Do you think this monthly allowance is reasonable?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Dd (14.5) gets £50/month. This includes going out, non essential clothes and friends’ presents.

We pay for anything to do with school, essential items such as underwear and pyjamas, big items such as coats and we pay for her phone.

Dd is moaning. She loves clothes but I’ve pointed out she needs to learn to budget and leave some money for the end of the month.

Just trying to work out if the amount is reasonable.

£100 a month 😱

15 years ago, my parents gave me £220 a month while I was at uni. Which covered everything from food, running a car, toiletries, clothes, excessive amounts of tequila shots. I did perfectly fine on it!

At that age DD had £20 pm plus her phone and clothes paid for. At 16 it encouraged her to get a part time job.

13 year old. £25 per month from which we encourage her to save.

Even if you can afford more, giving a teen loads of disposable income does not prepare them for budgeting as a young adult.

My 16 year old DD had 80€ per month at 14, and has 100€ per month at 16. She travels into the nearest big city for college now (we pay her subsidised annual rail pass) and it felt right to increase it to allow for the odd bakery type lunch as well as the other things she's paid for for the last two years. No school uniform here so she pays for all her clothes except underwear - I didn't want her put off buying decent bras! Her phone is pay as you go and we pay for the basic data top up but anything else she adds at her own expense. We insure "her" motorbike (which is actually mine on the paperwork and will be passed on to her younger siblings in turn) so she can get herself to the station and she pays petrol (the ten litre tank does 400km so that's not a big expense! She'd only have to spend about 5€ per month if she only went to the station to catch the train to college).

My 14 year old elected to stick to just pocket money and I buy his clothes and friends presents. We made swapping to an allowance optional until they stop growing, and DD had stopped growing at 14 but DS1 hasn't so the buying your own clothes and shoes especially seems less attractive if still having growth spurts and needing to replace ankle grazing trousers and all your outgrown shoes at once! Pocket money is 32€ per month.

@scully29

Why doesnt she get a job? Theres loads of jobs in hospitality just now? She could waitress occasional hours and have loads of money surely? 14s not too young to waitress.

You’re joking! Round here no one will employ an under 16, and even 16-18 they’re not keen on as can’t serve alcohol. My middle dd looked bloody hard for a hospitality job over the summer, she did a trial shift at one place (unpaid), they didn’t even bother to get back to her. She handed her CV in everywhere, eventually she got a job in a Holiday Inn. And that was as an 18 year old.

We have just started giving 16 YO DD £120 a month. This is for everything- all her clothes, make-up, toiletries (apart from household basics) and socialising. It sounds a lot but I actually think it's realistic. If you give too little they constantly need topping up which defeats the object of learning to budget.

17-yr-old DD has basics bought for her e.g. coat, underwear, jeans, shampoo, school stationery and until recently I've covered the cost of birthday gifts for friends (about £15 and only a few times a year because they do a joint thing between a few of them). She's also had £10 pw lunch money which can be used at school or at the Sainsbury en route. If she wants to make lunch at home and save the money, she can. We've never given her an allowance as she's been earning her own money since she was 12 doing various things such as feeding cats, babysitting, helping younger children with music practice etc. She sells unwanted clothes on ebay or Depop which is how she funds her clothes-buying.

12-yr-old DD doesn't have an allowance but has minimal interest in spending money at the moment. She has taken on pet-feeding/house-sitting for a couple of local families when they're away which seems to pay her quite well and she made lots of money from selling old toys recently (well cared for and had saved the original packaging) so that'll keep her for a good while yet.

Thank you all, really helpful.

So maybe £50 is a little on the low side if it includes friends presents. I will have a think about putting it up to £60.

Same age, I give £50 a month too. I pay for everything else, phone, clothes, extra curricular, friend’s presents - three friends Christmas and birthdays circa £15 each time so £100 per year.

I expect a tidyish room, taking part in family life, i.e. emptying dishwasher and effort at school.

I had a job from 13 back in the day as my parents couldn’t afford to give us pocket money. But I can, she volunteers somewhere once a week for two hours and is doing 11 GCSEs - I’d rather she worked at those for now tbh.

