Starting to Talk Budgeting with My Tweens

As my children are getting older, their blossoming independence, means they are starting to spend time out of the house without us parents. Mine are both still relatively young, so It’s just small steps to begin with – it’s started with walking to school, going to catch a bus on their own and has now progressed to spending a few hours out and about in town with their friends.

So, with this new development comes the need for their own money to spend. Its interesting as it’s giving them an introduction into budgeting too. I will confess my children didn’t really have a great concept of this until now.  How much the snack or drink they were asking for cost, or the price of a train or bus ticket we’d just bought on a day out, for example never really crossed their minds.

Budgeting their Spending Money

Yet forward to now and as I’m giving my children a set amount to spend when they are out and about on their own, this is also creating the need to talk through how they will then manage this. They need to allow for food and drinks, but also keep some back for their return bus fare etc, so it’s been a great exercise in getting them to monitor their spending as they go. They are also considering value for money more too. They will consider what shop or restaurant they are spending money in depending on the price and they are making better choices when it comes to impulse purchases.

This development in being more conscious and open about money as a family has lead to some new ways we deal with things including new apps and websites we are using.

So, I thought I’d share these today, in case others are at the same point we are as children are getting older going from the child to teen stage…

Having Structure

This introduction into finances has led us a family to put more structure in place with regard pocket money and savings. My children have had an amount each week for a while, but it often gets superseded by something we’ve bought them, so they don’t register its value, or its spent as soon as it’s given on something they will probably not look at more than once in the supermarket. What we are more conscious of now, is a consistent amount that they can use to save towards something they really want.

Understanding the Bigger Picture

This structure and continued conversations around money have also led to bigger discussions around budgeting as a family. Now that’s not to say my kids are involved in our family finances, but as they have had a small tase of having to budget when they are out on their own, its offered a nice segway into sharing how we do it. Calculator.me offers an easy way to break this down, as they have a budgeting tool that allows you to turn your monthly income into percentages and splits this down in the different areas and how it should be distributed. It’s a nice visual representation of how it looks without getting bogged down into too much detail.

Having Their Own Card

Lastly as we’ve talked about structure in pocket money, another tool that we have used that’s helped with this is a Go Henry Card for each child. It’s a Visa card, but specifically for children. It means you can add the same amount for pocket money each week and also track their spending.