Did you get pocket money when you were growing up? I didn’t. At. All. Well, that’s not quite true. I vaguely remember my mother giving me a little money on my birthday (3 days before Christmas) when I was little. I would save that money for two days, trying hard to resist the temptation to make a trip to the nearest shop to buy some cheese flavoured snacks. The two days would finally come and instead of going to the shops, we could spend the money at the Christmas Grand Market. Those days it was a hard choice as the money couldn’t buy much. I usually got a few crayons, or a really tiny and skinny doll, or some starlights.
It is so different nowadays! Kids actually get pocket money. I will share some things to do to get them to resist the temptation of wanting to spend all their money on snacks and treats. With the new (UK) government guidelines that kids should be having no more than two 100g of sweet treats per day, we do have to do what we can to get them making wiser choices as children.
Teach by example
Depending on the age of your child, show them how you spend your money. You may want to show them some cash and explain how you portion it out. You may even show them your own budget and how you decide how much money goes for what. A good idea too is to show them how you are able to manage some special treats like holidays away, etc.
Make it fun
On the market now, there are some really cute money saving boxes that will entice the little ones to save their money. My niece gets £3 every Sunday and its a time she looks forward to. This cute money box helps her to willingly save £1 each week. She is saving up for Christmas and birthday gifts for her siblings. Check out Amazon to get your own and loads of them are really pretty, eye-catching, and affordable.
Make it Competitive
What about getting other family members involved in a savings challenge? See who can save the most money (a percentage of what they get) by a predetermined date. You can make even more of a teaching game of it by using a calculator to show them how to work out what percentage of the money they are saving. Who knows, this might even encourage them to want to save more each time.
Let Them Have an aim in Mind
Get your child to think of something that they would like to achieve (within reason, of course) and help them to work out how much they would have to save each week or month, to get there. Print off a photo of the aim and put it somewhere prominent so that they can almost visualize it.
Your child – a savings ambassador
If your child has the attitude and aptitude to be a leader, let them be a savings ambassador. They can talk to their friends about how they manage to save up for things. This will build their confidence and boost them up for furthering their financial fortunes in life. Afterall, I’m sure your child wasn’t born with a gold spoon in his/her mouth.
What do you do to encourage your child to save and have a positive attitude towards money? Do you think the money boxes above are cute or what? Let us know in the comments below.
This is great advice, it’s so important to give children a positive attitude to saving, and to money in general, because whatever messages go in as a child will STICK as adult. Thanks for sharing.
Mel, you have it spot on! So many ways to help kids nowadays, I wish we had the knowledge then that we have now. Thanks so much for stopping by.