do you give your teen a monthly allowance?

[polly28]

and how much do you give?

what it is meant to cover?

we are planning on starting one with dd who is 13,nearly 14.

she earns money now through babysitting occasionally,we are currently giving her money when she needs it,with the understanding that she earns it .She will do odd jobs around the house for extra cash but her daily chores ie.the dishes or bathing ds are not financially rewarded .

I would like to know how others deal with teaching teens the value of money.

T-Mobile do a mates rates one... any good? I don't know anything about it.. just that my niece uses it.

Also there's a mix version they do... contract but when you run out of the monthly limit it turns into PAYG

she got a job at Tesco when she was old enough and before that we bought most of her stuff - I don't recall giving much out in the way of pocket money and certainly no allowance! I suppose if you can afford it - we couldn't.

They didn't seem to complain though

I find it cheaper to give an allowance. This way I don't have to buy them any more clothes etc. and they pay for their own trips out with their mates. Lovely!

I have the added problem that my DD1 seems to be very academically orientated. She has been "entered" or "highlghted" to do 17 exams next year including doing an A level early (does it as a extra after school). We realise that she just does not have time to get a job, even though she would welcome one. Babysitting would seem to be about her lot really. It seems to take her all night, every night to so all the homework she gets.

I am lucky enough to run my own business and I could ALWAYS do with her help, but to be very fair to her, she just does not seem to have the time even to help me out. She is not a shirker at all. Week evenings we never seem to see her except for dinner time as she is busy doing school work.

Her cousin, on the other hand, has left school and has more free time as she does not have a definte direction to go in yet, so I pay her to do work for me for which her mother is very grateful as it helps them out. My niece does do an excellent job though and deserves every penny I pay her.

Our 3 dds were keen to have more responsibility to buy their own clothes, toiletries etc., so we all sat down and worked out a rough idea of how much they would need in a year, and then gave them a monthly allowance.

As they have got older, the allowance has increased to include mobile phone charges, petrol etc., and they have to budget so that they don't run out of anything.

We are lucky in that we can afford to give them an allowance but, as Pisces has said, I think it is costing us less this way than if we bought stuff for them. It hopefully makes them more responsible. They can earn extra money doing babysitting.

good for her pisces.

I hope she does well. And as there is no time for her to work the money that you give her seems fair.

Will she get the EMA money... for staying on?

She is only still in Year 10 Mars Lady. Not at college yet. She seems to have this gift for academic studies...... Don't know where it comes from - LOL! Her brother has Aspergers. I seem to think she is along those lines as well and that the obsession she has is school work! At least that is a good trait! Bad trait is that she is obessive about almost everything being "perfect" so that makes life difficult at times........even down to how I speak! Oh well, life cannot always be perfect, have to take the rough with the smooth - LOL!

just raising my glass to you pisces.

and on that note am off to my bed!

fck me - am so sorry but i do find some sums here obscene its my view and i am entitled to it.

my kids dont get some amounts mentioned - for their birthday - once a year.

what the fck does a kid want with all that money at 13.14.15?

flabberghasted isn't the word.

in answer to the question no i dont give my kids money - they do chores becuase they fking well should.

my daughter wanted to go to the pictures - we struck a deal - she cleaned my car and the toilet. - each as equally disgusting i may add.

and that was a treat they would not ask for every week - or every month for that matter.

i am being overty fecitious when i say - how many clothes does a 13, 14, year old need? they are in school all week - in a uniform, do they really need designer wear from 4-8pm?

hellmouthcusty(that's a mouthful),

I agree they should be expected to do chores around the house without being given money for it.Hell I do everyday,why shouldn't she.

How do your kids pay for their mobiles,clothes etc.

My dd doesn't buy designer clothes,I'm talking new look,markone,primark here.They still cost money albeit less.

