Money comes and goes from your home, in what seems to be waves of water. The paycheck that you earned today apparently goes out the door before you know what you even spent it on. This is especially true if you have a few children.
Children can wreck havoc on your budget if you are not careful in teaching them about money and the word no from the point when they are a child.
There are many different views and rules about teaching children all about money, how much of allowance they should have, and even if children should have an allowance. The final decision of course is always going to be your own, but you need a good solid stance, and then continue to follow through with this as your child grows.
A successful family budget begins with every one only spending so much at one time. Only having so much money to spend is an allowance. An allowance could be for mom, dad and for the children. An allowance is the money that you have to spend for the week and that is it, so you can pay the other bills and you can live a more stable life.
Give your child some type of an allowance, as they are old enough to understand money. Their allowance may be dependant upon what chores they do in the house or the amount could be dependant on the number A’s they earned on a report card.
Tell your child what their allowance is to be used for. Only xx amount of dollars is to be used on their selves, and the remainder should be used for something that is needed, or to be saved. Older children may get more of an allowance, but they have to save for their clothes, their music, and their games.
Allow your child a chance to explain purchases other that what you may have originally set. It could be a gift, a donation, or a special one-time purchase that they want to save for that you could give the ok for.
As your child gets a little older, increasing their allowance will be needed, as they will require additional things for school and clothing. Children that are older have more of a need to present their selves in their own way, and in a way that will be acceptable by society in general.
Give children the full responsibility for their own money. If they spend all of their money on candy and then need new jeans, do not buy the new jeans, make the child realize what type of mistake has been made, and they need to save their entire allowance for a few more weeks to buy the jeans their selves.
Only give advances on their allowance when it is absolutely needed. Perhaps what they were saving up for suddenly comes on sale and they don’t have all of their money yet. An advance on their allowance is not out of the question because you are also going to be teaching the value of getting a good price on what they are purchasing.
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