BUDGET KIDS CAN LEARN THE VALUE OF A BUCK

WRITER: MARY ELLEN GRIFFITH

The thought of a teaching tool that encourages fi nancial prudence for my daughter fi rst came several years ago, when I stepped into Hollister with my preteen and required resuscitation after seeing the price tag on a T-shirt.

I had to do something. Like many parents, in order to raise a child with a solid work ethic and the self-discipline to spend and save wisely, I turned to the traditional, tried-and-true method of allowance.

Given that the ATM giggles every time I attempt a withdrawal, it was not going to be an easy task.

According to the “experts,” such as those on WebMD, kids should get 50 cents to $1 a week, depending on their age. But not all of us have the disposable income to shell out eight, 10, or 15 bucks a week per child. And should we be handing our children a monetary amount for simply gracing us with their presence?

I decided to poll “real” authorities: a group of Lake County parents with financially successful, grown children. They had as many delightful anecdotes and innovative ideas for teaching financial responsibility as we have lakes in our region. The following are a few of my favorites:

When Carol Davidson’s girls were still in elementary school, they decorated three cans: One was “spend some,” the second was “save some” and the last was “give some.” They earned allowance each week by keeping their grades up and by doing their chores without having to be asked more than once. By deciding how much would go into each can, they not only learned how to budget and save, but how good it feels to give.

“It worked well,” Davidson boasts. “One of my girls saved enough over the years that she was able to emerge from her first year of college debt-free.”

If Cindy Eichelberger’s children saw something they couldn’t afford, she provided them with loans, through which they could make timely payments from their allowances.

“Jennie came to me wanting a $250 swing set, like the neighbors had,” she said. “Since she got an allowance of $15 a week for chores, etc., we arranged that she would pay me $5 a week and keep $10 for her spending pleasure.”

When all of her children got older, Eichelberger added simple interest to those loans. “I have worked with it all through the years and it is one reason I have raised financially responsible kids,” Eichelberger said.

There wasn’t much left over from Sharon McGow’s single income after she met the monthly bills. So she came up with the idea to give her children change. They got 50 cents when they “fed Elmo” (the vacuum cleaner), or a quarter if they “fed Edgar” (the dust buster). Her kids were also “food-motivated.” When they helped around the house, she allowed them “to pick what we had for dinner.” McGow found this so successful she tried it to encourage her kids to be ready in a timely fashion for school. That didn’t work as well.

“At one point whoever got ready for school first picked what we had for breakfast,” McGow said, “until I discovered Kevin was sleeping in his clothes.”

As for me, I took the traditional route.

When my daughter started high school, I added a few dollars to her weekly lunch money, called it allowance and gave her the option of taking lunch to school. Now, she is a master bargain shopper, and when we go into Hollister, she heads straight for the back to check out the sales. She buys, sells and trades things like designer clothes, phone cases and handbags on sites such as Vinted.com and Northlake Resale.

Shortly after she turned 16, she got a job and no longer needed allowance. In fact, these days, she contributes to her portion of the car insurance and cell phone bill. And for Christmas, she brought her barista-wannabe mom a Keurig coffee maker.

Just sayin’ …