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Teenagers

Allowance for 16 year old, what do you pay?

27 replies

cathyandclaire · 26/02/2013 12:19

DD will be 16 soon, she has an allowance for clothes, make-up, cinema etc of £35 a month. But we find that for friend's presents, dinners out for birthdays, trips etc etc etc we are forever supplementing it.
So it's not really teaching her to manage her money. Was wondering about giving an allowance to cover EVERYTHING including school lunches, so she has time to learn to budget before she goes to college and has to live on toast for weeks on end.
How much is reasonable? What do you pay?
Not keen on her having a job until exams are over....

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Cooroo · 26/02/2013 13:11

I'm in similar position. 16 yo DD has been on £10 a week for basic expenses for a couple of years. It's not really enough if she goes out even once to cinema or something. Was thinking of going monthly, making it £80 and including clothes, gifts etc. Is this too much?

If she had a job I'd make it less, but she's got exams, plus orchestra on Saturdays, so hard to find anything that would suit.

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IDismyname · 26/02/2013 13:14

We give DS - 15yrs £60 a month to include all except clothing. (Disclaimer - he's colour blind!)

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Rosirose · 26/02/2013 14:08

We have the same with our 16 yr ds who we give £50 to which is supposed to cover most things exc clothes. I have asked him to make a list of his monthly expenditure and then we will review it. Whilst I don't want him to miss out, I want him to understand he can't do everything and go everywhere. Sometimes he needs to wait to go somewhere or buy something. I want him to think about what he spends and appreciate that his money needs to last.......... Btw I'm still waiting 2 months later for the list of what he thinks he needs!

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WorriedTeenMum · 26/02/2013 14:14

DD2 (13) gets £50/month which covers everything except:

  • school lunches
  • phone contract (capped so fixed cost and was also Christmas present)
  • school uniform

    DD1 (17) gets £100/month which covers everything except:

  • school lunches
  • school bus

    We dont sub them for anything else
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Cooroo · 27/02/2013 15:40

LOL. Had suggested £80 to DD, then after reading this told her most people were on more like £60 (to cover clothes, dates, occasional buses, eating out, presents...) and bless her, she said 'OK that sounds fine'.

So 1st March we start that. Thanks Mumsnet for saving me £20 a month!

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coatonarack · 28/02/2013 11:23

Yikes. My 14 DD gets £10 a MONTH and even then she doesn't spend anything. I found £200 in her piggy bank (which I was raiding to pay the window cleaner) so shoved it into her bank account.

However, I do buy her books and clothes and toiletries (not makeup)

She doesn't go out much.

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Cooroo · 28/02/2013 14:01

Mine was the same at 14. Now she has a boyfriend (mostly they stay in and play computer games (I hope) but sometimes do cinema) and an interest in clothes (as long as they are black and/or feature scary looking bands), so her expenditure has gone up a bit. She's hoping to save on this, for concert tickets etc.

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cathyandclaire · 01/03/2013 09:08

Have added everything up, clothes, make-up, trips, school lunches, birthday/Xmas gifts for friends and family and it comes to an eye-watering £130 a month. Which I suppose is like WorriedTeenMum but with school lunches thrown in.

I know I've been spending that anyway - but it's scary to add it all up.

Slightly concerned that adding in school lunches will encourage her to stop eating so that she can buy more shoes like me but part of the reason I wanted to start this is that school lunches were going up and up, sometimes £5 a day and if asked she hadn't a clue what each item cost....a couple of bottled drinks, snacks etc really add up. I'm hoping that she may be more careful if it's her money.

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PrincessOfChina · 01/03/2013 09:11

At that age I just to get my Child Allowance. That covered everything and I supplemented with babysitting and waitressing.

The deal was I had to go and collect it from the Post Office but I know it doesn't work like that now!

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cathyandclaire · 01/03/2013 09:26

Me too Princess sadly we don't get that any more

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insanityscratching · 01/03/2013 10:08

Dd got £20pw and then £15pw for school lunches. She would make herself a packed lunch about 3 times a week so that she could pocket the cash and then went to a cafe with her friends one day and had chips from the chippy on a Friday. No bus fares to school as she'd walk or get a lift from her brother. She is brilliant at budgeting and gets the most from her money so seems to have worked well here.

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drownangels · 01/03/2013 10:13

Ds gets a minimum of £20 a week.
We pay for his phone, his food for college,his subscriptions, toiletries, sports equipment and sports fees, his holidays, clothes etc.

We top his cash up when he runs out.

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WorriedTeenMum · 01/03/2013 12:51

The way we handle lunches and bus money is as follows:

DD2 (13) gets a couple of pounds each day for lunch. That was agreed as being an adequate amount. If she wants to spend more then that comes out of her allowance. This is paid in cash

DD1 (17) gets a weekly amount (£5/day) only for the days she is in school for bus and lunch. This is paid into DD1's bank account at the start of each week.

I think by having a specific amount for this there is less temptation either to not buy lunch or to skive off school because of not having the bus fare.

