Holiday Budget Setting

The annual holiday shopping season is once again upon us. It seems to come around faster every year, doesn’t it? And this year it seems that most Americans are in no mood to overspend. Nearly two-thirds of consumers said the economy would affect their holidays, according to a National Retail Federation survey, with 84.2% of those respondents saying they would spend less.

So how about your household? Do you have your holiday budget set? Will you approach holiday preparations, parties, and gifts differently than in past years? How are you going to involve your kids in this year’s holiday season? Do you have plans to teach them some new ways to enjoy gift giving and holiday celebrating without spending more than they meant to?

This holiday season find a way to engage your kids from the beginning. This is one of the best times of year to help your kids become great stewards of their money. Share your best budget strategies for having a happy, festive holiday season that won’t leave you with a January shortfall.

When To Do It

A quiet Saturday or Sunday afternoon

What To Do

Set your budget

1. There’s no special or secret formula for how much you should spend on the holidays. You can use last year’s budget as a starting point. (If you didn’t have one last year, now’s your chance to create one!) If you’d like a new approach, consider basing the budget on some portion of your household income after taxes. Some experts suggest three days of income should be enough for one holiday season.
2. Once you’ve set a budget, make a list of everything you plan to spend money on. Include gifts, travel, party costs, and decorations.
3. Jot down the approximate cost of all the items on your list.
4. Now the hard part: are your list and budget in sync? Can you afford the items on your list, given the budget you’ve set? Make any needed adjustments before you involve your kids.

Set the kids’ budgets

1. Using your budget as a guide set aside the specific dollar amount you want each of your kids to manage this holiday season.
2. Determine exactly which items each kid will be responsible for with his or her holiday money. For example: sibling gifts, parent gifts, school party gifts.

Help them plan gift purchases

1. Let your kids know about their holiday budget(s) and what they will be responsible for this year.
2. Help them think of a few gift ideas and jot down their approximate costs.
• You can take them online or to the store to check out prices.
• Discuss the option of making gifts vs. buying — remind them that even making gifts will involve some costs.
3. Have them adjust or revise their shopping list based on the price check exercise and their decisions whether to make or buy each gift.
4. A simple shopping list/worksheet can help them keep track of the gift items and costs at home. It’s also a handy tool to help them manage their budget while out shopping.
5. Consider setting up an incentive plan to reward them for staying on budget or coming in under budget. You make these financial or fun activity rewards. For example:
• One free movie pass if they come in under budget
• $5 for every $5 they come in under budget

This is the time of year when retailers pull out all the stops to overcome your budget concerns. So be ready to cheer on your kids’ budget efforts as you all navigate this holiday season. Keep that list or worksheet in hand on shopping trips, whether to the shops or online. The whole family will find this really helps them to stay on top of spending — and makes it more fun learning along the way. Practice really does make perfect!

What You’ll Need

• Calculator
• Paper and pencil
• Computer with online access
• Time for price check store visits

Talk About It
What do your kids think about being responsible for their own holiday budget? Do they like the responsibilities? What surprised them the most in estimating costs for gifts and other expenses — and adding them up?

Follow The Money

Parents tell us that it is not always easy to engage their kids in conversations about money. Sometimes they just forget to explain a money decision while out on a shopping trip. Either they don’t have time to explain, or they just don’t want to engage their kids in a particular money decision because they feel it would be too hard.

There’s an alternative and very effective way to engage your kids in money conversations, one that feels more neutral and less weighted with family baggage: reading books together. You can choose a comfortable time for reading, when things are quiet and your kids are paying attention. Reading together often leads to more in-depth discussion and exploration of money topics.

One of our favorite books for fun, engaging money conversation starters for young readers (age 4 through 8) is Follow the Money by Loreen Leedy. The book follows a day in the life of a quarter, starting from being stamped out at the U.S. Mint and making a full circle – being spent, lost, donated, and many other adventures – all the way back to the bank the quarter started out in after it was minted.

