5 Fun Budgeting Activities for You and Your Kids
There are no easy answers when it comes to anything with kids. Some pretty good general guidelines? Sure. Make sure they know they’re loved… be consistent whatever your rules happen to be… don’t sell them to passing strangers unless you get a really good price… these are all good starting places, but if you have kids yourself you know there are almost always exceptions. Even when there aren’t, we all still mess up from time to time.
That’s why I’ve always believed more parenting blogs and books (yes, even that really popular one that was SO life-altering for your friends from work or the one whose author came to your church and was SO funny) should start with a disclaimer:
You’re about to read some pretty good ideas that have worked for many people. If they don’t work for you with your child, it’s not because you’ve already failed as a parent or that your kid is just hopeless. It’s because every family is different. Every kid is unique (i.e., “weird”). You may have to try a few different strategies, or modify them to fit your situation. Mileage may vary.
That said, as we dive into five fun budgeting activities for you and your kids, realize they won’t all “take” right away. Good financial habits, like most good things, take time to process, apply, and eventually internalize. The same kid who you’re pretty sure will never learn how to get his dirty laundry all the way to the hamper or will express the same level of shock and horror every time you tell her the curfew for all phone activity is still 9:00 is actually probably already a master of at least one thing: convincing you they’re not listening to anything you say or learning anything you want so desperately for them to learn.
But they are. Seriously. Just give it another twenty or so years and you’ll see.
5 Fun Budgeting Activities For You And Your Kids
Here are five things to try when looking for creative ways to save money with your kids or to begin teaching them about creating a budget and two things that maybe aren’t as fun or creative but which are still pretty important to all the others.
1. Get a Jar (Watch How Savings Work)
Hey, I never promised they’d be complicated, or even original. This is one of Dave Ramsey’s favorite creative ways to save money with kids. My wife and I still have one of these near the door we enter when we come home, and my youngest kid is 23 and lives in another state.
The key is to use a clear glass jar so it’s easy to see the pile of change and small bills growing regularly. (And yes, you’ll want to drop change in the jar periodically.) You can come up with your own rules for what goes in the jar or whether or not it doubles as a “Swear Jar” or “Jinx Jar” or every time dad burps he has to put a dollar in or whatever.
Whatever system you use, make sure you demonstrate both excitement and patience about it as the amount grows. It’s also usually a good idea to know specifically what you’re going to do with it when it’s full. If you’re going to use it to pay the electric bill, it may not have the same effect as if you make it ice cream money or movie money or something else fun for the rest of the family.
2. Get Three Jars (Start Kids Saving Early)
However, you choose to handle “allowance,” explain to your child that because they’re just learning how to handle money, there will be some rules. (It’s “their” money the same way they wear “their” shoes or go to “their” room – just because it’s FOR them doesn’t mean they’re suddenly in charge. But you’re smart enough to figure out how to explain this without cackling and rubbing your hands together maniacally.
Every time they get money – from allowance, from birthdays, from mowing the neighbor’s lawn – it’s automatically split into three jars: short-term (“fun”) money, long-term (“savings”) money, and helping (“give it away”) money. I like going 50% / 25% / 25% with this system, but I’ve talked to other parents who do 50% / 40% / 10% or even a third, a third, and a third. My kid’s more fiscally responsible than theirs, however, so clearly my system is better.
The Short-term Jar
The short-term jar can be used with relative autonomy within the limits of your regular rules. (Anything they’d not be allowed to have anyway they’re not allowed to buy.) Other than that, let them enjoy the relative freedom that comes with spending money.
The Long-term Jar
The long-term jar should have a specific purpose or time frame attached. If they’re real into clothes, maybe it’s the money they save up for the mall. If there’s something they want to do next summer, save it for that. Depending on their age, however, even saying “you can only spend this money in July and January” is a huge start over, say… not having a savings account.
The Helping Jar
The helping jar is used to buy presents for friends on their birthdays, drop in the offering at church, or give to a cause you both agree on. The point is, if we want our kids to have giving habits, we have to both model it and teach it intentionally.
3. Make Stuff Together
There’s nothing wrong with ordering pizza, buying factory-made furniture, or otherwise contributing to the economy at large. Sometimes, however, doing it yourself can both save money and give you quality time together with your kids.
Let’s say you’re part of a family of four and you’re in the habit of having pizza delivered a couple of times a month on game nights, weekends, or whatever your pattern happens to be. If you’re like most families, there’s one person who’ll only eat plain cheese pizza, another who likes pepperoni, a third who lives for the ultra-supreme with triple toppings, and that one weird person who – given the choice – will always want Hawaiian or something else that’s just wrong and not really pizza.
Ahead of time (not when everyone’s hungry), talk to your kids about the cost of pizza. It’s a high profit-margin food built on convenience and fun as much as flavor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s also not that hard to make homemade – together. For fun. With a little planning, you can compare the cost of ordering vs. going to the grocery store. Plus, everyone can customize their own. It doesn’t matter whether you make the dough together or buy premade and simply assemble it – it’s about the experience and discussing the pros and cons of paying someone else to put it together for you.
If you want to go real crazy, estimate the cost difference between ordering and making and put the difference in the family change jar. Hmmm… every little choice we make to save money fills up the jar and gets us closer to whatever our goals are! (Who knew?)
