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Friday, April 17, 2009

Company Girl Coffee...4-17-09

Picture2Sanctuary on a Shoestring...pretty well sums up my life, that's for sure! There are a LOT of things I do to save money - Once a month cooking, shopping at the you-bag-it grocery stores, shopping at discount stores. BUT something that has made a huge difference is that our kids receive an allowance. How can paying money OUT save money? Before we did official allowances, we would buy things for the kids. Nothing major, but a new CD or DVD, a cute t-shirt, etc. With 4 kids, this could add up fast. We switched to an allowance system so the kids could learn to budget their money and prioritize how they wanted to spend it. They get a pretty generous allowance ($2 for each year of life) at the beginning of the month (coincides with hubby's payday). They are encouraged to tithe, save, and then spend the rest how they would like. They have learned quite well how to make their money last. I didn't mention, but if they want to buy food at school, they also must use their own money. I learned long ago that when they had "lunch money," it typically went to buy a brownie, a pack of donuts, or something else as nutritious as those options. Instead of lunch money, we provide sandwich fixings, fruit, veggies, drinks, etc. This has been a lifesaver for us. When we're shopping and they want something, they think very carefully about it, knowing it will cost THEM and not ME.

Wishing you all a very blessed weekend!

Cheryl

Praying today for: Dora, in CCU and very frail; John & Sharon, leaving tomorrow for an 8-week trip to Europe; Randy & family, auto accident.

14 comments:

One More Equals Four said...

Great idea! We have toyed with the idea of an allowance for a few years but we are not very disciplined in it! This is a great way to stop the "mommy, can I haves AND to teach them some responsibility!" Thanks!

Camille said...

Cheryl, I added the website with the recipe on my blog. To save you some time here it is.

http://iamfrugal.blogspot.com/2008/11/homemade-dishwasher-detergent.html

I love your allowance plan. Once our kids are older we are going to have to start that.

Erin said...

We just started giving the kids an allowance. It is fun to hear them talk about "saving their money" for something big.

mholgate said...

Hi Cheryl! I'm still trying to figure out what the right balance is concerning an allowance. I think the kids should pitch in with chores not to get paid, but simply because they are a part of this family and we all share the load. My husband agrees. As they get older though, we are going to figure out "extras" that they can do in order to earn some money.

Right now, they have the option when they read a book and write in their journals about it to either a) use the earned time for Wii or Playstation, or b) collect a reward of a quarter to place in a jar towards a new game or toy that they are saving up for. So far they have mostly chosen to use the time option. We'll see what happens when they get bored with their current games! :)

I'll probably post some of my frugal ideas tomorrow. I already had my Company Girl Coffee post ready to go before I read the Small Thing today.

Have a great weekend!
-Melissa

mholgate said...

Were we commenting at the same time again? It's like chatting over real live coffee! :)
-M

Rachel Anne said...

I like the $2 per year of life. I wish that could apply to me, too :) We've been pretty hit and miss on the allowances, but I'm totally ready to get it back up and running for Mr. I Want a New Computer Game.

Love your new blog design! You didn't have this last week did you? I'm losing my memory.

Do you have some good Once a Month recipes? Since I generally make the same things over and over, it might be a good way for me to save some time/money!

Anonymous said...

I won a piggy bank from Money Savvy Generation and it's pretty neat. Melody doesn't really understand it, but we tell her each time about saving, spending, donating, and investing. It's in our review blog somewhere...

And so true about the lunch money...from personal experience as a middle schooler...haha

Have a fantastic weekend.

Ridenour Family said...

My husband and I have been discussing allowances lately, but haven't decided how to do it. This is a Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
~Tricia

Anonymous said...

Great way to teach kids to be responsible with money. I wish I got $2 for my age every month!

Charity said...

Sounds like a great step in teaching kids financial responsibility! Funny how they think twice about spending their money! :)

L2L said...

We do the allowance with our two older children, 4 and 7. one gets 10 and the other 5. We do tithe and saving also. It's so much easier to have to say, do you have the money, vice no mommy's not going to buy that. Thanks for stopping by.

Mommahen said...

I know what you mean about school lunches. We give our guys a set amount for the month, once they blow through that--be it in one week or three--then it's lunch from home. My middle child esp has learned how to be wise with his luch money. Thanks for the coffee!

secondofwett said...

While I really like and agree with your allowance idea....I'm afraid with my four teens that would be $128 a month!...I do wish we could regularily afford to give our kids something so that they would learn to be responsible with their money.

Dani said...

I'm late getting around. Thank you for your ideas on allowances. I really want to instill titheing and saving with our kids.