How much money do you give your teens?

[Lovesdogsandcats]

Do they get weekly/monthly pocket money, if so how much.
And in the hols, do you give them extra?

Dd's (13) friends always seem to have a few quid each time they go out. Usually Sat/Sun and more in the holidays.. they spend it on bus/trains/drinks/lunch if they go round the shops, then more for the odd film/bowling if they go out at night.

Once the Christmas/birthday money runs out, this is hard to keep up.

So please, will you share your teen money stories

helliebean I'm sure you'll be equally horrified by my admission that I used to get £50 a month from my parents when I was aged between 14 and 18, on top of bus passes and lunch money, back in 1991. It taught me useful budgeting skills and introduced the concept of saving for what I wanted. I'll do the same for DS too.

Helliebean -

Re: the phone thing. I pay for credit for my dds on top of their monthly "allowance" because their phones are used only for contacting dp or I, not for calling friends: so I see that as a necessity rather than a luxury. If, when they are older (now 14 and 12) they want to use their phones for texting friends etc, they will have to pay for the credit.

Whilst they are still at school, I don't want them to have to have jobs. They work really hard at school, always do their homework etc so I don't want them to have to work on top of that: I'd rather they put their energies inot doing really well at school and into family time, rather than into weekend jobs, paper rounds or whatever.

I do agree that some of the amounts on here seem very high though.

Call me dim... but how can being given £50... given not earned... as a luxury not a necessity.. how can that teach you useful budgeting skills? I am sorry, please don't think I am getting at you. I am not. I just can't get my head round it at all.

I think earning money and having to pay for necessary costs yourself out of your pocket may hopefully teach budgeting skills, but being given £50 a month (now equivalent to probably £100) for luxuries can't teach you anything.. surely...

And the way I look at it with kids/jobs/schoolwork.... yes, I take your point. I understand where you are coming from. But I just know that the hours that my daughter spends working (and has done since nearly 15) would not have been spent labouring over school work. The time would have been spent on msn, or watching telly. Every child can take a few hours out of the week to do a small non taxing job.

You talkin' to me? My two get £30 a month. For that they do quite a few chores around the house. Don't get me wrong: they'd be expected to do these anyway even if they didn't get money.

As far as I see it, they are getting the chance to spend their money all on clothes and jewellery very quickly and then do without anything else for a couple of weeks (dd1) or learn to save for something bigger as dd2 is doing: last year she bought herself a DS and some games, now she's saving for a digital camera. So it's not necessarily teaching them budgeting but it is teaching them about instant gratification v waiting; only spending what you have etc.

I didn't really get pocket money as a child because there was very little spare money in the house. I am in the posotion of having anokay income, so choose to give some to my children. It also means they know that they won't get anything else bought for them other than at Christmas or on birthdays, not that we spend a lot on either of those tbh.

position not posotion - apologies if any other typos as I didn't proof-read it.

helliebean out of my £50 I used to buy deodorant, san pro, shampoo, all clothes including school uniform, subs for clubs. At home, my brother and I were encouraged to do our own chores so did our own washing, ironing and cooking. We all led fairly independent lives.

By the time I was 18 I'd paid for and taken several extended holidays on my own, including 2 months in France. My £50 went towards it, but I'd also worked on a market stall selling fruit, as a waitress, in a chocolate shop, and as a ski instructor. So yes, on the surface my £50 might have seemed excessive, but it really did help me lead a very different sort of teenage years than most.

Apologies llareggub... it wasn't clear in your original post that you were buying necessities. It honestly looked like pure spending money. Your last post makes perfect sense!

Look... we all do this parenting lark differently..and I appreciate that... but being at the 'other end' as it were with DD1 who is at Uni.... I am just amazed at the 21yo's who have never ever had even a job in their lives. They haven't a clue how to get one or how to motivate themselves enough how to want one. They have no money, they scrounge and struggle. And I find that sad. How on earth they will cope when they go out into the big bad world, goodness only knows...

Yes - that is a v good point.

£15 a month for phones, sweets, games, make-up, anything I disapprove of. If they have something they wish to save up for (like a laptop) I may agree to match funding. They can earn more or make a case for more money but they have chosen not to do so.

