Teaching children to Budget using Clothes for the example

If you have children, then there’s a good chance that you’ve had difficulty in the past buying clothes for them – especially if they’re demanding brand-name clothing. Here’s how you can turn clothes shopping into a useful budgeting lesson and help your children appreciate their new clothes at the same time. Now is the time to teach your children to budget.

This tip comes from a long-term friend who struggled with the financial needs of three pre-teenage children all wanting the latest fashion names when it came to clothes. If she bought anything on sale or without the brand name, it was immediately rejected by her child.

To solve this problem she worked out what would be a fair budget for a clothing allowance. The amount was divided into four seasons and at the beginning of each season, the child was allowed to spend their quarterly allowance on clothes. Each piece of clothing purchased had to be documented and a running balance of funds kept.

What she found was the first time the child had this big sum of money they went off and bought one very expensive fashionable pair of runners. However, there was no money left for all the other things the child needed. When the next season came, a very detailed list of purchases was made. The strange thing was that all of a sudden the clothes in the discount shops looked very attractive! I still laugh about that.

If you’re in a position with trying to juggle finances while trying to meet life’s needs, then Financial Mappers may be for you. With the ability to manage and plan finances you can monitor cash flow, debt, assets, superannuation and much more through a visual planner.

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Glenis Phillips SF Fin – Designer of Financial Mappers

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