Question

In about 200 words, write a conversation between: 20
i Your younger brother who wants his pocket money increased and your father who thinks
he’s getting enough

Answer 1

We started giving our daughter 50p a week in pocket money two years ago when she was seven years old, because we found out all her classmates were getting an allowance. However, for that she has to set the table, clear the dishes and make her bed. We agreed to increase it to £1 recently if she started feeding her hamster every day, but she hasn't managed so she hasn't got it.

She can, however, earn extra money for certain tasks: 5p for pairing a couple of socks from the laundry, 50p for watering the front and back garden, £2 for helping to clean the car.

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When we discovered some of her friends get £10 a week without doing any chores we felt we were mean parents. But we are both from working class backgrounds and from a very young age we were taught that money has to be earned, so it was important to us that she learned that money doesn't grow on trees – and that "I want" doesn't get. We want her to appreciate that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and be considerate of other people's sacrifices too.

We save £100 a month into a child savings account for her when she turns 18. And we don't just say "no" to her. We pay for her clothes, books, trips out, piano lessons, private tuition and birthday presents for her friends. We recently rewarded her for doing well at school with an annual theme park pass for the whole family, which cost £100 per person.

 'I think the high use of the trampoline is down to the fact she saved for it'. Photograph: Huw Jones/Alamy

However, she has to save for other things she wants. She once saved for more than a year, using money she was given on her birthday and at Christmas, and bought herself a £300 trampoline. She uses it a lot, more than a year later, and I think that is down to the fact she saved for it.

She is a very generous person and a savvy shopper – she likes to shop around for a bargain. When she is tempted to make an impulse purchase with her pocket money she thinks about whether she really needs it now or can get it cheaper later. Sometimes she even says to me: "Mummy, put this money into my savings account. I don't want to spend it yet."