Self Reliant Children…a budget
Now that you have demonstrated to your children the need for a financial plan and the fact that money has to be managed to pay all the bills, it is time to discuss a budget. Children need to be helped to understand exactly what money is really spent on before they can understand the concept of saving for a big purchase.With the economy floundering this is a great time for you to examine your own budget. This week let’s discover where your money is really being spent.
Purchase a few small note books and give one to each member of the family. Ask them to record every time they spend money. For small children you may have to do this for them but help them to recognize every time money is spent by them or on them. This would include a pack of gum, a hamburger, doctors visits, and clothing purchases as well as the obvious, toys. The adults in the family should do the same. You should follow this pattern until next Tuesday when we will use the information. If your budget has been affected by a job loss or reduction or just the higher price of food and housing this is the first step to getting your finances back under control.
Some of you may be feeling a little guilt that you can not provide for your family the way you always envisioned you would. You wanted to be able to give your kids everything you couldn’t have growing up or even everything you did have, and now you can’t. You need to remember the best gift you can give your children is the skills to deal with bad times as they come. They will come. They do for every generation. Some of you, I’m sure, are feeling you don’t have the skills necessary to deal with financial downturns yourself. Why would you want to send your children into the world lacking those same skills? Over the next few weeks we will get your whole family “whipped into shape” were budgeting is concerned. Get out those notebooks and begin tonight to build a more self reliant future.
As we consider skills, last week you worked with your family on placing their dirty clothes in the laundry and getting them off the floor. This week it is time to teach them to fold the clean laundry. The best way to accomplish this is on a table where the clothing can be laid flat and then folded. They will get better at this task so give a little guidance but let them do it. The most important thing about clean laundry is that it is clean and gets put in the proper rooms so don’t sweat the awkward folds.
Good luck and let us know how it’s going this week. I’m sure you are in for a few surprises!
This is great!
Two helps I’ve had over the years on raising self-sufficient children are:
1) my years retail that included managing two stores that sold childrens’ clothing, which taught me that hanging takes less space and is faster for merchandising. How does that translate for me? When my girls were toddlers they were coordinated enough to put a shirt, coveralls or a dress on a hanger. They would put hangers in as much as they could of their clean laundry and put it in their rooms. (I would then come through and hang it up for them, until they got tall enough and/or lived in a house where we had short bars as well as high bars.)
2) the book Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey. It was instrumental for me in learning what type of spender I am, as well as each of my kids, and how to deal with the strengths and weaknesses of each “type”.