Teaching Kids the Value of Money

Earlier this month I took the kids to watch a theatre version of Peppa Pig – their favourite TV cartoon.  They were so excited to be going along, the air in the car was electric with anticipation as we drove there.  After spending about 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot that allowed us to stay longer than 2 hours, I was keen to get settled in our seats when we arrived, and so we skipped through the foyer in a flash.  But not quick enough for the children not to notice the merchandise stand set up conspicuously along the path to the exit.  As we got ourselves seated, both my children started looking around at other kids whose mothers had already made piggy purchases.  Then the hard squeeze started. 

Now I had already spent quite a bit of money on the tickets themselves…. Not much change from $150 for 3 tickets, so it was quite a treat.  My youngest had her eye on the girl-across-the-aisle’s spinning colourful light-up toy which looked particularly stunning as the lights dimmed and the theatre darkened.  She was totally mesmerised.  “I want one of those spinning things, Mummy”.  Hmmm…. The show was enjoyed by both the girls, who participated in the audience participation parts, and clapped and sang their way to find the hidden treasure with Peppa, her little brother George and her friends.  As we descended the stairs back to the foyer, my eldest chimed in with my youngest that their lives would be so much the better if it included the spinning, colourful, light-up thing.  I braced myself to find out the price of the toy as we neared the merchandise stand …..$20 each. The kids  were pleading and begging, and it had been a delightful show so I was in a treating mood and I gave in and bought them one …… to share…. They were definitely NOT having one each!

It got me thinking that my kids have no concept about the value of money (although they are only 7 and 3).  They don’t understand when I tell them things are expensive.  How do you get the concept of expensive across to your children? 

Then later on in the week I heard a snippet on the radio talking about exactly this.  One of the ideas discussed was to use monopoly money to show the kids how much money we bring home each month.  Then take out money for the mortgage, for food and utilities, for the car and other bills.  There’s little left for savings and discretionary spending.  It’s a good idea and a tangible way to demonstrate to kids that while Mum and Dad go to work to earn money, there’s not an unlimited pot to draw from and choices about what to send money on to get maximum value are important.

I’d love to hear your ideas about how to teach children about money and making wise money choices.  Send me a post or email me at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

By the way, the spinning, light-up toy lasted 2 days and broke when the kids took it to Nanna’s.  Not one of my wisest purchases!

Living Within Your Means

Over the Christmas period, I picked up a great book from the library titled “The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less” by India Knight.  It gave all sorts of tips to help you stretch your dollar further and was split into chapters on

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Food

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Clothes

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Crafts

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Community

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Having Fun

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Beauty

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Holidays

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Home

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Money

India writes in down to earth, plain language and in a humorous way that makes the book an easy read as well as entertaining!  Most the shopping references were from the UK, so not so relevant to me in Australia but for the most part the principals can be adopted and local shops/farmers markets/organisations can be sought.

While it made for interesting reading and got me thinking a bit about my spending habits, it was the last page of the book that struck me with a bit of an “ah huh!” moment.  

It went like this:

“Appreciate what you’ve got, even the really small things.  For me, those really small things are often domestic, and I hope this book has communicated my enthusiasm for the nourishing significance of the very small.  Everyday happiness, as opposed to one-off great bursts of pure ecstasy, is intricately tied in with tiny everyday events: the jaunty-looking teapot that pours without dribbling, the children’s bath-time, blossom in spring, an especially good book.  These things aren’t sexy, or glamorous, or envy-making, but they are the fabric of all our days.  Concentrating on them, and on all the small joys they provide, can be intensely fulfilling.  Moaning because you can’t afford a $300 pair of shoes is not.  

Be happy. We are all blessed, in thousands of different ways.  There is enormous beauty in everyday life and it doesn’t cost any money to look and it and feel glad to be alive.”

If you’ve read any interesting books on being thrifty, I’d love to hear about them.  Send a post, or email me alivewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

More on cultivating a balanced life....