When To Do It

Bedtime reading, Saturday or Sunday quiet time

What To Do

Follow the Money offers lots of money starter topics for you and your kids. You can choose one subject as a jumping-off point or read the book from cover to cover. We recommend that you read it through once, and then revisit the book when you have a new need to explain a particular money topic, or if you encounter a real-life lesson to be learned that could be supported by revisiting the book.

Quick Synopsis

The book creatively uses money to indicate page numbers, and walks young readers through these money basics:

·      Which presidents are on the coins and bills

·      How much money is in different rolls of coins

·      Understanding coupons and sales

·      How much you get back in change when you use different currency to pay different prices (addition and subtraction)

·      Different ways you can use money

You’ll recognize a few of the Money Wizdom budget basics:

·      Planning to save up enough for a toy

·      Spending money on treats for yourself (OK as long as you have the money set aside)

·      Donating some of your money to those in need

What You Will Need

The book Follow the Money

Time(s) to read all or parts

Talk About It

If you first read the book from start to finish, you can ask your kids to tell you what they learned. Have them share their favorite part of the book and why they liked it so much. You can also ask which was their least favorite part and why.

Kick the Habit and Save!

With the holiday season less than two months way, wouldn’t it be nice if you and your kids could free up a bit of extra money to have for gifts this year?
If you stop to look at the numbers, you’ll see that some of your family’s daily indulgences can add up to big bucks. Perhaps it's grabbing bottled water or juice to throw into your kids’ lunch boxes each weekday, or frequent runs to the neighborhood coffee shop or workplace vending machine. Or those magazines that keep arriving in the mailbox, full of great ideas — but you never seem to have time to get to them. 
What if your family gave up one or two of these habits and used the extra money to start a holiday fund? Along the way, your kids can practice trade-off decision-making — and more important, they get exposure to the costs of these little habits.

When to Do
Saturday or Sunday afternoon

What to Do
The key is to look at the little habits you and your kids indulge in, and then make some choices, so small conveniences don’t take such a big bite out of your family budget. 

Track What You Do:

1.    Record what you and your family eat, drink, and do for two days in one week. Record everything!

2.    We suggest one school day and one weekend day so you can capture the biggest possible list of family “indulgences.”

3.    Have each of your kids keep track of everything they eat, drink, and do for the days you’re tracking. It will be helpful to give them a simple worksheet to fill in:  Breakfast, Lunch, After School, Dinner, Sports, Errands/Shopping Trips, and so on.

4.    Be sure to include things like magazines, newspapers, online games, and other small, recurring weekly or monthly expenses you might be able to live without.

Make Some Decisions:

1.    Gather everyone together and review the information you’ve collected.

2.    Put the possible “kick the habit” items on a list. Estimate the cost of each of the items on a monthly basis.

3.    Look at the top contenders and their associated costs. See if you and the kids can agree on which item or items to give up.

4.    Once you pick an item or two, calculate the savings you will add up between now and the middle of December. You can use this money for a holiday gift fund!

5.    Consider putting the money in a labeled jar on the kitchen counter to remind the kids how their actions are adding up!

6.    Talk about how you all might spend the money. Donate it? Share it? Buy a special gift for grandma or grandpa? A gift for the whole family?

What you will need

Paper, pencils/pens

Calculator

Talk about it

Were your kids surprised by how many little things you splurge on each day and how much they cost? Was it hard to pick things to give up? Would your kids be up for doing this once a quarter to see whether they can find more habits to kick?

Help Detective

Many parents would say that kids today are self-centered, overindulged, and not very interested in the world outside of themselves. We may not realize it, but parents have been saying this for a very long time — at least as far back as Greece's golden age, when Plato and Aristotle similarly lamented the behavior of the youth of their age.

