do you work out what is a reasonable amount? When I tot up roughly how much we spend on her with regard to clothes, shoes etc, it breaks down into a rather alarming weekly/monthly amount. Is it best to just give her enough for entertainment/bus fares/birthday gifts or should it include school dinner money and so on?

We have started giving ds1 (aged 12)£15 per month which has to cover clothes except for school uniform and underwear, outings, magazines, presents for family and friends etc. In return he has to clean up his room and load and unload the dishwasher each evening as a minimum.

Up to now we had given each child 10p per week per year, ie an 8 year old gets 80p. This tsrted from about aged 5 or 6. But we never buy toys, comics, or anything else for them on a whim, they get presents at xmas and birthdays only. So far both the older ones have been very good at saving up for things they want. They'll spend 20p pr 30p on sweets then save the rest until they have enough for whateer they want. (They get £20 each at xmas and birthday from Grandmother too). They know there is absolutley no way we will give them money or 'stuff' in between times.
So I think £15 is going to be reasonable for ds1. I worked out he was getting £50+ per year anyway in pocket money, and have allowed 16 x £5 for buying presents, plus about £50 for clothes and £30 for cinema, swimming etc. Its not really a lot looked at that way but we will be reviewing after 6 months. I suppose I think the important thing is that he budgets and thinks about the consequences of his spending. If he's invited to a friend's party he might have to not buy the magazine or CD he wanted for himself so he can buy a gift for his friend.

We shall see.

I am fascinated by all the different thoughts. My step-daughter (17)has a monthly allowance (£50)to cover everything that is not education related. She also has a p-t job. She ends up with more disposable income than me! She still finds it insufficient and saves nothing. My son (just 14)also has a monthly allowance (£25) which he insists goes straight into a savings account. He does a paper round which brings in about £15 a week and allows himself a fiver a week from that to spend. He keeps the rest for holidays and when a surplus builds up puts it the savings.
Completely different attitudes from the 2 of them

I am 12 yrs old. i earn round about £15 per week, cleaning the house. I had been saving up £40 to buy myself a mobile phone, but it took ages because birthdays kept creeping up! But in the end i acheived my goal! My parents weren't too impressed but stuck by me because that is what i wanted and i did all by myself. I felt very proud, and had i been given the money i would have missed out on the experience and it was a very important one.

All my daughters 17, 16 and 14 have credit cards visa's which they use. they have about &2,000 per month. all of you giving your children 1,20 or whatever that the worst thing ever how are they supose to pay for anything. That the price of one chewing gum. My daughters buy lunch, clothes, shoes makeup whatever drinks when they go out everything.

You can't be serious! Was that really £2,000 a month. FFS, what do your kids spend money like that on? My teen 14 could go out and spend loads on clothes (he's a boy) but he knows money doesn't grow on trees. Each of mine gets £100 for Xmas and that's it. If the oldest one spends that on clothes, ie two items, that's it! I do wrap them up and he has to act surprised though! You must not only be leaded but how are they ever going to learn about budgets and saving up for things?!

is Coolmom a troll? Must be

It has to be a wind-up.

This is coolmoms only posting. I think someone's teenage kids were having some fun.

Hope my kids don't find out my "name" (gulp), all the stuff I've posted about them!

er...
I tend to let my kids earn their money.
They get an average of £3.00 per week. IF ds 14 needs money then I like to know what for. We then work out a plan of action for him to save it.
I have willingly given my ds £10 one evening - he hadn't had any money for 3 wks (wicked me!)
I found him in hospital after he had downed a bottle of vodka. Fortunately he has learned from his escapade. So have I.

An allowance from me will happen when I know both my children know the meaning of it. In the meantime, they will have to put up with me saving it up for them if they want any specific amount. Most of the time my 10yo is happy with what he gets.... for now.

I give dd (11.5) £40 per month which she uses to buy presents, non essential clothes, non essential shoes, books, toiletries etc. I buy her school stuff and essentials. For this she needs to keep her bedroom tidy and help around the house, also if her school work starts to suffer (due to boys etc) then it will be docked by £10 a month until it picks up again. Also continual cheekiness/insolence also is fineable. In addition to this she also has a riding lesson weekly at £15 pw

A monthly allowance is not just a great idea, it's essential for teaching youngsters how to mange their money. If more teenagers were given a monthly allowance, maybe fewer young adults would be in such debt as they are these days. We chose 14 as the starting age for responsibility. When ds & dd turned 14, we sat down and worked out what we thought we spent on them in an average year, for all things except shoes, coats and school uniform. We divided it by 12 and gave them that amount monthly directly into a bank account, for which they had cash cards. The rest was up to them. We would not buy them any more clothes or pay for any more bus fares etc. If they spent all the money in the first week of the month, then that was that, there was no more till the next month. If they wanted something 'big' thay had to save for it. This is the only way to learn how to budget and live within your means, imo. They learned that if they couldn't afford something then they couldn't have it; it's as simple as that. DD is still dependant on us (she's at uni) and we still do the monthly allowance thing (horrifically large amounts needed btw, for accomodation, food travel etc, so all you mums of younger children start saving now for when they're at uni!).

