Every Thursday, I share one action, habit, or project you may want to undertake in order to improve your health, happiness, and sense of well-being.

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PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Let Your Kids Take Over the Budget

I have shared quite a bit about my love of personal finance and setting ourselves up for solid financial futures. I strongly believe that starts with teaching our kids, at a young age, the value of things and how money is earned and spent. This can be done from the time kids are toddlers. Sticker charts are a rewards-based example of a way to show your child the value in their efforts and their reward for their hard work. The reward can be as simple as a piece of chocolate for picking up their toys, following a very serious make-believe session in the family room. We go to work and get rewarded, so why shouldn’t they?

Now, let’s take that a step further. Almost every kid goes through a sometimes entitled phase where they don’t quite understand how money works or how hard parents work to earn that money. They assume they can have whatever, whenever. In a world where dollars don’t always go as far as we’d like them to, I think it’s important to teach our kids the value of things early. So, we did a little experiment with my friend Nicole’s daughter. This year, rather than going school clothes and supply shopping with abandon, Nicole sat her daughter, Harper, down and explained how she determines the budget amount for school shopping and then how she determines how to spend that amount,

Getting Started

Harper is a 12 year old girl whose passion involves Broadway musicals, playing the piano, and hanging out with her bestie.

As kids often do, Harper would come home and ask Nicole for items she saw other kids have at summer camp or her friends brought to school. While Nicole is in a position to be able to provide Harper with what she asks for (within reason), she also wanted Harper to learn about budgeting and needs vs wants. So, when it came time to school shop, Harper was given a budget of $500. This may seem like a lot to you personally and that’s okay. Nicole came to this number, with Harper, in a very thoughtful way.

Nicole had Harper go through her closet and try on clothes to determine what still fits and what can be passed on to a younger cousin. In the last year, Harper has grown 2 inches, so Nicole knew her school clothes budget would need to be a little higher this year in order to incorporate more pant purchases in their shopping. And, by the end of this closet cleaning exercise, it was determined Harper literally did not have a single pair of pants that fit her - yoga, sweat, or jeans - and many of her shirts no longer covered her mid-drift, so new shirts were also added to the list.
Nicole then had Harper make a list of things she needed: basic short and long-sleeved shirts, a couple of pairs of jeans, yoga pants, socks, underwear, etc.
Nicole had Harper repeat the same closet exercise, but with her shoes this time. Luckily, Harper’s feet hadn’t grown much, if at all, and the shoes she currently had - a pair of sneakers, Doc Marten boots, sandals, and a pair of dress shoes - would suffice to start the year with.
Off to the mall they went! Harper’s friends all shop at American Eagle, so naturally that’s where Harper wanted to start too.
Nicole let Harper have free reign as she walked through the store. As long as the clothes met the school and family dress codes and were within Harper’s budget, she could get them.
Quickly Harper amassed quite the pile. Nicole was keeping track on her phone’s calculator of the grand total. This pile included “need” items that Harper had written on her list, but also included items that she really wanted. If we’re being honest, there were probably more want items than need items. It was at this point that Harper felt she was done shopping and ready to check out. Before walking to the registers, Nicole shared that she had been keeping track of the items on her calculator and if Harper purchased everything in her pile right then, the total bill would be $834 before tax. Harper was shocked.
Cue an upset kid who just had to have those ripped jeans and a few other things. Nicole explained that’s fine, but needs had to come first. Again reminding Harper that included basic tees, underwear, socks, and so on. So, Nicole made the suggestion that if Harper liked the jeans at American Eagle, but didn’t care much about where the tees came from, those could be purchased at another store. And quickly, they were back in business.
Harper remembered she had received a number of gift cards to Old Navy and Target for her birthday at the beginning of the summer. She asked if she could use those gift cards to buy her basic items and then use Nicole’s budget to buy the want items. Nicole agreed.
At this point, Harper also mentioned she had a gift card from her birthday to LuLulemon, so she wanted to stop there. Again, once she saw the prices of yoga pants, Harper decided to supplement her budget with the gift card and purchased a jacket there, but then went to Target and Old Navy for the pants.
At the end of their shopping extravaganza, Harper actually determined some of her wants weren’t important enough to purchase. She asked if the money she didn’t spend in the budget could be set aside for her to use in a month or two after school started in case there was something new she wanted (read: someone at school wore or had something she really liked). In total, of the $500 budget, Harper spent $375 on jeans and a few shirts she really wanted. She also spent $200 in gift cards to Lululemon, Old Navy, and Target to buy a jacket she wanted and then basic items that she needed.
Nicole asked Harper on their drive home to reflect on their shopping experience and Harper reiterated how surprised she was at her original total. She didn’t know that jeans could be easily $50, $60, or more per pair and the same was true for yoga pants and sweats. She also admitted that she liked the game of it - figuring out what she wanted and what she could afford and what she may want to come back for later.
Nicole noticed that the items purchased are all actually being worn and not just sitting in the closet with tags on them because Harper was only choosing to wear the same three or four shirt and pant combinations.

Overall, this life lesson went super smoothly and is something Nicole has admitted she’ll definitely be using in the future. Harper has already said she’ll definitely be asking for gift cards for holidays and birthdays in the future because she can buy what she wants when she wants. All in all, a great experiment.

Is this something you’d be willing to try with your tweens and teens? Have you already? How did it go?

Ready to Get Started?

If you feel excited about implementing this strategy and want some additional accountability and support to get started, the It’s All in the Planning Starter Pak was designed for you!

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A Note from Happy Spaces

The goal is to add value to your life. If you think this project will add value:

Estimate how long you think it will take. I would recommend doubling the time you estimate.
Look at your calendar over the next week and pick a date and time to get started.
Make an appointment on your calendar for the estimated time.
If you estimate that completing this project will take longer than one hour, I recommend doing it over multiple days. This will support you in getting started!
Prior to starting this project, take a few minutes to make a step-by-step list of EVERY action you need to take to complete this project.
It's not all or nothing. You can choose to implement only the parts of this project that add value to your life.
An Accountability Partner can be a great support in following through on your goals and commitments.

We understand how challenging it can be to implement new habits and systems. For additional support please go to HappySpacesBySarah.com.

Creating a life you don't need a vacation from! ®

Sincerely,

Sarah Weingarten

Meet Sarah

Growing up as the oldest of nine siblings in Upstate New York, I learned to use organization to create sanity among the chaos. Today, I work together with individuals, families, and small businesses to create habits, systems, and spaces that support their needs, goals, and dreams. Clients often refer to our work together as "life-changing" and "better than decades of therapy". What I love most about my work is the lasting impact it has on real people's lives. Nothing makes me happier than hearing the many success stories of clients I have worked with.

Let Your Kids Take Over the Budget