Thread: Pocket money
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Old January 28th 09, 03:02 PM posted to misc.kids
Rosalie B.
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Default Pocket money

"Welches" wrote:
"Welches" wrote in message
...
I thought I'd try and generate a debate or two as this group seems to have
gone fairly quiet barring the spam.
I'm going to raise a couple of senarios, that I've been in as a child or a
parent or a friend.
This one is about pocket money.

Three children, two born at the start of the academic year, one born
towards the end.

snip
doesn't count!!!)


I was really just trying to start discussion rather than it being a current
issue :-)
I thought people might have feelings on which way was better, to go up on
birthdays or academic year. I raised it as one time dh (who was the oldest,)
commented one time that his brothers each were younger when they started
pocket money. I don't think he really minded, but I was trying to think of a
situation that didn't have an answer that was totally fair. Maybe I didn't
really manage that.


It was just that we didn't know what you meant by pocket money.

I will remark that dh was one time fined 2p of his 5p pocket money for some
misdemeanour, and he decided that he hadn't actually been naughty-just daddy
was short of money that week and wanted it for himself :-D

I never was fined for anything. But occasionally we WERE short of
money and sometimes I would forget to pay the allowance - which in my
kids cases was really pocket money as I paid most of their dues IIRC.

Pocket money, in this case, is spending money for the child, and is not the
same as allowance. It's a very small amount starting at 30p (around 60c, I
think) and going up 10p a year. (academic year) There's very little they
can get without saving, except sweets and they don't usually buy those. It
isn't tied to specific responsibilities, although we do expect them to do
more as they get older, but they do lose pocketmoney sometimes for
misbehaviour.

Basically sweets was all I bought with my extra allowance. I like to
get Turkish taffy on the way home from school (I walked about 4 blocks
to school and crossed a small street front section of stores on the
way).

In my children's case, they did walk to school in some cases (when we
lived in California, Key West and the Philadelphia area) but after
that they rode the bus, and even when they walked, there was no place
for them to spend their money unless I drove them there. We drove
everywhere after we moved to RI in the early 70s and when we moved
here. Basically there was no place for them to spend any money except
for lunch at school.

Perhaps a alternative thought is something that me and dh disagree mildly
on.
The only thing that they're meant to pay for is part of Christmas/birthday
presents. We don't expect them to pay for friends' party presents, but
generally for family. Dh thinks they should always pay exactly half. Now the
problem I have with this is that three of the birthdays they pay for are
October and one is November. Once they have paid for these plus Christmas
then they basically have very little change out of pocket money from
September through to January, even buying small things like pencils and
stickers. They do make some presents, but they do like to buy presents too.
So I tend to ask them what they want to buy, and direct them towards
something that's reasonably cheap, and they then pay between 25% to 50%
depending on various factors. Occasionally they come up with a good idea, or
something that's needed anyway in which case they may be paying less (eg #1
wanted to buy dh slippers, and he has a specific sort he likes, so she only
paid 10%, which was still 2 weeks pocket money)

What I would like to do is give them each a "Christmas allowance" of say £5
and then require they pay half always. Dh thinks it's a lesson in saving and
they should learn to save their pocket money if they want to give presents.
(after all #2 only gets £15 a year, so it's a long time to save up)

I don't remember much about what we did, except that when dd#3 was a
baby she didn't have any shoes, and dd#1 thought she should have some.
We lived in Key West at the time and dd#3 didn't really need shoes for
weather reasons and she wasn't walking yet. But when Sears (which was
in walking distance) had a Children's Day where the kids were allowed
to come into the store alone and buy gifts for their families, dd#1
got (with my help) an outline of her sister's foot, and went to get
her shoes. The clerk was unhappy about letting her have shoes as a
gift, but dd#1 was determined, and was successful at buying them. But
I don't remember whether it was her own money or mine - I suspect it
was mine.


It's not as if they are big or frivoulous spenders of their pocket money. #1
gives a good proportion to charities (she gave all bar two weeks pocket
money of 6 months to Guide dogs charity two years ago, and she'll often want
to send pocket money to appeals) and #2 spends more on herslef, but she'll
typically save up enough to buy two of what she wants so she can give one to
a friend.

Debbie

DH took the kids to buy a present for me, and I took them to get a
present for him - I think we paid for it though.