Forum Topic

Pocketmoney amounts

What are the going rates of pocketmoney for children of different ages?

Gerry Tan ● 6778d23 Comments

My daughter is nearly 14 and...you won't believe this...never asks for pocket money!  We would happily give her £10 a week, but I'm glad we don't need to. (The free bus fares for under 16s has made a big difference here from when my older children were in their teens - they needed pocket money for bus fares if they went into Ealing).

Jane Salisbury ● 6778d

I found this very difficult.  A lot of children seem to get vast amounts plus everything they ask for.I wanted it to be a start of money management, yet I didn't want to be so mean that group cinema visits weren't possible. I also wanted to be able to stop pocket money as a sanction if necessary.In the end I think many of the money lessons were learnt elsewhere.  The mobile phone (everybody else has one) was bought with birthday/Christmas money and I still provide a £10 a month top-up. He learnt to stop friends pinching all his credit and be frugal with its use (texting is cheap) and of course can add more money if he wants to. With few words we can use it to keep in contact.  I could say where I was/which street I was parked in when collecting from matches etc, help with directions when the tubes were out and be updated on those first long trips back from Brixton Academy.As for the games machines (everybody else has one) the first one I succumbed under peer parental pressure to buy and regretted it.  I also very much regret the lack of control schools seemed to have over these expensive items.  I had hoped that if sneaked into school these distracting devices would be confiscated so was not amused instead to find that the teacher was playing it. Games for these machines are expensive so it is useful to find the second hand shops.  Instead of the incredible pressure to get everything that came on the market - gradually the requests became more considered for the games that had been tried out and were felt worth it.The free bus fares weren't available and he walked miles across Ealing. When he had a travel card he could also use it at weekends. We paid for school travelcards.Some of his friends consider me very mean; his cousin who has always had to do odd jobs for any pocket money considers him spoilt. It is a no-win situation.It all depends on what the money has to cover.  For us it was just small amounts of sweets - but then when parents we tried to avoid sweets (and the amounts packaged now tend to be excessive). Then it was records we saved up for - but music has changed. Buying on credit has completely changed our lives.So not quite the easy answer you were hoping for Gerry!

Philippa Bond ● 6778d

Find out what their friends are getting and give the same amount. And dole out extra when necessary.  Pocket money should be purely for the child to decide how to spend, and not for essentials like fares. Also mobile phones and top ups should should come from bank of mum and dad for security and socialising reasons.  No need to try to teach children monetary values too soon, childhood should be carefree and careless - they will learn to budget when they are university.

S. D. Brock ● 6778d

I always taught my lot that money is best if it was earned.They always got a few quid off me but if they wanted more they can wash the car or do stuff round the house.Kids can still be kids but they also need to know the value of things.

Andy Wright ● 6778d

Blimey... I never had pocket money, I had to work for everything when I was younger. That meant doing a paperound when I was old enough. I have been in constant employment since!I Give my daughter pocket money now and then. she is only five so a quid every couple of months is a big thing to her. She usually spends it on sweets, but has learned the importance of having to save up to buy something bigger.I promised her a High school musical DVD if she saved £5 of her money. She succeeded and now has the DVD. I am hoping it teaches her the value of having money on condition. I'll start with work ethics when she is old enough to sweep the chimney.

Neil Johnson ● 6778d

I moved my kids from pocket money to monthly allowance once they were old enough to be able to cope - earlier for the girl, later for the boy.I fear it makes them rather calculating but at least they know the value of things and can budget a bit for what they want and learn to save in the term to splash in the hols.Now son is on a contract phone which he abuses only intermittantly, has an allowance to cover fun and fares (but I buy the tickets to the north to see girlfriend - that wasn't factored in!) and he works on Sunday mornings and has just qualified as a soccer and rugby referee which he reckons will earn him a better part-time living than stacking shelves. I dunno though...

Sara Nathan ● 6778d

Sara said "I fear it makes them rather calculating "  I agree. Placing too much importance on money management at a young age and withholding pocket money as a punishment or using it as a bartering tool gives children the wrong values - can make children both materialistic and tight fisted.  I have seen it in practice. I think we should encourage our kids to share their booty and phone credit with friends - makes them much more kind and generous adults.  I also find a direct correlation between meanness with money and meanness of spirit. You don't need to splash the cash, just share with your kids what you can afford.  It's all family money.

S. D. Brock ● 6777d

There is a difference between allowing friends to use your phone and allowing friends to deliberately rinse your credit on your phone which was a fad.Forever replacing items without any word of censure or without any monetary contribution does not help them to learn to look after their own belongings let alone respect other people or their belongings.

Philippa Bond ● 6777d

why do they need a weekly allowance if they dont pay for any bills?If they need money to go out with friends etc, then they should work for it i.e helping round the house.

Wayne Bridges ● 6777d

Philippa  I fear you are living in the wrong decade - these profligate times jar so much with you, I expect you would have been very happy living in wartime with everything rationed, secondhand, rehashed and reused to the nth degree!;-)  I am so grateful to be living in the noughties when we can indulge our children with everything new and fresh.

S. D. Brock ● 6777d

It broke my heart when my eldest two were in my teens that they had to wear charity shop clothes much of the time.  (My husband went back to college and we were living on a shoestring.)  I felt dreadful when I found out that one of my son's  friends had been told by his parents not to be seen with Andy as he looked so shabby.  Now I long to spoil my youngest who is in her teens, but she only wants to wear old clothes, preferably pyjamas given the choice.She isn't remotely interested in using a mobile phone, and makes her Christmas and birthday present money last for months.  This isn't because she's mean - she just doesn't want anything new and looks at me blankly if I suggest going clothes shopping, or even try to give her money to go herself.

