Pocket money/ allowance for secondary school aged child?

[LeFaye]

I was wondering how much pocket money you give your children who are in secondary school?

What does that money need to cover?

And do you give them cash or do they have cards (pre paid/ their own bank account?). Thank you!

Mine get £25 a month into a bank account with a debit card. They rarely spend it tbh

We give DD2 y9 £15 per month discretionary spending money. It may well go up to £20 or £25 when she starts socialising more independently. This covers PAYG phone too. It goes into a Nationwide account and she has a cash card (not a debit card).

I'm not keen on teens getting used to too much frittering of money as when they are at uni / first job they won't have much then.

My 12 year old gets £20 a month into his account. We pay for his phone on top of that too.

My 15 year old gets £100 per month (usually cash though she does have an account with a debit card). We also pay for her mobile phone.

steph What does she have to buy out of that, or is it all entertainment/presents/extras?

Teen - I buy basic things such as shampoo/tampons/deodorant etc and then anything else she wants such as hair products/clothes/friends birthday presents she has to buy herself.

My dd isn't interested in buying clothes or hair stuff or make up so £25 a month is plenty for her.

Yes without that then it would probably be sufficient for mine too

I've done direct payments to their banks since 11, started at £20 and increased as they became responsible for paying for more stuff

16 - 50 per month
13 - 20 per month
11 - 10 per month

But we also pay mobile phone contracts, clubs, hair cuts, most clothes.

Blimey I think PPs are pretty generous! Dd is 13yo and I've recently started giving her £10 a month.

I buy her clothes, toiletries etc so it's really only for the odd thing she wants to buy. If she goes out with friends I would give her extra money and I give her extra if we go on holiday.

14 year old - £20 a month.
She also earns £17 a week from paper round. We pay for phone, clothes and clubs on top of that.
17 year old - £60 a month.
She earns £12 a week from paper round.
We pay for phone and gym but she pays for clothes (except underwear and school clothes) and everything else.

I give a pound a Month per year of age (so 14yo would get £14 pcm) no strings attached. There are things they need to do around the house, but it's not linked to pocket money, and tbh, my children like to save for big things so rarely spend what they have. They like to know they can buy things if they want them... but rarely need things so much they want to spend their own money rather than mine on!

DD starts yr7 in September. We can't afford to give her anything. Paying her dinner money will be hard, if that's what she opts for.

I give my two an amount based on what children in care get (pocket money rates are set so as not to disadvantage them from their peers so I figured they were a realistic amount

Age 11 £3.50-£5.00
Age 12 £4.00-£6.00
Age 13 £4.50-£7.00
Age 14 £5.50 - £8.00
Age 15 £6.50-£9.00
Age 16 £8.00 - £10.00
Age 17 £9.00 - £10.50

In addition dd likes to buy her own clothes and personal hygeine items so I give her an extra £15 per week for that plus anything she needs for college. I buy all ds's clotthes/toiletries/school stuff so he just gets £8 per week.

Both of them have a VOXI phone contract at £10 per month. Ds walks to school and we pay dd's train fayres.

DSD 18 gets GBP400 straight to her bank account but lives in a different country to us and has to pay rent and bills etc with that and gets similar help from her mother who lives in same country as her. DDs 15 and 16 get GBP40 each month, in to bank account that has a debit card. I buy their basic toiletries and basic clothing like underwear, and school uniform, they buy anything ‘fancy’ they want toiletry, make up and clothes wise. They do a LOT to help out at home, DH has worked abroad for years and so we’ve become a very efficient little unit at home and work as a team. I pay for their phone sim only contract which is GBP10, they don’t use it much really. They also get some presents occasionally like last weekend I bought DD1 some stuff in H and M and DD2 some t shirts at a gig, these because they’d been working so hard (both studying for GCSEs and they are soooo busy) and being generally lovely. They both save some of their money and both have paid some in to their junior isa (which I started off with their old child trust funds) as they’d both like to save for a little car when the time comes. So I think they’ve got a good ish relationship with money, they work for what they get and they’re learning to save too.

Mine gets £40 per month. We are obviously overpaying her😬

DS 14 gets £80 a month. Mainly he uses it for going out with friends to cinema or out for food. Or Fifa points online. Or a new top or something if he goes into town. I encourage him to save it up when he doesn't need it and he is saving for a new xbox. He doesn't get any clubs paid for as he trains 4 x a week with a football team but we buy him boots kit etc when needed. He has PAYG phone but we top up usually £10 a month. He also dog walks for family and does small garden jobs to earn extra. He has a bank account with a card.

DD 12 gets £10/£20 as and when she goes out but I pay weekly for a pony loan for her so she gets plenty and spends most of her time there so doesn't go out loads. She has a contract phone and a horse magazine we pay for. Also she has dance lessons and dance kit. SHe has a childs account but next year will change to one with a card. Both linked to mine with online banking so I can transfer money in.

Also give them dinner money £20-30 a week between them

I buy all basic toiletries and all their chlothes but if they want extra's they use their own pocket or birthday money xxx

My 15 year old DD gets £20 per month, plus extra for cinema tickets twice a month and things like certain clothes such like tights, socks, shoes and winter coats. She has a youngster nationwide card, not a visa card but can take money out from from a ATM and pay with it in shops. As she's slightly obsessed with charity shops we do tend to give her the money in cash though as easier to pay in second hand shops. My MIL may give her another £10 per month but I can't remember last time she asked for extra money.

Year 9 upwards all three of my children got £10 per week so £40 per month. However that's to cover clothes / entertainment, lunch with friends and whatever else.

I pay their phone contract, expensive things (trainers, winter coats, sports subs etc).

Year 7&8 I just gave them money when they went out with friends (at that age there wasn't a lot of demands).

Dd14 gets £35 a month plus her phone paid and a weekly kids newspaper that she loves. If she goes to the cinema I pay because I can get cheap codes via a work scheme.
She buys clothes but only non essential items, make up and gimmicky health food that I refuse to pay for.

We opened an instant access savings account and a debit account for ds(15) when he started secondary.

We deposit into it £100/month and it covers:

Giff Gaff phone £10
Netflix £5.99
School Morning Snack & Lunches (20-22 days a month) approx. £44

He cancels Netflix if he isn't watching anything. He now spends less on school lunch (drinks water instead of buying sugary drinks) as he doesn't want to spend his own money. He transfers money straight from his account to the parent pay account at school.

The rest of the money (£40ish) is if he needs anything to go out with friends. He doesn't always spend it all and if he doesn't he transfers to the savings account and has saved up for a couple of things in the last couple of years. During school holidays he's not paying for lunch so has a bit of extra cash then.

He has online access to the accounts on his phone and can see balances. He has an ATM card but if he needs cash he usually online transfers £5-£10 to my account and I'll give it to him as he doesn't like carrying the card around. He has ApplePay setup but doesn't like using it, prefers cash.

It has worked well for us (not saying we didn't have teething problems along the way!), but he's pretty money aware now.

Mine get £50 month
And their phone contracts which is another £50 a month

My secondary aged kids ( and older primary aged kids) get 10 pound a week, but they do lots of chores to earn that. Secondary aged child also has phone contract which I pay for.