Pocket Money - yes? no? how much?

Do you give your children pocket money? At what age did you start, and how much do they get.

I was talking with DH the other day about whether Milo would get pocket money, as neither of us did.

I'm really not sold on the idea, but DH was adamant that Milo would get pocket money and thought that $10 a week was perfectly OK for a primary school kid (yes, I'm aware he's only 8months old..just thinking ahead)

I nearly fell off my chair as I thought that was waaaaay too much. How could a PS age kid spend $10 in a week? Are there that many things they need to buy? I just don't understand it at all.

hehehe - sometimes your mind wanders when you have a wee baby ... oh, he kicks well, he might be a swimmer ...

My Cait is 4.5 and I give her about 50 cents a week for doing things around the house or when she has been really helpful helping me with Alex. That usually gets spent in two trips to the milk bar. It's been good with numbers and money because she has to look for a lolly box with a 20c or 10c on the front. I'll probably do something more structured for her in prep. Also, she looks at the junk mail at the dollars and cents - and sometimes I think she 'gets' that toys cost more than just a handful of coins. I tell her to find something for 90cents and she says that she cant find anything and that they all have dollars on them and she does not have any dollars.

My SIL with four kids (6, 8, 13, 15) They get either $5 or $10 a week and half of it goes in their bank account and they get the other half.

$10 is a lot of lollies ! The primary near us is also next door to a milk bar and I imagine that once you let your child walk to school by themselves or with friends - that's where $10 would go !! If they want to save up to buy a game or something - that could be a month or two of saving it all each week.

I used to get $2 a week in primary school and $20 a week in high school. I think $10 may be too much for a primary school child. But what if you put it into a trust account for him instead? That way it will go towards something more worth while than just junk. I'm doing this with Lily, we put about $5 a week into a trust for her until she's 18.

Tegan, thats what we do atm, and I'm happy to keep doing that.
Barb *lol* yes I was thinking $10 was waaay too many lollies! I would definately be a fan of the save half/spend half approach, and think he should do something in return for it similar to what you do with Cait

Rachael,
My kids get $10 a week if they complete their chores. We have a contract for each of them. They agree to do set chores and if they complete them, they get paid. Half of it has to go into their bank accounts.
Sometimes we will make a deal and change the pocket money to things. For example; at the moment they are all keen on those dogs things with the big noses. They come with a magazine and a soft toy dog, for $9.95. They have to do the same things but at the end of it they get the dog. It comes out once a fortnight, so they are still really only getting their $5 in the hand.

A friend used to be given a small amount of pocket money each week and i remember her telling me that her parents encouraged her and her siblings to split it into three parts. One part they could spend, one part save and the final part had to go to a charity of their choice. This system was also encouraged to continue once they began to work in their early teens and make their own money. I think it's a great start for children to deal with money, responsibilities and giving to those less fortunate/sharing.

i do something similar when i remember lol.

ds has 3 chores to do every day, he is 6. make his bed, take the dirty clothes to the basket and clean the playroom - if he does all of these he gets a lunchorder every friday, plus 20c for each chore done each day so he can potentially earn $3.80 per week, we also encourage him to split it 3 ways, he puts 1/3 in his wallet for spending on whatever he wants - the other 1/3 into a money box to save for something special (if he does a good job saving then i generally make up the difference) and the other 1/3 into another money box which is for the bank. he also gets a gold coin usually $2 if he does extra stuff like helping with car washing etc, also $2 arrives from the tooth fairy and he chooses where he wants to put that money.

so far it has worked great, i remember when we first started it he took his wallet to the shops and wanted a drink and a car so i said well you have your money, he went to buy the drink and said oh i only have 5 cents left can i get a car for that i said no, he put the drink back and said i will have a drink of water when i get home and brought the car lol - so it has taught him some value.

we are thinking of increasing the amount per chore soon tho cause once you divvy it up 3 ways, it can take a loooooooooooong time to get a decent amount.

when I was little, we got between $2 and $5...but we had to work for it!
We got extra for mowing the lawn, cleaning bathroom, cleaning room, washing cars, picking up dog poos, dishes, vaccuuming, cleaning out guinea pigs, walking dog.
Taught us the value of money! My kids will be working too!
Oh, and when we got a full time job, mum and dad made us pay at least $50 rent each week......

My kids get in hand $3 a week, and if they do chores, like washing the car, they can get up to $5 more. (they always put it in their moneybox as they knkow i buy them one treat a week on shopping days like a little milky way bar each).
We also put about another $3 each into their accounts each week when we pay our bills online.
My eldest likes to save up for things he wants, like those bionicle toys, and bdaman ones, but my 6 year old is a real scrooge, and puts every single coin in his moneybox, and it stays there!!, which is fabulous to see. My 4 year old also keeps it all in his moneybox, but if he wants a car or something else which doesnt happen very often, we just take it off his $3 a week, and he gets to put the rest in his moneybox.

I remember getting 20 cents a week as a kid, and thought that was big bucks back then, although, back then, 20 cents bought a big bag of lollies that we made last the whole week lol

I used to get $3 a week when I was a kid and I would spend hours agonising over what to spend it on LOL. The way we are doing it is they get $1 for every year that they are, ie Lindsay gets $5, Erin, $3 and Paige gets $2. They get to keep $1 out of it and the rest goes in their piggy banks, but all of Paiges goes in because she doesn't need to buy anything anyway. That way they can buy a lolly or something if we are out, but also save up to buy bigger things that they want.

Lindsay and Erin have to do little jobs around the house like keep their rooms tidy, pick up their outside toys, pick up their clothes after they take them off, that sort of thing.

I used to get $2 per week in primary school and I had one of those kids bank accounts with the commonwealth bank. I used to spend what I liked of my $2 and bank the rest. It really taught me about about money management (even if it was a small amount).