Involving the Kids In Personal Budgeting
Personal budgeting is a challenge, and it’s even harder when you have children. It’s especially hard when the children are past their grade school years. Yes, younger kids want the latest fad toy, but they’re not as obsessed with buying designer clothes and cell phones and a new Ipod every couple of months.
However, the fact is, if you want to cut down on your spending you are going to have to enlist the entire family.
This means that you are going to have to have a talk with your kids, and explain that some things need to change. They need to know that the entire family needs to cut back on their spending. Everyone has their own approach to involving kids in the budget, but it’s not a bad idea to show them a list of basic expenses.
This will help them with their own personal budgeting when they grow up, because they’ll have a better picture of how much it really costs for the basic necessities in life. It’s important, though, that instead of hitting them with doom and gloom, explain that you’re going to find ways that everyone can still have fun and enjoy life’s little luxuries – just at a cheaper price.
If your teens are obsessed with designer clothes, they need to start learning about the joys of consignment stores. Plato’s Closet is a chain store in many states which sells high quality designer teenager clothing that is used. Go on any of the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, or Bing- and search for consignment stores for kids and teenagers in your area. I suggest Google Maps for something like this.
Outlet malls are also a possibility, although beware – they’re not always that much of a bargain, so do your research and have a budget in mind before you hit up those stores.
Start buying used video games instead of new. And incidentally, your kids can trade in their video games in good condition and get significant discounts at many chain video stores. They will probably get a little more money out of it if they sell them on eBay, but make sure you anticipate your shipping costs correctly. I once paid $25 more in shipping than what I sold the item for and shipping and handling charges because I did not anticipate how expensive it would be to mail a large, odd-shaped item. I chose to be true to my word and not ruin my 100% positive feedback rating. So may my expensive lesson be to your advantage.
Are your children old enough to start earning money on their own? Babysitting, mowing lawns, paper routes, doing odd jobs for neighbors that you know, employment at fast food restaurants…there are numerous opportunities, and if money is tight and your children are old enough, it is VERY reasonable to expect them to contribute towards buying their own luxuries. Most important is helping your children to implement a budget and planning it out and stick to it.
The time to teach them personal budgeting is now, and the way to do it is by example. So you can’t go splurging on big expensive toys while moaning about bills; you ALL have to shop at the bargain outlets together, visit Costco together, and cut back on expenses together.
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