How much money?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

I’d be interested to know how much would be a reasonable monthly allowance for a 16 year old to cover the following -

All non essential clothing
Going out with friends
Friends’ birthday presents
Make up

We pay for school uniform, bigger items like coats and shoes, essential toiletries and hair products, underwear and her phone.

What would be reasonable?

At 16, I'd suggest they get a pt job to cover this. But this can be a contentious idea on MN!

She is looking hard for a job! It’s not that easy. Multiple applications to McDonalds, still waiting to hear. Handed her CV in to various local cafes etc, heard nothing.

Mine had £100 at 16 and then £150 at 17/18 but that included lunches etc if they didn't have school provided food...

We give our 16 year old £50 a month. She spends half of it on a gym subscription and when she goes out mostly goes round her friends houses. For birthdays she usually makes them jewellery. I know it's not a lot but it's all we can afford and she knows she can ask for a one off expense, like a gig or a trip

My 16 year old gets £30 a month, but I do pay her contact lenses, phone, gym. She's just got a job at next 1 day a week (ready for 6th form) and has asked me to stop paying the £30 as she's earning.
But generally that £30 was to cover everything albut I'd make allowances for friends birthdays if she asked (she didnt always)

I must be out of touch then cos £50 a month sounds plenty to me when it's only for fun stuff.

To be fair it's easy to spend £10 a week just on a couple of bubble teas and some crisps after school

@Thedrawer and @dizzygirl1 that doesn’t include clothes? I want to include clothing for dd as she loves clothes and I’m fed up with being asked for money!

Includes some, I buy the majority but if she wants something when she's in town she'll get them.
Prepping for 6th form, I'm buying all of that - thinking of it in line with school uniform, what I'd spend on that, I'm spending on 'normal' clothes. I use sales A LOT.

Is she using charity shops and vented? That helps a lot.

And learning to budget is a brilliant skill, learning early will help in adulthood.

Yes she’s starting to use Vinted and to look for sales etc.

I was wondering what a reasonable monthly amount would be if it includes all non essential clothing?

I'm stopping dd's £30 a month as she is now working so I'm probably not the best to ask. But previously any non essential clothes were either birthday, Christmas, saved for from the £30 or exceptional requests (generally something with a purpose).
What's reasonable and what you can afford may be different.

Her learning to budget to save and buy clothes would be good and a good push for her to try even harder for a job.

Thank you @dizzygirl1 We are in the fortunate position of being able to afford clothes etc but I don’t want to spoil her and I want to teach her the value of money and to budget.

No luck for my teenager getting a job yet this summer either and like your daughter he has tried. I’ve paid my teenager £100.00 a month for doing chores mainly dishes and dishwasher and keeping his room and bathroom tidy and clean. He also cooks dinner twice a week.Still pay for most of his clothes although he lost a £150 coat after 2 weeks so he had to replace that himself out of his own money. I also pay £20 hair, £25 gym, £10 phone and £80 singing lessons a month. As soon as he is 18 this will change but that’s not til the end of August and it depends on how he does on his A levels. For now he is bored and a bit down about not getting a job so I am being mindful of this difficult time in his life.

My daughter doesn't wear school uniform now (almost 17) so I buy most of it. She loves hunting rare items in charity shops though and will buy that out of the 50 monthly allowance plus any birthday money she might have left (normally about £100). She also has a sister who makes a lot of clothes and a cousin who still hands stuff down 😀Thankfully my kids are more into getting an individual look and don't care about brands so they don't spend much on clothes.

I’d give £100 a month, then when she gets a job stop paying it and save the £100 for her instead.

Our daughter received about GBP 200 per month for similar expenses from age 16.

We covered:

• basic clothing (there is no school uniform where we live so this means things like basic jeans and t-shirts, sweatshirts, coats, shoes, underwear, socks)
• basic toiletries (e.g. contact lenses and solutions, cheap shampoo and conditioner, skincare products (she has exzema so these can be ££), sanitary products (I experienced period poverty as a child and there was no way I was not going to cover these costs), toothpaste (she is allergic to SLS and needs a special formula))
• two hair cuts a year
• dentistry
• music and sports tuition
• specialist expenses (e.g. race suits for swimming competitions, race fees)
• expenses when out as a family
• some expenses when she was invited on holiday with friends (but within rreason as she has some very well-to-do friends with parents for whom money is absolutely no object)
• an extra GBP15 per week in the summer holidays (this is when we found her costs peaked and getting a job wasn't always that easy)

It was up to her to fund everything else, e.g. all make up, presents for friends, non-essential clothing, sundry socialising costs, travel expenses, any non-family holidays, and all alcohol (you can drink from age 16 where we are), etc.

GBP200 sounds a lot but we've actually found that it has worked well and that she has nevertheless remained sensitised to the value of money.

(Forgot to say: we also covered a monthly data and call flatrate on her phone but not the cost of buying the phone itself. If she wanted a new phone, this had to be a (joint) birthday and Christmas present.)

I used to get £30 a month as a teenager in the 90s. Inflation calculator tells me that would be about £60 now. But habits are different - we almost never got food or drinks out, these days there are all buying £6 bubble teas… So if you can afford it, I’d say (at least) £100. If you can’t, obviously adjust accordingly.

DD got £200 which covered all clothes except school uniform, all socialising, travel, make up, presents etc.

I didn’t get anything as a teenager, I had jobs from age 14. I know things are different now and it’s harder for under 18’s to find work.

My 17 year old gets £10 a week, she has SEN’s so doesn’t go out alone or with friends. The £10 is usually spent on Pokémon cards, I pay for everything else if we go out anywhere.

DD gets £50/month. She buys the odd piece of clothes on her own but we mainly buy most. No way she can do a job at the moment, she is currently assessed for ASD and starts 6th form, it's more important that she is mentally stable.

She is luckily not that into clothing, so it's mainly H&M, New Look. But I prefer her having decent quality and not just Primark. She also is not that desperate for fancy drinks and we cover lunch (to an extent) when she is out the whole day.
The most she spends her money on is books and history related items, cos-play, Etsy jewellery and toileteries if she wants more than what we buy.

Thank you all, these are all really helpful. I was thinking maybe £80-90/month, does that sound reasonable? Or not enough?

I give my 16 year old the child benefit which is roughly £100 per month, this is to cover food and socialising. If he plans anything like cinema or concert etc its so expensive we usually end up topping it up. We then cover haircut. Mobile bill and essential clothing. 16 year olds are expensive!! Thankfully mine is moving into a decent paid apprenticeship so from Sept this will stop and we will expect him to fund himself, apart from his mobile, and we obviously won't be charging rent.

£125 a month at 17 to include casual clothes with the odd shopping trip paid for by me in addition. I pay for phone, school lunches, uniform, haircuts. Has a four hour a week job that pays them the same each month.

A levels are the most important work they could do for me imo this year so I’m happy enough with all that.