I think getting her to manage money now will help her in the future.We've been doing the same as you for a while now ie if she needs money ,we get her to do an out of the ordinary chore for us.It doesn't seem to teach her how to manage money or to save up for something she really wants,which I think is a valuable life lesson.

my kids spend their birthday money on topping up their mobiles - why would i pay for it?

i buy their clothes - but i dont buy even £20 per month on clothes.

I wasn't saying you should pay for it,you're a tad defensive about this.

you asked how they pay for it - i answered i wasn't being defensive

Custy, totally agree with you. Why on earth would any parent want to pay for their childrens mobile phones. They want a phone, they will have to pay for it. I am going to seem as tight as a ducks a**e here, my 14yo dd gets £10 a month from us, yes £10. I buy her school stuff and clothes and the odd bus fares here and there. She has to buy what I would call 'luxuries'. She has babysat and had a job in the summer.
I have to say I find £100 a month for a 14yro extraordinary. Where on earth is the incentive to ever think about getting a job?
I understand about the amount of school work and my 16yo sounds very similar to yours Pisces. She took 14 GCSE's and held down a job at our local pub. She spends a lot of time socialising but there is always a few hours in the week when they can earn!

Sorry, I should have said "she spends a lot of time studying" (not socialising, although she does manage to fit in some of that as well!)

£100 a month doesn't seem that much to me if it includes paying for clothes other than uniform.
It's less than £25 a week - so a pizza, cinema ticket & bus fares one week and half a new outfit the next week?

I got £100 a month allowance when I started at college when i was 16, the deal was that for as long as I was at college I would continue getting the £100 a month allowance which was for bus fare's, lunches, socialising etc.
It was a good idea but even the money didn't keep me at college for longer than 6 weeks. when I left, it was then my responsibilty to get a job and support myself. My mum used to do standard food shopping every week and if i wanted anything different, I had to pay for it myself.

I don't have a teenager, so don't know what I will do when it's my turn to make these decisions. But, a friend told me his stance, and it seemed sensible.

He pays for college fees, clothes and will top up his sons' bank account on an "as needed and agreed" basis. He gives them £25 per week for spending money. Anything extra, they earn with part time jobs. One works at Subway, one works at Old Trafford. He's convinced that earning their own money, combined with a modest allowance is a significant factor in why his boys don't binge drink, or get into other trouble. Those other activities are simply too expensive, especially as the boys know how long it takes them to earn money, and how hard they have to work for it. Makes sense to me....

thanks for all your replies I think I'll start an allowance as it will teach her to atleast manage money.

Obviously the amount people give varies alot ,same with xmas ,b'days etc.It's amazing how different people are !

Over 16s are different - DS1 is 17 (I said DS1 before, meant DS2), and he gets no pocket money. He does a milk round collection one evening, he works at the paper shop one morning (5am start ) and does 13 hours at Sainsburys every week - total weekly about £90. We pay for school uniform, he pays for everything else, and he has just taken $500 of his own money on a school trip to the US (which he has paid for 2/3 of too).

(I also make him give me "keep" of £50 a month - it's actually more like skivvy money to compensate me for constantly picking up his stuff from all over the house and finding 2 machine-loads worth of dirty washing in the laundry basket at once when I've just cleared it. Makes us both feel better!)

He is still silly with money but at least it's his own and I'm hoping he will learn eventually. DS2 is desperate for a job and keeps asking when he can get one

custy I'm liking your style!

I suppose it depends on the individual family income and what you can afford.We started this with ds aged 11 when he started secondary school this year with 15 pounds a month.He gets fined a pound a time for answering back and leaving his stuff at his a**e and subsequently has never had any yet!He has been an angel this month though so should get his money on Nov 1st.Custy you are evil

There's some very well off teens out there!

In our house dd1 12, gets £15 a month, ds2 14 gets the same plus her earns £12 a week from a paper round. They buy their own luxuries, top ups etc.

ds1 doesn't get anything from us. He's 17, he gets £10 a week EMA and works part-time earning about £90 a week. He pretty much pays for all his own stuff except anything for college which we pay for.