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BackforGood · 01/03/2013 23:48

ds (16, in 6th form) gets £16 a month from us for his spending.
We pay for camps he goes on, and subs, for things he belongs to, and school dinners (£10.50 a week). We buy 'necessary' clothes.
He pays for his phone and extra clothes he wants / concert tickets / going out / presents / general bits and bobs.
Because he wants to spend more than we give him, he's gone out and got himself a job. He weighs up a bit more what things cost now in terms of 'hours worked'.

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MrsJackAubrey · 06/03/2013 22:23

My DD is 15 and gets 90 into her bank account to cover clothes, presents, toiletries, trips with friends. I pay school meals, bus, and all school kit. She pays for her haircuts. I also pay her phone contract. Her twin DS prefers us to,pay for what he needs as he goes along and sensibly wants a nationwide account not one of the big ripoff banks, and they don't do accounts for under 16s so he says he will wait. I think we are very generous and I sometimes feel bad. But they both seem well balanced not greedy kids. They know they are fortunate.

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Bettyblue444 · 12/03/2013 11:00

16 year olds can work. My son has a part time job and a very meagre allowance. Working has given him a strong sense of what things cost. For example, he will say "I'd have to work three hours to pay for that", and he won't buy it! Having said that he has paid for a festival ticket and saving for another one.

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twofingerstoGideon · 13/03/2013 12:21

I don't give my 16 year old any allowance at all, although I do pay for school lunches and phone top up and will pay her fares if she needs to go somewhere further than walking distance. I pay for essential clothing, shoes etc., and school trips.

I used to give her an allowance of £40/month to cover fripperies and socialising, but the understanding was that she would help me around the house. Nothing arduous - take out recycling, wash up once a week, cook dinner once a week and sort her own laundry. As she was unwilling to keep her side of the bargain, which led to a lot of arguments, I stopped paying the allowance. I made it clear that I wouldn't have minded her not doing things around the house if she spent the time studying instead, but she won't do that either.

I'm sure some of you will think this is very mean of me, but I really don't understand why I should come home from work and do absolutely everything/clean up someone else's mess and then reward them for their inactivity.

She's asked for the allowance to be reinstated, so I've been very clear about what she needs to do to 'earn' it. I'll be interested to see what happens next...

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AllieinWonderland · 16/03/2013 16:53

My 16 year old currently doesn't receive an allowance from me but he works for six hours on a Sunday which gets him £28 a week so he doesn't really need one. We only pay for his school train fare, cadet camps and music lessons and he pays for everything else such as toiletries, phone, clothing, trips out, drama group etc.

My thirteen year old, being a little too young to work, gets £10 a week but she only really pays for her clothing, birthday gifts for friends, any books or CDs or things she wants and her drama group. We pay for toiletries and trips out.

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Astelia · 17/03/2013 07:09

Rosirose we are waiting for a budget from DD (17) too. We need to see what she is spending her money on and whether it is reasonable.

Her allowance of £60 a month doesn't seem to be enough (although we pay for phone, clothes, contact lenses, books, toiletries, haircuts and school stuff).

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Mrsrobertduvall · 17/03/2013 07:32

Dd 16 gets £40 a month.
I buy toiletries, most clothes, haircuts, friends' birthday presents, travel etc.

She babysits a couple of times a month, so that's another £50.
She takes a packed lunch to school.

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Milliways · 17/03/2013 15:38

AT 16 DS got £50pm to cover his spending, phone, haircuts and non-essential clothes - but I always helped out with Summer/WInter basics as he kept outgrowing everything! He got a job and also had money making activities at school as well as babysitting.

He got no raise at 17, and recently he has bought a new Galaxy Note2 phone, a tablet, mahoosive speakers & a sub for his DJ activities, Reading & V festival tickets, and a few driving lessons - he is LOADED. However, I didn't stop his allowance as seems unfair to penalise him for earning money - and he is saving well for Uni as hopes to go in September.

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Cooroo · 18/03/2013 19:38

Halfway through her first month on £60, DD has pretty much run out - hardly surprising as she spent £43 on a steam punk necklace! And she got £20 babysitting... so she'll just have to muddle through the next 2 weeks on the £10 cash she has left. A good lesson!

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littlejosh · 25/03/2013 09:49

Came across this discussion just at the right time!

Can anyone clarify do their kids get allowances, on the understanding that they do chores etc at home.

SS (16) has been asking Dad for money to go out with friends, however he doesn't help out at home and having been encouraged to get a job (I know they are few and far between at the moment) isn't interested in getting one. We also offered to pay him, to help out at our home but again no interest.

He doesn't currently get an allowance, but we're considering it...but interested how we would approach it at this point.

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BackforGood · 25/03/2013 23:41

Well, I don't pay mine for jobs, on a 'job by job basis', but they have always had to contribute (age appropriately) to "running the household" as we all live here, and are not rich enough to have servants, so, sort of, then yes.

His main spending (currently concert tickets) all comes from his job though. We pay a minimal amount of pocket money. They need to understand that "spending money" needs to be earned IME.

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Lolatate16 · 28/03/2018 17:05

For my 16 yo ds I pay him around £200 a month so £50 a week but he is out every night of the week and sometimes I have to give him more!

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