Money

[lemonstartree]

How much money do you give your 14 year old, how often, and what do you expect it to cover? would you give more if your could? what do you do if it runs out with 'essentials ' still to pay for ?

How do you 'teach' budgeting - given that I am not that great at self discipline myself ?

What I have done since DD was about 12 was to give her an allowance which covers clothes & pocket money.

It depends on what you class as 'essentials'. For me I kept the 'essentials' such as school uniform, school dinners out on purpose. But if she runs out of make up or doesn't have enough for a new pair of shoes/whatever then that's all part of the learning curve.

At 14 I gave mine £35 a month which was I felt enough for her to buy some cheap clothes but forced her to save for a better brand. I can afford to give her more but what would I teach her?

She's 16 now and bimbled back yesterday with a pair of trainers for £65! It's fine cos she's saved up and used some xmas money.

My 14 yr old dd has £14 a month from us.
We pay for her subs for things she attends, we buy clothes as she needs them. She's not interested in makeup and HATES clothes shopping, so there's no 'battle' for us there.
She pays for her phone, any 'going out' she does, sweets, etc., and presents for people at birthdays and Christmas.
She wanted more money though, and has got herself a job which earns her another £6 - £7ish a week. Mostly she saves this.
No, I wouldn't give her more (we could). She doesn't have any 'essentials' she needs to pay for.

ds (who is older) however is hopeless with his money. We give him £16 a month, and, until recently he had 2 jobs on the go, so he was netting about £50 a week but he's NEVER got any money . We work very strictly on the basis that we won't "sub" him for anything. We remind him of things coming up, and every now and then I tell him things like how much he could have saved (he's hoping to start learning to drive when he's 17), and how much learning to drive is going to cost him. We won't 'cave' though, as he's chosen to spend so much over the last 8 months or so.