Affordable Living Concept #1 – Pass It Onto Your Kids
The other day, my son asked, “Mom, is going to a movie this weekend in our budget?” And I had one of those moments where I think, “Maybe, just maybe I’m doing something right, here.”
Budgeting for kids is an essential part of affordable living for your family. One key thing we do in our family to teach our boys about the joys and blessings of affordable living is to help them live by their own budgets and understand ours. Here are three key elements to the concept of budgeting for kids in our home.
We give weekly allowances that each of our two boys can use to budget for saving, giving and spending. Allowance is a beautiful thing because I am no longer the perpetual bad guy. When my 5th-grader expresses an interest in a new video game, he’s not really asking me. Because it’s his money he’s talking about. So instead of granting or denying permission to buy the game, I’m helping him think through HIS spending choices.
“Hmmmm….” I’ll say. “Yeah, that looks like a cool game. How much money have you saved up? Do you have enough money to buy that game the next time we’re in the store?” If he does, I’ll continue with, “Well, last week you mentioned you were saving up for a new skateboard. Did you decide against that?” He’ll usually pause. He’d forgotten all about the skateboard. He looks sorrowfully at the cash in his wallet, understanding that it’s finite and can’t be spent twice. I don’t care what he chooses to buy (within reason). What I care about is that he understands that money comes hard and goes quickly, if you don’t manage it well.
We do NOT give advances on allowance. None. We used to. It was like a crack cocaine addiction for two short people with really short memories. When Saturday morning rolled around, they inevitably forgot the loan, swearing that we in fact still owed them their usual allowance. No more! It occurred to me that an advance on allowance is a lot like credit card use. They need to learn delayed gratification.
We talk about our family finances relatively openly. I’m open with my boys about grocery shopping decisions. “Jack, I’m buying the store brand of cola instead of Coke because it tastes about the same, and it’s nearly half the price.” I’ve been pleased to see how much sense this makes to him when I lay out the logic for him, instead of just saying, “No, because I said so!” We use the word “budget”, a lot. We let our boys know that we plan for spending categories like entertainment, eating out, groceries and travel. So when they ask if we can stop at McDonalds for the third time this week, and the eating out budget is already spent, we let them know why. At first they balked. Now, it’s a natural part of life.
With some intentionality and openness, you can see and reap big benefits from helping your kids understand the concept of budgeting and affordable living.
Written by Hilary Kleese, author of http://affordablelivingguide.com