@GavlarVIII what does she use the money for?

Books mostly, earrings at TKMaxx 😂, odd snacks, bits of make up, clothes sometimes but she isn’t much of a shopper tbh.

I buy clothes a couple of times a year so she’s always got clothes for the season iyswim. But sometimes she wants something extra and might use it for those. But I’m a soft touch OP so if the clothes she’s buying are things I approve of and I’m with her I just pay for them.

I pay for haircuts every six weeks and buy all skincare/toiletries and things like mascara for both of us on subscription as I had a nasty bacterial eye infection when I was a student and have always binned my mascara after three months ever since.

15 yo has recently had an increase to £40 / month, as has started socialising a bit more. I've actually decided to give £10 / week so it doesn't all get spent too soon. Once budgeting has improved, I'll look to switch to monthly. I cover activities, phone, enough clothes and also top up a bit if needed. I'm trying to encourage DC to budget a bit and think about how many clothes they really need as that's what a lot gets spent on. Will increase a bit as they get older, especially once they are in 6th form.

What does your daughter do to earn the £50 handed to her each month?
What does she do to value it?

Does she have jobs to do at home?

Or is it just handed over?
She needs to value it before she can respect it and have the cheek to say it's not enough IMHO

Very little tbh @Anordinarymum she is expected to look after her guinea pig and do a few basic chores such as putting the shopping away and unloading the dishwasher.

I really don’t want to go back to the money not including clothes. Dd is clothes mad, she buys online so each time I had to approve her choice and use my card etc. A teen’s interpretation of what ‘enough’ clothes is is very different from reality! That’s why I started the allowance to include clothes, to make her think before buying yet another top.

When dd was around 14, I think we gave her £10 a week. She very quickly learned how to budget for things she really wanted (Harry Potter merchandise mostly), and that buying four different nail varnishes one week meant she had to wait longer to afford something else.

She is now adept at it, and her friends love taking her shopping with them, as she can sniff out piles of good value bargains so well.

It's a funny question OP as it depends how much money you have. If you don't have any spare cash then £0 a month is reasonable.

I got a bit more than that and it was never enough because of having to buy my own clothes. That should be separate. I ended up looking like shit.

@bendmeoverbackwards

I really don’t want to go back to the money not including clothes. Dd is clothes mad, she buys online so each time I had to approve her choice and use my card etc. A teen’s interpretation of what ‘enough’ clothes is is very different from reality! That’s why I started the allowance to include clothes, to make her think before buying yet another top.

Which is why I asked the question. She would think before spending money she has earned rather than just given like it is her god given right. I think she would get more out of it knowing she has earned it !

I’m not sure it’s enough for all clothes OP. I probably spend £250 twice a year on things like a decent pair of jeans, t shirts, a couple of jumpers, summer/winter dresses, shorts, non school swimsuit, leggings etc on top of school uniform, coat, pair of summer and winter non school shoes.

Isn’t child allowance about £85 a month for the first child? I’d reckon on that alone for clothes over the year for a growing teen, getting on for half for school related clothes/shoes and the rest for non school stuff.

Monthly £50 from me is on top of that for going out/books etc per above. Other things bought with it include things like a decent hairdryer (£70), or other things like that, but mostly books.

Teen here is in the women’s section size wise, 5’11 and a size 12. No teen discount clothing 😬.

Should mention she buys a lot of jewellery too!

I think £50 with the option to earn more through extra chores would be more than fair. Maybe £2.50 for a load of laundry/hoovering several rooms/cooking a family meal. It's a good time for her to learn to do those things anyway.

DS who is 14 gets £0.
We gets cash from various people on his birthday which we put in his bank account and he spends throughout the year if needed. Also if he goes to the cinema etc, we buy the tickets.
I don’t understand why we should be giving teens an allowance? I never got one.
DS knows that he’ll have to work for his money.

My nearly 15 year old DS and 13 year old DD get £20 a month.
We pay for mobile phone contracts, all clothes, toiletries, school stuff etc. If they need to buy a present for a friend I pay for it and if they go out somewhere with friends then we often give them money for lunch or for the bowling etc.