Pocket money 13 yr old

[Orangebadger]

I know there will be a wide variation but just wanting to gauge what others do as most people I know do not give any.
For reference we live in London, joint income is comfortable but not by any means wealthy. I want my DD who has just turned 13 to learn to balance her finances so enough to save a little every month as well as buy herself a treat like bubble tea/ milkshake etc once a week and Superdrug small items that teens like!

What is a realistic amount to give? I was thinking £50 a month but that’s barely over £10 a week.

My 13 year old gets £5 a week, but then we don’t live in London

£50 is very reasonable if you’re paying for transport & most clothing/shoes etc. When DD was that age I gave her £50 per month as pocket money and then £100 at the start of autumn and summer to buy herself some seasonal clothes. I always bought the expensive bits like shoes and coats as needed. If she was going out with friends for a meal or anything like that I’d give her money towards it.

Yes this is what my DD gets right now. £20 a month. Doesn’t allow for any saving at all down here sadly.

Mine gets £20 a month, but your right it doesn't really allow much for saving

@PeanutButter55 great idea about the seasonal budget

Mine gets £20 a month. We don’t live in London. He does a few chores for this and we pay his gym and his phone.

SS give a list of pocket money for different ages. Maybe Google and see if you can find it. At 16 I've been told £13.50 per week.

My 12 yo doesnt really get pocket money she has to save up. We occasionaly give her 10 pounds once in a while. WHen she goes to the corner shop we give her money and she often keeps the change. She has a revolut under 18s account which is a great way to start saving.She has also started a bracelet business to earn money with her cousins.

Mine got £5 a week at that age, bank transfer, they didn’t have enough for coffee out and makeup every week, they needed to save up. Teaching them they can get whatever fad drink every week is not a good life lesson (and I practice what o preach, very rarely buy coffee out unless we are on a trip)

My ds gets £20 a month. But I know it isn't enough. If he is doing something like cinema, bowling, driving range etc I will give him extra for that. He gets lots of birthday and Xmas money from family for bigger purchases. Grandparents occasionally chuck him a tenner too.

He also gets £20 a week lunch money, £20pm for haircut, phone, gym membership, football season ticket and golf club membership all paid for.

It's a balance between being an endless cash machine and giving them control and budgeting skills isn't it. I don't feel I've got it quite right.

He's recently asked for Spotify premium at £12pm so I'm trying to think up a way he can 'earn' it.

i pay £1 for every year of their age. So my 17 year old gets £17, 11 year old gets £11. Off that 20% goes automatically goes into a savings pot. So they keep 80%. They can use the savings pot. But we encourage them to save it for bigger purchases.

That is smart i will probably implement it

£20 a month for our 12 year old who has just started secondary school. We pay for phone, clubs, clothes, and travel. It’ll increase to £30 a month if she does more chores around the house and starts ironing her school uniform!

@sunshineandrain82 do you attach any chores to this? Or can they earn more? I know there's a difference in opinion ovrr whether you should 'pay' for chores. Your idea sounds good as increases with age and the things they like get more expensive!

Spotify might be better as a family account. Im sure they also used to do a student deal but that might mean college/ uni student rather that school.

We don’t really give a regular amount. If we go out for the day to the shops I’ll bung £20 on his card, maybe once a month. And then if he’s wanting a fizzy drink or sweets from the corner shop I’ll transfer a fiver here and there. He doesn’t really go out with friends etc (he has autism and attends a specialist school, all his friends aren’t local) so the most he’ll do is walk to the shop 5 mins down the road. If he’s after something particularly “big” like new trainers I’ll get them for him separately (just got him new Nike trainers, £100). It’s difficult because it’s a weird in between age! We also pay for his mobile which is £16 a month.

Yes we have Spotify as a family account so we all use it, including dd aged 22!

@Cornishbellewe don’t give extra per say. They may sometimes get extra if they have gone out of there way to do something if you get what I mean.

We have 5 children so pocket money gets expensive. We don’t really do chores instead we have a family rota, and those that are old enough to help are listed on it and it’s just kind of the normal thing in our house. At starting school age they start with small jobs. Ie my 5 year old does things like helping put the washing in the machine. My older ones when they start secondary they eventually have things such as choose, shop and cook a dinner (we obviously pay but it teaches them to budget, cook etc).

they have the daily expectations of keeping rooms tidy etc but once primary age they all have 1 different extra household chore to help/do each day.

£10 a week but I expect she uses this for a drink here and there or chocolate or something. Also tends to get £10 on her school card for snacks on top of pack lunch.

Fifty a month and twenty for school card for snacks.
I pay phone, clothes and everything else really.
DC tends to save it and then splurge on electronic devices. or whatever the latest interest is - currently saving for the latest switch.

I know I haven't got the balance right but we don't have extended family who give DC birthday money which is how other kids save up for big ticket items.

Mine gets £5 a week

Justdon’ty do what my parents did and say ‘we give you £5 a week!’ Yes that’s my school dinner money. They said I could come home for lunch which was a 25 minute walk and lunch was 55 minutes. There was never anything to make packed lunches either so I just didn’t eat most days so I’d have money for the weekend.

there was hundreds of £ available for 80 cigarettes each a day though!

£5 per week here for DD12 and £7 per week for DS15. They get money from relatives for birthdays and Christmas - usually comes to £100 a time. We don’t expect them to pay for much themselves really - just treats. We pay for clothes, school equipment, haircuts etc, they have school dinners and take snacks from home every day.
DS is a saver and has a direct debit set up to put £10 per month into savings - he rarely touches that so has hundreds saved up. DD keeps getting her card declined in the school cafe and vending machine! 🙄