The same idea applies when it’s time for a new TV and video game stand, colorizing someone’s hair, or repainting a bedroom. Don’t take on something you know you can’t do or which requires professional expertise. (“Hey kids, let’s rewire the house so the breaker doesn’t trip when daddy’s using the shop vac downstairs!”) The idea is to slow down and take the time to do small things together while looking at the relationship between time and money. You put in the time, it usually costs you less money. Hopefully, you enjoy the experience as well.
And besides, this is the kind of stuff we always intended to do with our kids anyway, right?
4. Matching Funds
As your kids get a little older, you may want to give them more choice over how their money is allotted between those three jars mentioned above – short-term spending, long-term saving, and helping others. Offer to match anything they put into long-term savings, dollar for dollar, for the next month (or year, or whatever).
You’ll want to clarify some general expectations as to how long they have to save in order to meet these terms, and it’s essential that you follow through with the matching promptly on schedule. This is an easy way, however, to promote saving and delayed gratification. If I have $20, I can spend it all now and it’s gone. Or I can save it for six weeks and it’s suddenly $40. Hmmm…
I’ve had friends who use this same idea with the helping money as well in various percentages, and one parent I know bases her matching funds on an “accelerated interest” equation she devised to demonstrate the power of compound interest on saved dimes and nickels in a condensed time frame. (If memory serves, each week earns a year of interest up to a certain number of weeks, with bonuses if her daughter can compute the amount accurately ahead of time each weekend.)
My system is almost as fancy. Here, I’ll show you the math:
“If you put a dollar in this jar and agree not to take it out until next month, I’ll put in another dollar. Now you have two dollars.”
5. Come On Get App-y
(That was a Partridge Family reference for any of you under the age of a hundred who might be reading. You can look it up later on YouTube if you like – but not until we get through #5!)
Now, let’s not make the mistake so common among well-intentioned educators a decade ago that just putting anything onto a computer or into an app suddenly makes it fun and engaging for kids. “Look, Billy – it’s multiple choice history questions, but little coins spin around each time you get one right! Isn’t that awesome?!?” But kids are generally pretty good at navigating actual apps and most of them like helping us figure out technology as long as we’re not TOO clueless and as long as we’re OK with them acting all put-out and annoyed by the whole process.
If you’re comfortable with your child knowing some details about your household budget, savings, investments, etc., then ask them to help you set up and use whatever app you’ve chosen to manage those things on your phone or tablet. This doesn’t have to be overly calculated – you can genuinely involve them in figuring it out or using it in real time. As you’re paying at the grocery store, ask them to tag the amount appropriately on your budgeting app. If they ask about new shoes, ask them to pull up the app and see what’s left in the “clothing and school supplies” category for the month or when those funds will come available again.
If you’d rather not have them that familiar with your accounts, let them install and set up their own – a change jar in their pocket, as it were. They may not do much in terms of reallocating their retirement investments, but with a little creativity you can easily come up with plenty of ways to keep them monitoring their savings, categorizing their spending, paying attention to upcoming expenses, etc.
Use Technology in Proper Way
Technology is at its best not when it’s making decisions for us, but when it’s helping us to make our own decisions more efficiently and effectively. It’s a good skill for any of us to have, whether we’re teaching them to use technology for something other than games or horrible music or they’re teaching us how to be less lame when it’s time to swipe or click or wave our phone over those weird little devices everywhere.
Not sure where to begin in terms of easy-to-use apps to help users of any age take more effective control of their finances? Well, it just so happens we have a Goalry mall app full of various financial tools. Don’t wait any longer and get your member key today!
And here I was just writing about how much fun it would be to use just such a thing to teach your kids creative ways to save money or show them the basics of creating a budget or do other budgeting activities together. What a wonderful coincidence!
Visualize Your Budget. Budgetry Can Help You Do That.
The Boring Serious Stuff
One of the hardest things for parents is figuring out how much to tell our kids and how much to shield them from. It’s absolutely unfair and often harmful to expect them to carry around adult worries or fears, particularly given their limited ability to do much about any of them. At the same time, lying to kids in the name of “protecting” them rarely works out great over the long run. No amount of budgeting activities are going to help your child grow up to be a responsible, financially healthy adult if you don’t find a reasonably good balance in communicating with them about money, budgeting, costs, savings, and the like, and use it.
Notice I said “reasonably good.” It doesn’t have to be perfect, or even great. Just intentional.
That’s one. The other one some of you aren’t going to like, but I’ve always tried to be as honest as I am encouraging, so…
You can’t teach your kid to do something you’re not doing yourself. You don’t have to be doing it perfectly, but if you’re not saving money, using an effective budget, paying attention to your credit score, etc., maybe we should start with 10 fun budgeting activities you can try yourself before we move on to your offspring.
Remember Ralphie from A Christmas Story? His father “worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oil or clay” – fighting the furnace, fixing the car, or dealing with those Bumpus hounds! And yet, when Ralphie let one loose during a moment of stress, his parents were shocked – SHOCKED! – at where he could have picked up such language. The same is true of good eating habits, our attitudes towards other people or groups, etc.
The number one way kids learn is by example. You’re welcome to tell yourself they don’t know how you really do things, but it’s rarely true. Oh, and lying to yourself is something else they’ll pick up from you whether you want them to or not, so…
Conclusion
There are no easy answers when it comes to anything with kids. You’re probably doing way better than you think most of the time, however. Just keep focusing on those basics, and bring in other good ideas when you can.
Managing our own finances isn’t always a breeze, let alone teaching our offspring how to avoid the mistakes we’ve made or learn from our hard-won experiences. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, however. Maybe we can even improve a few of our own budgeting, saving, and investing habits in the process.
Let us know how we can help!