Teaching kids about money
Ask any parent and they will tell you that when you have children you learn to live with embarassment and teaching your children about money can include a little too.
I encourage parents to start teaching their children about money from an early age. What is an early age? I will happily give my 3yo nephew money lessons when I'm looking after him and he picks it up so certainly 3 isn't too young. Kids learn so much by following your example that you can start with this lesson from when they are even younger.
Today's tip is Teach your kids to stick to a budget
Firstly, you may get a little embarassed by this one but the lesson taught is definitely worth it so if you do get embarassed, just remember the valuable lesson you are teaching your children makes it all worthwhile.
Next time you are doing the grocery shop, large or small, write a list of what you need before you go. Feel free to get the kids to help you. If you get grocery store catalogues, get the older kids searching for which stores have what you need on special and do your shopping where the most specials are.
Then take cash with you, let the kids know how much cash you have for the total grocery shop and leave all your cards, debit and credit at home. Remember, we are teaching the kids a lesson on sticking to a budget so cash only for this trip to the store.
When you get to the checkout, encourage the kids to watch the running total of the groceries as they are scanned.
If the total is more than your cash limit, explain to your kids that you have to many groceries and only so much cash. Ask your children to choose 1 item each to put back. Do this until the shopping comes under your cash budget. This is where a little embarassment may come in, so just remember this is about teaching your children a money lesson on how to stick to a budget. If you don't have the money, you wait until another day when you do to buy those extra items.
If you are a little embarassed, visit a different store rather than your usual grocery store for the purpose of this exercise as the lesson for your kids is worth the trip.
I'm surprised how young children start saying to their parents, just put it on card Mum, Dad get some more money from the hole in the wall. As we become more and more a cashless society it becomes harder to teach children about money.
Teaching your children that groceries can be put back on the shelf for another day because you don't have the cash today is a great way for them to see you sticking to a budget. A great lesson for all kids to learn at a young age and hopefully take with them when they are old enough to get credit on their own.
To make this exercise work well, you may need to make sure there is a couple of extra items in the trolley that will boost you over the cash limit for the shop.
Let older kids hand over the cash and count the change from the assistant to make sure it is correct.
Cash only for this exercise as it is real, it is in the present and tangible. Cards don't work as they don't seem real to little kids. Children don't yet understand how cards work so keep it simple by using cash for lessons about money.
