Budget for kids.

When Brent & I got off the bus as we call it , over four years ago & began to live well on one income. One of the first things we did was set the kids a budget. Part of the budget was a clothing budget other part of their budget amount is for giving, pocket money & saving.

Religiously we pay the kids weekly their allowance - it is right up there as a priority like paying the mortgage. IF you are wanting to teach kids money skills & budgeting you have to be fair & stick to the plan.

It can be a bit stressful for kids learning to manage a budget hence you need to be fair by paying it on time & also having a fair allowance.

Some families I have shared how we do our clothing budget also get their kids to sign a contract. Brent & I are not fans of contracts - your word in a family is important to us. Hence again why you need to be fair when giving your kids an allowance you have to play the game.

To work out the allowance I looked through previous years spending on clothes. Looked at what the kids needed & guessed what they will need. Each families amount will be different - some folks have older siblings to pass clothes down to, others have friends whom pass on clothes, extended family members help with purchases, other families don't mind second hand shopping. None of the above applies to our family. We looked at our family budget of what we could afford. A tip you can always increase their allowance -it's too hard on kids to take the money away - so set the budget at what you can honestly afford & then maybe a bit less. You can always increase it.

So we worked out approx how many jeans, tops, jumpers, socks, jocks, shoes, gumboots, jackets kids would need in a year & guessed a price. We came to $25.00 pw for daughter & $17.00 per week for son. It's a fact, girls need more clothes & usually cost a bit more too.

We gave the kids a cash book & opened two bank accounts each for them. One for budget account & other for saving. .We are BIG fans of pay yourself first! And have taught this to the kids (will do another post on this if folks are interested)

We have taught the kids how to manually run a cash book & as they got older moved onto Microsoft Money. But to begin with I really recommend a cash book - it takes a bit for them to get the hang of it (ours were young 11 & 8),

Then the rules GRIN - each family will have their own but I do recommend you have a few.

Ours are:

1. Clothing budget is only for clothes - nothing else if they don't use all the money - it stays in clothing column until it is needed eg for a raincoat. (This teaches them what a budget is for ie in this instance clothes BWG and it stops the kids that don't care about clothes not buying clothes so they can have other things) - The budget is to cover all clothes from undergarments to shoes & coats.

2. There is NO more money that is it. (This is why you need to set a fair budget) This rule is very stressful for kids when young & why I recommend you help the kids heaps in choices in the beginning.

3. It doesn't included accessories ie sunglasses, hats, earings, scarfs, top hats these come out of their spending allowance

4. They must be tidy to leave the house - around home fine be as scruffy as they want. We all have farm clothes & going out clothes & we change before going out & as soon as we get home.

5. They must have matching socks when going out & if caught outside wearing only socks - socks are then brought out of their spending money not clothing allowance. (Stops nagging I tell you!)

6. They must buy their own farm clothes - eg jackets & gumboots. This rule got added with the amount of fights over who is wearing who's gumboots. Brent has even written his name in his GRIN.

7. Clothing must be suitable eg for climate & not offensive.

That's it - and off they went! They have learnt to buy at sales, to buy items a bit bigger to last two seasons, if labels are important only need a few items as budget allows. They really understand how far money goes. And they never ask me for anything, this is a biggy for me as living well below on one income I didn't want the kids to go without so for our budget it has actually saved us money I think, we haven't had to go through all the label prices - if they want labels they can have them but they see pretty clearly how many they can have GRIN. They know if they have the money they can buy what ever they like.

About age 13 I think is a good age to let the kids have an eftpos card but we have taught them to not use it very much - banks get the kids hooked on using it heaps & then when they have to pay adult bank fees - wacko Bank has them - the habit is set & banks make a nice amount on bank fees.

Before eftpos card I buy the clothes & then the kids internet bank me the amount & together we adjust the cashbook - teaches kids how to track their expenses too (good thing folks!)

As the kid have got older I have found it harder to not step in - it is good to let the kids make a few wrong choices - better that they learn now while still at home before they leave home & make BIG mistakes.

Oh kids now like getting socks & jocks in their Christmas stockings GRIN - they know that it means more in their clothing budget for outter clothes they like.

That's pretty much how we run the clothing budget. A big beauty is we home school so do cash books weekly as part of school - but the lessons learnt are huge - I would encourage all families to take this on board - it saves your budget heaps & stops the guilts of not buying what the kids want when they ask. They learn pretty quick they can have what ever they want if enough money in their clothing budget - (I always remind them to make sure they have enough left for other items they may need or want)

And if your kids are still way younger I would just start it now - then when they are older teach them how to run their own cashbook that you have been keeping for them - they will HEAR you speaking about clothing budget & learn heaps just from that.

"We are not unwilling to make efforts in the
beginning with the assurance that by-and-by things will go smoothly; and
this is just what habit is, in an extraordinary degree, pledged to effect.
The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures
for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care
of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children" (Vol.
1, p. 136). Charlotte Mason