What is the going rate for Clothing Allowance?

[BestZebbie]

Considering moving a teenage boy from pocket money to clothing allowance - how much is the going rate per month if we would provide basic footwear, high-street-brand pants/socks and a warm/waterproof coat (and any specialist things like a suit to go to a family wedding or hike boots for a DofE award) but he would be responsible for everything else?
This would replace pocket money so would also need to cover bus fares, mooching-in-town snacks and gaming subscriptions etc.
At present we pay for phone but am open to considering rolling this into the new 'allowance' budget.

I remember teen girls getting £40-£50 a month in the 1990s, but I also think that they probably bought a lot more clothes than our son would!
What do you all do?

I’d give him at least £80/month if you’re expecting him to buy all his own clothes?
my son is 14 and I give him £40/month pocket money but I buy his clothes.

I give my 14 and 17 year old daughters £60 a month.

Yes, currently he gets £8/wk pocket money, which seems fairly average in his group.
(some get £30-50 a month or £8-£10 a week by direct debit, some get £5 cash a week and can earn more for housework, some don't get any regular money but can mooch £10 or £20 pretty regularly if they are going out).

Our family photos suggest he currently only owns one hoodie and two pairs of joggers although his wardrobe says otherwise....

How old is he? Can he get a job as well? My parents always gave me varied amounts depending on how much I earned myself (would for example match my wages which were meagre at 14!)

We give my 17yo daughter £100/month which covers £2/day bus fare (she does well in holidays although has to pay any additional bus/train fare) and clothes although we have a deal where if she absolutely needs it, I’ll buy the basic version and she can “top up” if she wants different. I also say I’ll pay half of anything if I like it 😊

How old? My 14yo gets £35 a month but we pay his phone, Xbox and buy his clothes. My 17yo gets £70 a month - he pays his gym membership out of this - again we pay his phone and clothes. We also pay for both of their annual bus passes. So their money basically covers going out with friends, cinema, food when out with friends and if they want to buy any additional clothes/stuff. The 17yo has been saving towards driving lessons/insurance/car so never spends much!

I used to use the allowances for looked after children as a guideline with regards to pocket money. My daughter liked to buy her own clothes so I included a clothing allowance in what she had.

The current pocket money rates range from £7-13 per week from age 13-16. Clothing allowance is £60 per week but that is meant to include all things like school uniform, shoes, coats etc.

So perhaps work out roughly what you will be spending on their essential items of clothing per year and come to a monthly figure based on what is left over.

I don’t understand the difference between a clothing allowance that includes everything pocket money would and pocket money? Surely all you are charging is the name?

Yr 8 but already 13, friends of 12, 13 and 14. - I was switched to clothing allowance at 13 which is why I'm thinking about it, but there isn't any particular hurry, especially if it seems that people don't swap over until later on nowadays!
Too young for a Saturday job yet though.
I'd assume that any amount he got now might be reassessed periodically as he got older wrt inflation, employment, other costs such as driving lessons etc.

£100 per month. £35 pocket money and £65 for clothes. It’s one decent hoodie or pair of joggers and half a pair or trainers or coat!

I think I’d still be inclined to it some basics from Primark for him too so extra pants/socks/ t shirt/ pyjamas/joggers and a hoodie.

I think he needs to clear out his wardrobe if all he is wearing is one hoodie- is he not interested in clothes.

At the moment he gets pocket money but we also buy all his clothes for him, this would be a bigger budget but he'd have to get his clothes himself (with the exceptions noted above).

So essentially you are just looking to give more money?

Pocket money is £7-10 per week that is meant to buy treats, so things like sweets, chocolate, going for a macdonalds on a saturday with mates, magazines, (my son seemed to spend his on reversible octupuses at that age!).

Clothing allowance is to buy their clothes with. My son never wanted to do this preferring me to just get what he needed my daughter however was keen to have the control to spend it how she wanted.

I used to get £50 a month in the 2000s (2005-12ish) for everything, assuming you would still buy uniform replacements if needed too?

My mum also used to do a "basics" haul for me a few times a year - plain tops and jeans, a dress or a skirt. tights, pants, a jumper or a swimming costume etc.

Mine gets £150 a month but that covers everything - pocket money, clothes, phone, gym, canteen money if he doesn't want to take food from home, clubs etc.

If I’m completely honest I think it’s too early to give this much money - 13 with 100 a month to burn seems like asking for trouble to me. Maybe move to giving him the same money he gets for pocket money but monthly and see how he gets on with that first? Encourage him to start a savings account and start using that?

Yes, we'd still cover everything required for education, inc. clothes, bag, clubs etc.

From y9 DD had the equivalent of her child benefit to cover personal spending, clothes that weren't essentials, presents etc. She's not a clothes and beauty kind of person, so made a profit on her pocket money.

I am also wondering this, and/or if the gender difference is more important than I'd assumed. Pre phone/internet/netflix and as girls, a fortnightly trip to try on everything in River Island then buy the cheapest possible T-shirt to get a bag for your PE kit was a core social experience in my teens, but that isn't the situation he is in!

Might a middle ground be setting a budget for both but then keeping the clothing amount yourself? If you have a Monzo account for example you can set up pots so you could set one up in your account for his clothing, tell him that you’ll be putting £x into there and so that is his clothes budget and he can let you know what he wants so you can buy it from that pot?

So give him control of his spending money directly and completely into his bank account, and then put the clothing amount into a virtual pot which he can then use to buy clothes via you?

Same concept really but avoids the situation where he is handed £100 and on day 3 has £2 left!

Honestly I think 13 is too young. I’d think 14 / 15 back end of year 9/10 is the right time.

To me the tricky thing is relative values of what he might want to buy. So a graphic t-shirt in Primark might be £10-12, but that would be 3 vapes or 4 big grab bags of sweets. Even in charity shops clothes will cost a fair bit and would mean he had a lot of disposable income for shit instead. I don’t think we moved to a full allowance system for ds until he was in year 12. He’s very good with money (and doesn’t vape or drink much) and I don’t think he missed out on a lot by not having tons of cash earlier on. I got a warning shot when I filled up his dinner account with half a terms money in year 7 and found he’d eaten it all in 2 weeks! It was just too early for him to have that access.

My DS (17) has a job which pays around £200 a month - he was getting £35 a month from us but has asked if we will start putting it into a pension for him (he is very financially astute!). DD 15, also gets £35 a month and most clothes come from Vinted. We buy coat, school uniform, underwear, pay all phone bills, gym membership (DS) and all clubs (DD). I am amazed people give over £50 a month just for clothes - that is way more than I would ever spend.

Giving my nearly 14 yo DS a clothing allowance would just stress him out. He gets £8/week paid into his Revolut, and I’ll transfer more as needed if I’m sending him out for his lunch or something. We buy his clothes; he often chooses stuff on Vinted and knows that funds from his clothes that I sell on Vinted can be used to buy him new things.

At that age I bought all my sons clothes for him and he got additional pocket money