Jane Salisbury ● 6777d

Jane, your youngest daughter sounds like a lovely young lady - I like her attitude.

Gerry Tan ● 6777d

Yes she does. I think a lot of the younger generation today are spoilt and lazy. Money and technology comes to easy to them and so its no big deal when the items in question get lost or damaged.If kids earn a few quid it makes that expensive pair of trainers or the latest IPOD that bit sweeter.I have worked since I was 13.... never did me any harm and it took some of the pressure of my mum ( come from a single parent family ) because I was able to buy myself nice things AND it stood me in good standing ever since :)

Andy Wright ● 6777d

But I don't want my kids to help round the house for money - they should do things because they live in the community of the house - so tidying their room (fat chance) washing up after meals I cook, feeding the tortoise, they should just as their contribution to life, not because they are paid.

Sara Nathan ● 6777d

Not exactly pocket money for kids but some years (30) back I announced at work that I had a simple system for my wife's spending (she wasn't working at that time).I gave her some money. If she wanted more all she had to do was show me the receipts from what she had spent.Bearing in mind I was working at a jewish insurance company I was amazed by the calls of meanness and suchlike from the ladies there.

Alan Brainsby ● 6777d

"Bearing in mind I was working at a jewish insurance company I was amazed by the calls of meanness and suchlike from the ladies there."Are you being offensive on purpose or because you are an idiot?

Sara Nathan ● 6777d

Are you being offensive on purpose or because you are an idiot?Unlike your remark - NEITHER! And I wasn't trying to be offensive accidentally either. If I wished to be offensive it would be absolutely clear. It strikes me that some individuals are too sensitive for their own good. It happened to be a jewish company where the majority of personnel were Jewish. Had I not enjoyed working with them or for the company I would not have worked for the company. There are stereotypes for all of us, most of which are not true whether applied to individuals or nations. It is a pity when a so-called stereotype appears to be taken literally.I could ask the question whether the remark I made was considered offensive because of sensitivity or intolerance, but I won't. As regards being an idiot - probably yes, because I am replying with an answer which could potentially raise more questions, or probably no, because I did have the courtesy to reply.My prior post was a statement of fact. I would have referred to the company as a scots, welsh, or dutch, canadian, company had it been so.This post is not an apology but a clarification of a  response which could be construed as offensive or idiotic.

Alan Brainsby ● 6777d

LOL, being the age she is she isn't always lovely or a very ladylike and works hard at being lazy, but she does have a refreshingly unmaterialistic  attitude to life!

Jane Salisbury ● 6776d

But you were perpetuating an out-of-date stereotype that equates Jewishness with being mean that is, like many stereotypes, quite untrue, as well as being deeply offensive. You said it was a Jewish firm because your anecdote was related to money and your surprise at the reaction of Jewish employees. It would never have crossed your mind, would it, to mention it being Dutch or Danish in the same context - though maybe you'd happily stereotype it as Scottish in the same way. I find that offensive and unacceptable.And of course extremely inaccurate: Just look at Jewish charitable giving to take one example: many national arts organisations couldn't survive without generous donations from the Jewish community who also provide for their own needy on the social services side - on top of taxes. I'm always amazed, at gentile fund-raising events, how little is thought to be OK to give or collect compared to at Jewish ones. If you didn't mean to be offensive but were just thoughtless - or so stereotyped and demeaning in your thinking as to not even notice the giving of serious offense, then maybe you should think more carefully next time before posting such prejeudicial material.

Sara Nathan ● 6776d

I was very impressed by the letters that my son had from the Football Association (I think that is who it was) suggesting that he might like to train as a referee and giving details of courses.  Other sports bodies could do with following suit.

Philippa Bond ● 6775d

Now read this!http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3524686,00.html.Proves my point. Of course my Jewish colleagues were horrified, careful with money -yes, mean -no, among some of the most generous and kind people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Alan Brainsby ● 6741d

When I was 10(in 1942) we didn't get pocketmoney. We were war refugees in Glasgow and money during the war and in Scotland was none existent. To make money, we gathered bottles(beer and Barr's Irn Brew bottles and jam jars too) and sold them to a bottle factor in our road.  We got a ha'peny for the pint ones and jam jars and a penny for 2 pint jobs. That was our pocketmoney! As they say in Scotland..."Mony a puckle maks a muckle".  Happy days they were too!  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 6741d

I remember getting 6d a week pocket money got me a weekly comic and a sweetie bar such as a sherbet fountain.  Did odd jobs for neighbours to amass a few extra pennies and one year proudly went to the annual fair with 72 old pennies - all cleaned up and sorted by monarch. Some other kids had to account for allowances and buy their own clothes but I saw how foolish that was as they would always buy something fashionable and wasteful whereas the clothes I was given were meant to be hardwearing.  My dear old nan knitted me socks working on three knitting needles. Great aunt daisy also visited us from canada with teeshirts for all the boys with a picture of Windsor on the front. I suppose £10 a week for a teenager is quite fair nowadays given the inflation of the years.Do not know how students will ever learn to budget at university - the banks keep topping up their overdraft as the future debt will always get paid back even if they are a credit disaster.  Wonder what modern kids spend their EMA on though many cannot get it as most families in Ealing earn more than 30 000?

Colin Izzard ● 6739d