Littlemummy Discusses Clothing Allowances
I’m in the process of reading You Want to Do What? in preparation for a review, it’s throwing up a lot of great discussion points.
Where do you stand on clothing allowances?
The book suggests that fourteen or fifteen is a good age to begin sharing the responsibility of buying clothes. If you plan to give a clothing budget when do you think you’ll start this, and if you plan to retain responsibility for clothes buying, what are your reasons?
If Erin is anything like me, and I think she is, she’ll be very independant from an early age. I think from eleven onwards I would consider giving her the responsibility of choosing non-essentials. I believe it’s important for children to be given monetary responsibility from quite early on.
I would consider giving her a full clothing allowance, which would incude responsibility for buying essentials when I think she is managing well with the non-essentials budget, but probably somewhere between fourteen and sixteen as the book suggests.
What about you?
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I had an allowance from about 12 I think, linked to doing chores etc. I’m not sure how well it worked for me as it was a sudden shift from “here are the clothes I’ve bought for you” to “here is your allowance, go buy your clothes” and I really had no idea – in fact I still had no idea for quite some years!
Aprilia already has quite a say in what she has bought for her and already has a good grasp of fiscal policy (age 6
) as I see no point in buying stuff to sit in her cupboard unworn!
I remember dating a boy when I was in my teens who had to keep his own accounts which were overseen by his parents. Half his allowance had to go into a savings account, the other half had to buy all his clothing plus any luxuries and he had to keep some “in reserve” for emergencies (ripped clothes that needed replacing urgently and couldn’t wait until the next months allowance etc) They stopped overseeing his money when he “came of age” at 18 but were still willing to glance over his books if he wanted that prop at any point. The result is that he is now a very successful small business man and very canny with his money! I think I will probably take this sort of tack with Aprilia when she’s bigger.
Aprilia already has quite a say in what she has bought for her and already has a good grasp of fiscal policy (age 6
) as I see no point in buying stuff to sit in her cupboard unworn! She likes to be given a budget and given free reign to pick out stuff from Asda adn quite often comes away laden with cheaper stuff (£2 trousers!) with maybe 1 item that’s a bit more glam.
Eek! just realised I copied instead of pasted a sentence!! I don’t usually repeat myslef quite that obivously!
Money and budgeting seems to be one of those skills that seem to stick more the earlier you teach it.
With my daughters I started by adding some money onto their allowances for them to buy their own toiletries – I started this the minute they got fully into the “spray deodorant and hair gel” type toiletries. I feel it gave them the idea of budgeting etc
My eldest was probably about 16 when I decided that she was old enough to manage a clothing allowance and she now buys all her own clothing, although I still buy her the odd item of clothing as a treat now and then.
My youngest is 12 now and she buys her own toiletries and loves having that responsibility. She is not ready yet to buy her own clothes, I will probably wait until she’s about 16 too.
Wow your ahead of your self but good subject. i think i was about 12 when i had more input and 14 when i was actually allows to buy my own clothes. Think i need to read that book!
My 12-year old chooses all of her own clothes now more or less (I daren’t – it changes so frequently). I haven’t instituted an allowance as yet, but sh’e saved so much money from her pocket money of £2 a week, that I get her to spend her own money on things I don’t think she really needs.
Sometimes she goes out shopping with friends (with me elsewhere in the mall) and chooses all of her own stuff. By and large, she chooses really well.