All of mine (except twins) get X10p for each year. DD2 gets 60p, DD1 gets £1. DS1 thought that £1.10 wasn't much for an 11 year old and so negotiated £10 per month allowance. With this he buys his own sweets, comics, presents etc. He also gives £1 a month to charity. He will be 12 in Dec and negotiated £20 a month. As his money will be increasing so will his responsibility. He will buy his own clothes, pay for cinema trips etc and days out with his mates. If his money runs out, whether on the first or last day he doesn't get anymore. I will provide his school bits, but only once. If he loses equipment, uniform etc then he has to replace them with his own money. Amazing how little he loses now. He is expected to help at home. It is non-negotiable. It has worked with my 16 year old niece for the past 5 years so the proof (for me) is in the pudding.

You're doing the right thing, MarsLady. You'll be glad you did in 10 or 15 years time, when all your friends that didn't are bailing their grown up children out of debt.

I was the one who talked my sister into giving my niece an allowance, and then I told her to remind me when it was my turn. I am so hopelessly crap with money that I never wanted it for my children. My DD1 can't wait to be 11 and have an allowance. What for, I don't know. She saves everything. All of my children are generous with each other and other people. They all save to buy pressies for each other. Thanks for your kind words 80sMum. I think that the children will be sorting me out in 10 - 20 years lol.

I agree it is important to teach teenagers the value of money. My 13 year old son receives £10 a week which can be increased or decreased depending on how helpful he is around the house and in keeping his room tidy! We pay for his contract phone - £25 a month - and in nearly two years he has only gone over the limit twice. both times he had to pay the excess. He also has a once weekly paper round which he was desperate to do and gets around £7 for that. He is a good saver and bought me a gold bracelet for his birthday. Hopefully it will stand him in good stead when he gets older. His younger brother will receive an allowance when he goes to high school.

i have five children, at the moment my dd(12) in the last year has been receiving an allownace of ten pounds per month paid via dd into her own account with a solo card.for this i expect her to help with household chores and keeping bedroom tidy.i may increase this next month when she turns 13 by maybe 2.50. with her monies she is responsible for buying presents for her friends,anything she wants to save for but isnt allowed to buy sweets with it.she is very responisble with it and has saved up for an mp3 player in which she was slightly short so is paying my catologue so much per month.i am thinking og given my next one down an allowance has he equaly does as much in the way of jobs(he is nine soon)i also want them to get either a parer round or a saturday job like i did when i was thirteen.

I had a £50 a month allowance and my son still gets it but it's not really worked as it should because that barely pays for anything now he's 18, particularly not clothes and DVDs so I just ended up paying for what he needed on top of the allowance although when he was younger it was a good way of him learning to manage money and the same with his older sisters. Now I pay them a set sum a week by standing order at university and that's worked well. They can never run out of money all year as it's paid weekly and they can't ask for any other money as that's all they get and they know it.

.. I meant I paid to him (not I had) the £50.

Agree about paying students weekly rather than monthly or termly. I have a weekly S/O set up for DS1 - the amount varies depending on whether he is in a catered hall or in a student house. However, skint he may be he knows that there will be money at the end of the week. He works (when he can get a job) to augment this.
DS2 aged 15 gets about £40 paid as a S/O into his building society account and also does a paper round so has loadsamoney (compared with his parents)

OH, that's £40 per month to the 15 year old, not per week and he uses it to buy sports equipment though not clothing.

For those of you paying an allowence to your children who are at university do you also pay thier tuition and accomadation fees or does this come out of thier allowence.
My 19 year old is going into her 2nd year of uni at the end of September. She was in halls for the first year we paid her tuition fees and accomadation fees. But she paid for everything else out of her student loan and Saterday job ( she did also do some extra hours). We stopped giving her an alowence when she got a job at the age of 16 although when she lost the job thriugh no fault of her own we did give her an allowence while she was looking for anther one. This year she will be living in private student housing Which is going to cost £240 pound a month we have asked her to contribute £40 of this which she is quite happy with. We are still paying her tuition fes. She has managed her money very well and has never actually ran out although she did just about spend all her money the first term.
I don't think yoong peopls at university should have an allowence from thier parents as they have to learn to be independent and live within thier budget. My 16 year old gets £30 per month but is looking for a job at the moment and when she gets one her allowence will stop. My 14 year old will get £25 per month from the 1st September. They have to buy thier own clothes with this ( not school uniform or basic footwear)

From about 14 my mum used to give me £40 a month and I bought my own clothes & shoes (for school & home), paid for entertainment. She paid for food & most of my toiletries.

I also had a paper round so earned a bit of money myself.

I ended up saving quite a lot of the money each month which was useful when it came to driving lessons.