However this year I am keeping track of what I spend on the eldest (clothes, music lessons, presents for friends etc) and next year they will get that amount as an allowance and have to pay for everything themselves. They are not looking forward to it .

DD (13) and DS (11) get £5 per week each, but they do a paper round between them for which they get paid between 3-5 pounds each. We always make it up to the £5 so we actually only pay them between 2 and 0 pounds. They are very good with money because they have to earn it themselves.

Also at the amount dcs get here. Ds1 (12) gets only £6.50 a month. Do we win the meanest parents ever prize? (On top of this we pay for any trips, clothes,cinema with friends, phone top ups, school lunch and any book he wants.)

I have often wondered if we should be giving him more to 'keep up' with friends but what on earth do they spend it all on? When ds gets money all he wants to buy is sweets and junk food and frankly a pound odd a week on sweets seems enough to me.

What on earth do other dss spend all your tons of hard earned cash on?

By the way, we also expect help with chores without paying for it - mean or just fair???

slambang if you work out over afewmonths how much you spend on cinema trips, etc for your DS you can then increase his allowance to that much and help him to learn to budget.

We do the same as some others on here. DD's recently had a rise in her allowance to £31.66 a month. From this she has to pay mobile phone top-up, 'unnecessary' clothes and shoes, toiletries, magazines, stationery, etc.

We buy school uniform, school shoes and trainers, one pair out of school shoes and a selection of basic clothes e.g. jeans,tops, coat, etc.

I have considered handing over ocntrol of more money but not quite ready yet, especially as she can't necessarily get access to her money easily (it's paid into the bank). Eventually she'll get enough to cover cost of her riding, dancing, etc and if she chooses to spend too much on one thing, she won't be able to do another.

Slambang, fair. Like I say, my dcs are paid for a proper job. I still expect them to keep their rooms tidy and load/unload the dishwasher just cos they should. If they don't keep their rooms tidy or leave their dirty washing hanging around they get fined for it. If they don't tidy their room of a weekend I will fine them their whole paper round money so they won't get paid for doing it even though they have (this has never happened as the threat is enough). They both have a lot of storage space and all I am asking is that they put their clothes away that I have washed and dried for them and various items that they have used over the week. I do the rest of the house and do not think it is too much to ask them to do this.

slambang mine got less before they started to save some of it for things they want/ pay for mobile phones. I would not give that much if it was all for sweets (although some is spent that way). You have to look at the different ages here and allow for different levels of maturity even with children the same age.

With some bank/building society accounts children can get cash cards and get money from cash machines. Mine have them, although they frequently forget the pins.

Slambang, you're not the meanest because you're paying for all the extras separately which probably adds up to much more than most of the teens on here are getting in allowances.

Dd1 gets £10 a week, but has to budget with that to pay for pretty much everything apart from basic clothing and equipment. So she has to learn the hard way that if she buys snacks on the way home from school every day, it will add up to actually quite a lot of money, and she won't have enough left over for cinema trips. If she wants non-essential items of clothing, she has to work her budget to have enough left over to save for clothes, maybe by skipping a bowling trip or by not buying popcorn at the cinema or making so many phone calls.

Of course your ds only spends his money on sweets and junk food, because you're paying for everything else he wants for him. By giving them a larger amount but making them pay for more themselves they learn that money isn't just for sweeties, but needs to be properly managed if you don't want to run out before you've covered the essentials.

We do what you do, frogs. £50 per month for DD1, aged 13, but we only buy school uniform, essential toiletries and underwear - she has to pay for everything else. I am thinking of a small increase, as I think this is less than I spent on her before we started an allowance! I seem to spend more than £50 per month on her younger sister, aged 10, who doesn't receive any allowance yet, as she's not ready for it.

My nearly 12-year old gets £10 per week. Until recently, I was paying for every time she wanted to go to the cinema/swimming/into town with friends (bus fares, lunch!) and just figured it would be easier if she had £10 and that was it. She has to pay for everything except essential clothes and a weekly youth club fee. And it works mostly -if she hasn't got it she can't do it.

what an interesting thread

i have 4 children and came up with my formula for pocket money many years ago and still stick to it.

