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Karen Weidman has a great post on 10 Ways to Teach Your Children About Money. No matter what your situation, it’s important to learn how to manage finances. We weren’t rich but we were comfortable thanks to my parent’s hard work and my mother’s skill at budgeting.
Taking your children to the grocery store and letting them help with the list is a good learning experience. As a bonus, it’s a good way for them to learn how to behave in public. Mine learned quickly that screaming for smarties would not get them far.
It’s also a good way for them to learn menu planning. A couple times, I let my daughter choose our meals and once she picked a box of flavored chicken wings. They were yummy but they certainly didn’t feed six people. Making things from scratch is a little extra effort but you often get three times the amount of food that you would otherwise.
Stick to the budget
I am a bit of a stickler with my grocery list so if it’s not on the list, we generally don’t get it. I will budget a bit for a treat but that’s usually chosen ahead of time and included in the list. This is a good way for them to learn how to stick to the budget and see in black and white how much their treat will cost.
Work and Save
If your children are old enough, let them do small jobs and save for some of the things that they want. Shoveling snow, cutting grass, and delivering papers are all good starter jobs. I noticed that when our kids started buying some of their own things, they took much better care of their belongings. My son kept stepping on his headphones for example so instead of us continuing to replace them, he bought his own. They’re still intact.
Karen Weidman has a great post on 10 Ways to Teach Your Children About Money. No matter what your situation, it’s important to learn how to manage finances. We weren’t rich but we were comfortable thanks to my parent’s hard work and my mother’s skill at budgeting.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for the link love.