Pocket Money. How much? When? Was it unconditional?

retired_0PETE1 · 10-30-2007, 07:23 PM

Get £5 a week unconditional from about 15, get more if I help out and such. Never got anything before except having a good school report or the like.

blackdice · 10-30-2007, 07:31 PM

I never received pocket money but if I ever needed something then it'd be bought for me.

It's a pretty good system for me as I could say that i'd be going to the cinema with some friends and my mother would give me £5-10 for it.

I used get a bonus of around £80 from my grandparents when I brought home a good report.

retired_calhoun_s · 10-30-2007, 07:32 PM

never had pocket money. Parents never in a position to give four kids pocket money each week. Had stuff bought for me as and when i needed it.
Actually appreciated that more than if i had a constant supply each week.
Dont believe that just giving it to him will stop him from learning the value of it either. at 14 i got a paper round and 16 a proper job so i know the value of money.

BlueSky · 10-30-2007, 07:33 PM

I never got pocket money, i was just issued it when needed till about 14, then got a paper round till 16 then a job in a shop.

retired_el_chanclas · 10-30-2007, 07:34 PM

Pocket money?

hahaha.

I earnt money when I was young by:

Helping my dad at his building sites. When I was young, it was just cleaning rubbish. All day. I got $30-$40 a day (except for the time one of my cousin's went as well, and he/we decided to put silicon in all the locks, and then he went and put over the tools). Of course, we got home and had silicon all over our hands we got busted. Had to clean all the tools.

When I got older I was doing some non technical stuff (doing some nailing, holding up boards). I got $50 a day then, sometimes $60

I built the floor of my uncle's 2nd story on his house.

If I wanted money to go out somewhere, I'd ask, and get $20 and told to mow the lawns (remember, this is Australia, our lawns are bigger than your houses) of our and my grandfathers (which was as big as one of your blocks).

Of course, once I started doing that, I ended up having to do them every month or 2 without any recompense at all.

I have 2 ways you should do it (since he's 13, you should start small, maybe start in a few years).

1) He should be doing chores etc anyway, but make it known that it costs money to clothe and feed him. If he needs something, he needs to prove why he needs it. Not because he "wants" it.

2) This probably works better for older kids. Make a costing of a regular weekly budget for his school lunches (I'm not sure how it works in england, if you take lunch with you or you buy stuff at school or both), and bus money (if you pay fares as a schoolkid) if the distance is "walkable" and stuff like that.

Add 10-20% onto that (10% if you give him money to buy lunch, 20% if you use things like sandwiches and cheap stuff for lunch), and give him that much at the start of the week.

Tell him that's his weekly budget. It covers his school lunches, his bus fares, and going out.

It's up to him to spend it. If he blazes it all away in the first 3 days, he has to walk home and have as cheap as possible stuff for lunch.

If he wants to buy something or go out somewhere, he has to save for it. Wanting stuff should make him take more notice of his money than just being handed money for lunch every day. Maybe give him some incentive by saying you would pay 10%-20% of something he saves for.

As he gets older, you should extend this to clothes (give him what you would spend on clothes for say 2 months worth) and tell him that he has to buy his clothes to last for 3 months, also extend to things like school supplies.

Obviously, don't just hand out extra money the older he gets. Once he reaches a certain (16? 17) age tell him to go work at macdonalds or something, and start reducing his pocket money.

retired_nini59 · 10-30-2007, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Serpico:
My pocket money peaked at £10 a week, but I occasionally got a top up if I had a lot of things on. Most of it got spent following the mighty Tigers around the country.

My gran gave me 10p a week too, for as long as I could remember. Which was fine when I was 7 or 8 and that would buy a few sweets, but when I was 15 and it wasn't enough for a bag of crisps it's taking the **** really. Come on Grandma, get with the 1980's ffs.

haha I used to get 20p a week every Wednesday from my Nana, can't remember when she stopped doing it, but I think it did go up to 50p a week for a while tbf. Was great when I was a little kid, but it got to the point when I was older where I would forget about it, and then after a while I'd open the cupboard where she put it and sometimes it had mounted up into a tidy sum :cool: unless my brother had nicked it first that is.