Christmas is perfect time to teach money handling skills

Christmas time can be a great time to teach children about giving as well as receiving. It can also be a great time to teach about sticking to a spending plan, cash handling and to reinforce some basic maths at home such as division, and adding,

As a young child I remember the joys of being given some cash at Christmas time which I was to use for buying presents for my family. My Mother decided on an amount she was prepared to give me so I could buy presents for people. I am one of seven children plus I became an aunty at seven years old so there were nieces and nephews too that I wanted to buy for.

We sat down together and wrote out a list of who I would like to buy presents for. Being quite generous by nature, I wrote on my list each of my five brothers, my sister, mum, dad, teacher, one surviving grandparent, two nieces, one nephew, two best friends, piano teacher, plus neighbours. It was quite a list!

This can also be a good process to follow yourselves as sometimes you teach best what you need to learn yourself about who you are going to buy for and how much you are going to spend.

Then came the reality check. I can’t remember the exact figures because it was a long time ago, but I do remember the essence of what I was taught and the thrill of going out with cash, and the list of how much I could spend on each person.

Lets say I was given todays equivalent of $20.00. Mum had me add up how many people I wanted to buy for which came to 18 people. Then we divided 18 into $20.00 which was $1.11 for each person. I said that wasn’t enough money to spend on each person so I wanted more. Mum said I had some choices to make as that is the amount she had budgeted to give me. I could take some people off my list, find a way of earning some extra money myself, or make something for people using the resources we had at home such as flour for making biscuits. With this $20.00 I had to supply the wrapping paper and card too if I wanted one.

I didn’t want to take anyone off the list, so I decided to buy presents for my Mum and Dad, Grandma and my two nieces and one nephew and make something for the rest. So now my $20.00 was divided by 6 people so I had $3.33 to spend on each person. I used wrapping paper which Mum had saved from other presents she had received and I made cards instead of buying them.

So take this time of year to teach your children some money handling skills. Use cash and be very firm on the amount you may give them to spend on others. If they overspend on buying for one person do not rescue them as you could be teaching them to spend more than they have without realising it and set up a pattern for borrowing in the future.

Sylvia’s book, Parents: How to stop your kids from going broke is available from www.silbo.co.nz, Paper Plus Stores, and Christian Bookshops. She is also available to speak with community groups and give tips on how to raise financially savvy kids. For information contact us.