how much allowance for a sixteen year old Post Reply

[miss piggy]

Afternoon everyone.

Hope that this isn't too cheeky but would anyone be happy to share what they give their sixteen year old as an allowance and if they expect their teens to complete jobs for it - I did when I was their age but apparently I am way out of touch.

I would also like to know if they are allowed to spend it on anything that they want.

Thanks.

[HenryHoover]

Hi we do £100 per month but he has to make his bed / keep bedroom tidy and and put laundry i the laundry bin. Would also be interested to know what others do.

[MonkeySee]

Is that all just spending money or does he need to buy clothes or anything else from the £100? Our 13 yes old has only £15/ month and I know we need to raise it as he goes into socialising independently more (now I give him some cash when he goes to meet friends) but I hope he is cooking one night a week when he is 16. The kids are currently in charge of their rooms, and setting/clearing table and dishwasher and get involved with other chores when asked, like laundry, but those are framed as how you pitch in when part of a community rather than cash for chores.

[Kitkat04]

No child living at home needs an allowance. What on earth would a 16 year old do right £100/month?

[Heavens to Betsy]

When my Sons started secondary school I paid them £6 a week to do the rubbish and recycling.  Due to the big gap in age this went on for over 10 years, so a win win situation for everyone including me!

That was their pocket money.  Due to inflation it would probably be about £10 a week now.  Disposable income has to be earnt is my attitude, and it prepares them for the adult world.   

[HenryHoover]

Hi MonkeySee, the deal we have agreed is that we will buy staples that we think he needs, jeans, coat, trainers, basics, sports things for his clubs but if there are things that we don't think he needs he can buy those out of his allowance. The rest is for socialising. We did try to work out how much he would need and thought this seemed fair.

[betterannabel]

My two are a little bit younger but get £100 a week. DH thinks of our house as its own economy so we all get a universal basic income  

[Chops2010]

My 16 yr old does 1 x weekly chore( hoovering) .he does his own laundry & room . He is also responsible for cooking a family meal of his choice once a fortnight. He is shocked that many of his friends aren’t able to work a washing machine.
He gets £30 a week that’s for socialising and personal items.

We want our boys to be able willing and proud ❤️

[sjcguk]

I had mine calculate her own budget and suggest what she needed, which turned out to be £50 a month.  On top of that we pay for basic haircuts, phone, music/dance lessons and school-related essentials.  So she uses it for clothes, social life and any bits and pieces she wants like hair dye, nail polish, Patreons etc. She also sometimes buys a supermarket meal deal rather than having the school canteen lunch (we pay for meal credit).  No specific chores are required, just being generally helpful - she cooks quite regularly as she enjoys it, and sometimes does her own laundry.    

[BalhamBorders]

Our son is still only turning 9 but we've decided to give him £1 per year of his age per month i.e. £9 per month, of which he must save more than half to avoid him spending it all on in-game purchases and sweets. This also helps him get into the saving habit and start to budget for higher value items.

The going rate for his friends who are this young seems to be around £1 per week, so it really is pocket money and not an allowance, but this comes with no chores attached.

By the time he's a teenager, he'll no doubt expect or need more, but some of the figures quoted in the feed above astound me, but then maybe that's a Wandsworth Common vs a Tooting/Streatham Common rate

[dudette]

No child living at home needs an allowance. What on earth would a 16 year old do right £100/month?

I assume you don’t actually have a 16 year old?

[Anglo-Deutsch]

£150/ month for 16-17yr old boy. Pays for travel, snacks around the school day, his monthly gym membership and socializing. This includes dates w/ his GF and going with his mates to the *coughs* pub. 

[lucyq]

My 16 year old has a Saturday job in a local cafe - last summer, when she was 15, I helped her get a CV together and drove her around local businesses (cafes/ bakeries/ gift shops etc) and waited while she went in, enquired about jobs and left her CV. She loves working there- and does extra days in the holidays - and has a lot more spare cash than her friends. (She has also learned to deal with the public, customer service, time keeping and a load of other life lessons. She has also learned how to manage her money - she opened a savings account last month and transfers half her earnings into it when she is paid.) My older kids also had jobs at that age - one was a football coach, the other picked up local children from a primary school and took them home/ made supper / helped with their homework etc. There is plenty of time for this - they did / are doing very well at school. Teenagers waste a huge amount of time on their phones - they do have time to spare whatever they tell you about school work.
I can not imagine giving our kids £100 allowance even if we had it to spare. They are more than able to make their own cash - and gain some life skills / grow up in the process.