Kids and Budgeting

I know that you’re expecting my usual bullet point tips on budgeting. And if you have kids, you are sitting on pins and needles wondering how the heck you can teach your kids the value of a dollar. You’re hoping I have some sort of insight into the bottomless wallet we seem to need when it comes to our kids. And I do. I do feel like I have some ideas on kids and budgeting. I have books sitting in my closet as we speak to help even the youngest of kids learn to budget. I’ve even spoken in classrooms to children on budgeting and find this to be the most fun I’ve had yet in talking about budgeting. I’ll get to the real ideas in future posts, I’m sure. But today you’ll have to settle with my musings on kids and budgeting.

How many of you have had the following money issues happen to you:
-Your kids asks you for something (in my case, sunglasses every summer) and you finally cave in and buy them and then they never use them. And even if they wanted them one day, do you think they can find them?
-You give your kid money to spend on lunch for a field trip and you emphasize that it’s only for lunch. You pack a million pre-packaged snacks only to find out the money paid for the lunch... and the gummie bears...and the slushies... I thought I said it was only for lunch!
-You get a note home from school telling you about some school trip and you need to bring the money in tomorrow (except that your kid forgot the note at school yesterday so tomorrow was, in fact, today!) As per usual, they only accept exact change. Who the heck has any money in their wallet, yet alone exact change? The other option is cheques. Do people still use those? Why can’t schools jump on the pre-authorized payment bandwagon?
-You find yourself paying some insane amount of money for their latest sports team and then have to buy plants, fertilizers, cookie dough, etc all through the year to help raise more money for the team. Then at the end of the sport seasons, you find out there was too much money raised and they end up throwing a party and giving gifts to all the kids. Why would the kids need gifts that you essentially paid for? Isn’t it a gift enough just to play the sport in the first place? How about giving me that gift and give me some of my money back?
-You finally decide to fork over the $20 to buy the perfect the action-shot photo of your kid at his last tournament of the season only to find out he made a different team next season so now the picture’s out of date because it’s got the wrong jersey. So that one’s coming down as soon as the next season starts in time to start begging for the picture with the new team.
-You put your kid in hockey (The most expensive sport in the world. Bar none). But hey, at least there’s payback here: after my son has played for 4 seasons (making him only 9 years old) in hockey he has decided that he will to be in the NHL. You might think that he’s just like every other 9 year-old kid who plays hockey and has dreams of playing in the NHL. You might think that, but you’ve got to understand that he’s got a wacky plan: he wants to be the back-up goalie for an NHL team. Why, you ask? (hoping that he has some insightful reason for this strange vision of his). Simple: he thinks the back-up goalie makes just as much money as the starter in the NHL but doesn’t have to play—and has the best seats in the house to watch the game. I’ve never even heard of a kid wanting to be a back-up goalie for the NHL. Does it get any lazier than that? Someone please remind me why we agreed to let our son play hockey.
-You not only let your kid play hockey, you decide when the coach asks who wants to be goalie and your son raises his hand (when he’s five) that you think it’s cute and he might as well try it. It’s only later that you realize that any of the smart parents, including former goalies themselves, forbid this course of action because have you seen the price of goalie equipment? Have I mentioned that hockey is the most expensive sport in the world?
-During a moment where you feel like you want to do something nice for your kids, you decide to let your daughter buy something and she picks her 100th teddy bear. How many of those things can she possibly need? Haven’t we spent enough on stuffed animals and the storage units we’ve all bought at Ikea to house these things?
-You’ve bought your kids so much stuff over the years and then you sell them one day at a garage sale; you watch your kids past favourite toys, the toys you spent tons of money on, go for a measly 25 cents.
-You buy your baby or toddler some of the most brain-stimulating toys on the market and they would rather play with the packaging of said brain-stimulating toy, or door stops, coat hangers, lint or basically anything that didn’t cost you any money.
-You feel like you’re the only parent in the world who is sick of spending an insane amount of money on the “milk program” at school. Especially when your son tells you on the last week of school he’s got fifteen milks left so he’s giving them to all his friends.
-You know you’re not teaching your kids the right budgeting lessons when your son comes home and tells you that they’re learning to be “green” at school so he’s conserving energy by turning off the lights in the house. You remind him that you’ve told him to do this his whole life and he turns around and tells you that it’s different when you turn off the lights to be “green.” He says that you only turn off the lights to be cheap. What’s the difference? Same result, different reason, I don’t see a problem.
-You feel like you could open up your own "dollar store" with all the crap you've bought there over the years. If I hear "mom, it's only a dollar" one more time...
-I can still remember when my brother got “hand-me-down” underwear as a kid. Literally, I remember it. They were “tighty-whities” with tennis rackets on them. I remember telling my mom how gross this was – hand-me-down underwear and thinking to myself that my kids will never wear hand-me-downs. (My brother did refuse to wear the underwear) And now looking back, I can count on one hand how many new clothes I’ve bought for them...however, their underwear is new: I draw the line.
-I can also remember when I was dating Brent how mortified I would’ve been to use a coupon at a restaurant. I remember making fun of people who did that. And now? Before I go out to any restaurant, I google it, I look through the newspaper and I call to find out when kids eat free. I hate going to a restaurant without a coupon.
-You find yourself saying something to your kids that you swore you would never say, because it’s all you heard growing up, but you just can’t resist because it’s so true: “Do you think that money grows on trees?”

Summer Fun on a Budget for families

If you're anything like me, you want to make the most out of summer but you might not have a ton of extra cash laying around to do what you really want to do.
Here are some ideas for summer fun on a budget:
1. Go to free parks in your community (usually you can find petting zoos or splash pads that are free). Pack a picnic lunch and you're kids will have a great time.
2. Get creative. For example, you could have different themes throughout the summer in your house. You could have a Mexican theme for a week and research games that kids in Mexico play, make Mexican food for meals, etc. You get the picture.
3.Get enrolled in a reading club at your local library. My oldest daughter is going into grade 6 and she still loves doing this. We only get books out of the public library in the summer. That way it's something unique for them and they look forward to it.
4. Use the time you have in the summer to try new meals or bake with your kids. Try new home made slushie or popsicle ideas.
5. Go for hikes. Kids will love exploring new trails in your community.
6. Go to the drive-in movies. Generally, this is more cost effective for a larger family than going to the theatres and the kids love it. Pack your lawn chairs, blankets and mosquito repellant. In our area, they have car load nights so for our family of 5 on a Thursday night, it would only cost $15 to go to the movies.
7. Go to a local beach. Pack your frisbee and some sand toys and the kids will have a great time!
8. Spend an afternoon flying kites.
9. If it's raining, make a scrapbook with your kids.
10. Plan a mini vacation for the kids. We like to be tourists for a day in the summer. There are often great local attractions (that other people are willing to travel a long way for) that we can enjoy practically in our own backyard.
Have fun!
Feel free to post some of your own ideas.