Do You Control Your Child's Money or Is He/she "Free" to Spend It All?

If they are getting a big wad of cash I tell them they have to put a certain amount in the bank. I don't do a percentage, I just say $20 or whatever.

Now when they get lots of giftcards, I find that hard to control. Luckily they are into video games which are pricey, so they can use them on that and that's fine with me.

I think it's important to let them spend their money on stupid stuff so they realize that when it's gone it's gone. My kids have chores and they get an allowance, but I don't put a price on the chores. They have to do them because they are part of the family. Their allowance is theirs to do as they please and they have gotten pretty good about saving it up. They also use it to buy candy and pop if they want it (with my approval). I even started telling them they had to use it for other stuff like clean jean day. They go to a private school and sometimes for fundraisers they have pay $1 to wear jeans. One of my kids is like "it's not worth it!" and won't fork up the cash!

I tried getting the piggy banks with the save, spend and donate sections and it was terrible. They are hard to put bills in and hard to get money out and then I was nagging about what money was going where.

I have also been teaching my kids about coupons and I tell them "it's free money!" So now they are asking me if I have a coupon for something before they walk over to the CVS to get it. I also won't buy certain things unless they are on sale or I have a coupon and my kids now look at the grocery sale ads!

M.

J.

Financial literacy is important to both my husband and I especially how to manage our need "to have it all now mentality". Given the state of our current economy, I think we are at an important crossroads instilling a solid financial education to our children.

We haven't yet developed our strategy for dealing with allowances in our family but I've been intrigued with www.msgen.com. I've listened to some of the podcasts on allowances and related spending. You might want to add this website to your list of those to review. Best of luck!

I grew up following the rule that half of all gift money goes into a savings account (as did half of all money I earned working part time in h.s.). The other half was what I could spend. I've started doing the same with my daughters. I think it's really important to teach kids about saving money, even if they're not happy about it now. Someday when they have a nice balance in a savings account because of it, they will be glad you did that. When I went to college, I used my childhood savings to buy my own car! Sure beats throwing it all away on junk! I also think a small allowance is appropriate. At their ages, they could have a checklist with about 4 chores, and get 50 cents per chore that they complete. Best wishes!

I'm a single mom of an 8 year old daughter. We put allowance in one bank which is considered earned money from chores (we get paid only for extra chores not what's expected) she's allowed $5 to $10 small purchases a month or saves for bigger toys she wants. Gift cards are accumulated toward more expensive gifts or school clothes. present money and loose change from grandma/grandpa and me is put into a separate piggy and deposited in her bank account with the understanding it's towards a car puchase or future school expenses. I'm not afraid to tell her no when she wants something or that we can't afford it. I've found if Imake her use her own money to purchase, she's realizing how hard it is to earn that dollar and just how quickly it can go. It did take us 8 years though to get to this understanding and past the "but it's only $1, $5, $20. Give me a nickel for every time I heard that, mom would be rich. Anway, I hope this helps. Good Luck

I have a 7-year old stepdaughter and we've tried all sorts of things!

The problem is whatever we do doesn't really stick very well since her mom lets her do whatever she wants with her money. Her mom doesn't give her allowance, we do. But she'd go to her mom's, spend the allowance on junk toys that stayed at her mom's. We felt like it was throwing money away.

I feel like you do about the Webkinz, part of me thinks if that's what she wants then she should spend her money on it. BUT she got 15 Webkinz for Christmas that she never plays with!

What doesn't work is giving her money and then taking her to the store with $5. She still thinks that because she HAS money she needs to spend it and she HAS to spend it on something. So she buys junk...and gets very upset when her $5 won't buy her much. Then we get mad seeing her buy junk she'll play with for only 5 minutes just for the sake of buying something. Plus we get to hear her ask over and over "what else can I buy?" ACK!

We are now getting her to name what it is she wants, not just wander around the store and look for something she might want. Then we talk about how much she needs. We hang onto the money in the "Parent Bank" until she has enough. Then we go to the store with the specific intention of buying that item. (If we didn't hang onto the money it would end up at her Mom's and then down the drain.)

We hope this will teach her not to impulse buy, and also the concept of saving.

When we go places she is allowed to bring money only because we are sick of her asking for this and that. Once her money is gone, it's gone. So if she buys something and likes something else later, then it's too bad.

I think the concept of how money works comes later. We've talked about how stepmommy and daddy go to work to earn money, and it's not an endless supply. We even showed her in pictures how she is helping. We drag those pictures out or ask her about it when she gets whiny about wanting things. We've also given her the example of what if we told her she had to spend her earned money on US, and after she spent some of it we asked for more? How would she feel?

We have no magic solution, but that's what's been sort-of working...at least it has been giving us fewer headaches!

Good luck, I'm excited to see if anyone else has anything that works!