I find it so interesting that time and again, when I plant a seed of a thought in my head I immediately find that events and people come into my life that provide more direction, more information and sometimes the answers to the questions I have been asking.  It simply reinforces the phenomenon I have recently been reading about where when you ask for something the Universe finds a way to provide it.  I also think the saying “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” is so true.  Since my post on my goal for 2014, being to find a balance in all elements of my life, I have come across two very useful strategies to maintain focus on this balance.  This blog entry addresses both of those.

The first is the idea of the “Wheel of Life.”  I had seen this principle before – possibly while doing a Meyer-Briggs course as the principle is a trademark of the Meyer Resource Group Inc.  It involves mapping the various aspects of your life on a wheel and then charting how effectively you focus on each of these elements.  It allows you to visually see the areas of your life that you are neglecting but would like to put more focus on or improve.  Life aspects to include are suggested as:

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Relationships

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Mental attitude

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Finances

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Health

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Society

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Career

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Spiritual

The structure of the wheel is circle, with up to 7 lines from the radius out to the rim representing the various facets of our lives.  The centre of the wheel represents total dissatisfaction and the outer rim on the wheel represents 100% satisfaction.  For each facet of your life place a dot along the satisfaction axis, then join all the dots. You will then easily see where the wheel becomes ‘wonky” and unbalanced and where you might place greater emphasis to improve that facet.  This can be done once or twice a year, and is a good way to see at a glance how in-balance you feel your life is at that moment.  More information on the Wheel of Life can be found atwww.mindtools.com .

The second idea, is that of developing a weekly framework or structure around the most important roles we hold in our lives; the roles of mother, wife, daughter, employee, friend etc.  This suggestion came from Angie “Speedy” Spiteri’s book “The Secrets on Mastering Time”.  Angie suggests that by getting time for all the things that are important to you, you will feel well rounded, more satisfied and happy in the now.  Sounds like exactly what I’m after.

The first step in the framework is deciding on what your roles are.  The second step is to decide on the goals for each role.  Eg. As a mother I would like to help my children each evening with their school work.  The goals could cover a 12 month period, which is ideal for me as the timeframe for my  personal goals then coincide with my career and work objectives.  The third step is to start moving in the right direction by asking yourself “What is the single most important step I can take in each role this week to have the greatest and most significant impact on my goals.”

Then the idea is to translate the outcome of the third step into a schedule (using Outlook) for a week.  I can colour code the activities by role, so that when I look over the week I can see at a glance which colours are dominating and where I am placing my focus.

The framework should include

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Time for important project and roles: what you need to do and when you are going to do it

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Cyclical work and regular meetings: aim to do the same type of activity at the same time every day.  Group similar tasks together.

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Time for unplanned events

I may need to train others to support me (eg. by not scheduling appointments before I get into the office, or on my working from home day).  Angie suggests that “people get used to what you do.  If you say you are going to cll and then call when you say you will, many will stop emailing-ringing-visiting and will wait for you to get back to them.” Angie has encouraged her readers to share their ideas and frameworks as www.facebook.com/time.equals.moneywhich is where I’m headed now to have a squiz!

If you have any suggestions for building a framework to maintain balance in your life, or to help you to review whether or not all the important facets of your life are in balance I would love to hear them. Send me a post of drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

Keeping life in balance

This year my New Year’s resolutions have been easy to articulate.  For me, it’s all about focussing on cultivating a good and balanced life.  To not let any of the bits get out of balance, and to keep reminding myself that this balance is important and I need to strive to maintain it.  The “bits” include:

Work

-       Family

-       Friends

-       Spirituality

-       Learning and training

-       Fitness and health

-       Personal space and stillness

I’ve found an excellent website at www.everydaysuccess.com , which says that finding balance is about setting priorities for all the different aspects of your life and then being clear about how you will set boundaries for what you expect of yourself for each priority.  When you know what actions will fulfill your priorities to your satisfaction, that’s when you’ll begin to feel balance.  Until you are clear about your priorities and how you want to fulfil those priorities, you’ll always feel on edge and out of balance.

Then, the glue that brings balance to your life is planning.  Plan your life daily.   Plan your life weekly.  Plant your life monthly and even annually.  You’ll enjoy your life more when your balls are balanced and your ducks are in a row.

How do you achieve balance in your life?  I’d love to hear your life experiences and ideas.  Drop me a post or send me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com