bed and board!

[Auntymandy]

A couple of friends with children starting work asked how much is the going rate for board..what do uou think?
I said 10% seems fair

Paying for his lunch his his choice, as Colditz says he could easily make his lunch at home where there is always loads of food. He is very well looked after and is given money for his bus pass etc each week. He is learning the value of money and it shows, he now knows how difficult it is to earn a fiver. This is an invaluable lesson imho.

But Soapbox, I don't believe that lunch out and entertainment are living costs. He doesn't have to buy any of that, it's not like he is being made to buy his own toilet roll and butter etc... he has the option to go without and not suffer for it.

Well, I'd say either you save it or I take it

I concede that it is hard to make them save it, but at 17 a bit of mentoring and careful direction ought to produce the goods.

If they really wouldn't then let them pay for school lunch but put £15 a week in a bank account for them would have the same result!

I agree with you Colditz on entertainment - very much so!

School lunches - no - absolutely no!

Ok Soapbox, my dss buys his lunch because it is usually crap deep fried rubbish of the sort teenagers like. I provide incredibly healthy well balanced meals at home. There are always healthy ingredients for him to make his lunch with at home. He used to do this before he got his job. Now he prefers to buy crap and spend the extra 10 minutes in bed.

This is the priveledge he has earned by working for a wage. I will not provide him with cash to buy rubbish food but I respect his choice to do so with the cash he has earned himself. This is NOT bad parenting, this is steering a young man towards adulthood.

Well that isn't how you described it

...and his school lunches!

If it is a choice for him to spend that money then I suppose it is fair enough.

I agree that subbing unhealthy lunches is not the job of parents

Thanks for all that!!!
So what shall I tell may friends you wise mumsnetters said?
I never paid bored, but think I will ask for 10% when they start work, putting it away for them when they leave home!

I paid about 25%, which unknown to me, was saved and paid a good deposit on my first flat.

I hope that we can do the same for our kids!