They get 20p for every year old they are upto 10 then 40p per year over 10. this applies until they get temselves a part time job and the money is for them to speand on whatever they want to.

once they reach 11 years old i get them a mobile phone and in return for me topping up their mobiles with the basic £10 (this gets them their monthly 500 free texts)they have certain jobs to do.

i dont expect them to buy their clothes or any personal items out of their pocket money.

so heres how my weekly formula works.

DD 17 has a part time job hence i give her no pocket money. she gets mobile credit for hoovering house, eashing all floors in house, cleaning bathrooms once a week.

DD 15 gets £4 pocket money per week. in addition her mobile credit for doing the ironing.

DD 11 gets £2.40 pocket money. mobile credit for unloading diswasher daily.

DS 8 gets £1.60. too young for mobile

this way i feel it wprks out fair according to age.

My 2 older ones do also have the opportunity to earn extra by babysitting on occassions.

they all get the opportunity to earn extra through extra chores but this is ad hoc and is normally small amounts of money ie wash car £2.

however on saying this i also expect them to tidy their rooms and sometimes help with genral tidying up for which i do not pay them as i want them to understand that we all contribute to the mess therefore we should all contribute to tidying.

hope i dont sound harsh.

I do give the older ones extra in school holidays so they can meet up and go out with friends to lunch or cinema etc.

Eldest two (15 and 13) get £5 per week.

Eldest also has a saturday job which pays about £20 a week. She has to buy all her phone credit although I do sometimes buy her a top up. She also has to use that money for luxury items like make-up, magazines, etc.

We recently stopped her PM because we found out she was smoking. I'm not paying for her fags!

Youngest two don't get anything yet.(9 & 7)

Mine don't get anything as such. We pay for DD3 to have swimming lesons, DD2 we pay for football traing and in August we will start to pay £5 a month on a phone which she will get for her birthday. DD1 we pay for her music lessons and exams, bus fares and give her £10 top up on her phone. We buy all their clothes etc. If DD1 wants to go to town with her friends we will give her money but she knows that she can only go at the most once a month. All the DDS have to do jobs around the house to pay for their hobbbies and DD1 has to do extra if she wants to go to town with her friends. DD1 is desperate for a little part time job but we eel she is too young and we would rather she concentrated on her school work and her music.

Agree with tatt. Yo have to look at diff ages and compare like with like. Many on here like me don't pay for anything but necessities for our teens, they have a reasonable amount so that they have a realistic choice of what to choose to do with their money ie swimming or cinema or neither and save up for something. I find it cuts down on the junk food/sweet buying as they don't want to spend their money on those things. I certainly expect my DC to help around the house and I think that goes for everyone on here. As far as working and school is concerned nobody has brought p the issue of school sport and therefore the inability of having a job on a Saturday....
I would expect my DC to work in hols after GCSE and while in further ed as we did but I would prefer my DS to play sport for school and do all the other stuff such as DofE etc rather than work.
It really is horses for courses...

Helliebean, I don't think being generous with your children doesn't automatically mean they won't have a good work ethic

I know my 3 older ones get a lot but they all work very hard in school, they know they need to be well behaved and polite and they are.

DS1 and DD1 who are 16 and 15 get £250 per month, yes it is a lot but me and DH can afford it. They have to buy most of thir own clothes out of this (Twice a year I will take them shoppong for jeans, plain t-shirts/polos, denim skirt, hoddie etc) and shoes, they have to pay for their outings with their friends and if they want a starbucks after school they know they have to pay. We pay their phone contracts but then again I expect them to watch any of their younger siblings if I need to pop to the shops or if me and DH are out for the evening.
They don't hang around doing nothing on street corners which makes us happy and we are pleased that they don't need to work, especially as DS is doing his GCSEs this year.

starbucks after school ??

bloody hell, I can't afford to use Starbucks on a regular basis ....

peapod, do you live in Beverly Hills 90210 ??

wish i had an allowance of £250 per month just for me (grin)