To Buy or Not to Buy?

With the kids going back to school, that meant we went shopping last week for supplies. I decided to have the kids spend their own money for supplies in hopes that they wouldn’t need to purchase everything new if mom wasn’t dolling out the money. Although there is nothing like the smell of new crayons as you start the new school year, we have a box filled with about 500 used crayons that are aching to be used. So they had three weeks of allowance plus a little more money that I threw in just to be fair since Luke and McKenzie needed new backpacks. When I told them they could keep any leftover money, well that’s when their eyes lit up!

Luke and McKenzie received their supply lists from their teachers in the mail the day we went shopping and Joseph pulled his up on-line. They eagerly went through the lists and all our recycled supplies to find what they needed. Besides crayons they found pens, pencils, notebooks that had a few pages colored on, binders, two pocket folders and composition books. So off we went to the store to purchase what they really needed and they were as thrifty as could be. Joseph even went so far as to return a new composition book he just purchased because it was $2.00 cheaper at another store.

Here are a few strategies for parents to teach their kids about money management. You can read the full article discussing all these strategies from Family Magazine Group.

Strategy No. 1: Hold family financial meetings and introduce the basics of household budgets: the inflow outflow equation.

Strategy No. 2: Use a "hands-on" approach and consider your children's maturity and developmental levels of understanding when teaching the income outgo budget equation.

Strategy No. 3: Develop a positive attitude toward money management by practicing what you preach.

Strategy No. 4: Give your children an allowance, and structure it so they must manage it themselves.

Children can be pretty thrifty and inventive when it comes to saving money for a prized possession like a new game or toy they’ve been eyeing. I did draw the line when Joseph said he would use duct tape on an old binder he wanted to re-use. I figured the new binder that cost a dollar would be cheaper than covering a binder with half a roll of duct tape!