We can take comfort in the fact that our kids aren’t the world’s first self-centered generation — and that they can learn to be more thoughtful of others. Now, what part can we play in that learning process? Helping others is more than an action; it calls for a caring attitude, an awareness of need, and a willingness to serve others. These are all attributes that kids can develop with a little guidance — and practice.

We have many chances to encourage our kids to help others. Start when they're young: even preschoolers can be taught to offer toys to other kids or to help pick up clutter around the house. Early training lays the groundwork; as they get used to looking beyond themselves and caring about what’s going on around them, they’ll come to enjoy taking an active role in doing good things for others.

When to do it

While grocery shopping or running errands or just out and about

What to do

The idea behind the Help Detective is to help kids notice others in need and those who are helping them, and to begin to offer help themselves. It is best played in short stretches and in many different situations, so you expose your kids to the range of ways we all can help one another.

Some basic ground rules:

1.    Players get one point each time they see, and point out, someone doing something helpful.

2.    Rewards are good motivators for beginning learners. When they accumulate a certain amount of points — say, on a shopping trip — you can provide a small reward at the end for noticing all the ways folks helped others that day. For example:

* You can set a goal of 5 or 10 “Help Detective” points before your kids earn a reward.

*If you are playing with several kids, you can set up a little competition and reward the one with the most points (provide a handicap for the younger ones to level out the playing field).

*You can set up different reward levels for things kids point out than for things they actually do for you or others.

3.    If your kids become overly enthusiastic and push the limits by offering to “help you”  (just for the reward) too often, or perhaps in ways that are not true to your values, take the opportunity to talk about what it looks like to truly give help — no strings attached — and according to your values.

Ideas to help your kids get started:

·       Did you see someone holding a door open for another person? That’s one point!

·       Did you spot someone retrieving an item from a high shelf for someone who can’t reach it? Good for one point!

·       Did you see the grocery bagger help the women with her cart out to her car?

·       Did you see someone clean up a spill in the aisle?

·       Did you see someone pick up an empty paper cup and put it in the garbage bin?

·       Kids can also score points in the game by doing something helpful for you—such as carrying a small bag of groceries—and pointing it out.

In addition to helping kids become more aware of opportunities for helping others, this activity also encourages them to practice those small kindnesses that enrich our lives every day — and to experience the good feeling that brings, as well as the reward.

What you will need

Notebook to keep track of “helper” points

Reward items

Talk about it

After you complete a round of the Help Detective game, ask you kids what they learned. Was it hard to find examples of people helping others? Are there particular things they really like to do as a way to help others? Are there things they do not like to do when being asked to help others? Why?

Was It Worth It?

Picture this: You are standing in the cereal aisle in your local grocery store, faced with the usual 100+ choices. Your kids swirl around you, excitedly telling you they want this one or that one. Do you get the Kellogg’s cornflakes or the generic? The General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios or the generic O’s version?

How do you decide? Not to mention, how do you ever get out of the store in one piece with so many choices in one food category, let alone the entire store? And how do you begin to teach your kids all that goes into your decision: price, taste, size, packaging, environmental considerations, moral scruples about corporate practices, which coupons you have, and so on? How can we help our kids understand that generics might prove to be a better alternative than the name brands seen in all the insistent TV commercials?

Why not put some products to the test? Give your kids a chance to decide whether big-name brands are really worth it.

When To Do:

After school or on the weekend

What to Do:

A fun thing you can do with your kids is to have them compare generics and non-generics on a number of categories.

1.    The next time you are in the grocery store, pick up both generic and name brand versions of some of your kid’s favorite cereals or other foods. Keep the store receipts for use in comparing prices. (Tip: If your store provides cost-per-ounce info on the shelf price label, jot this down on a pad or on the package.)

2.    Prepare a small worksheet for you and your kids to fill out for each product.

                                                      Product 1                  Product 2

         *    Price
*   Taste
*   Ingredients
*    Packaging
*   Advertising
*    Coupons
*    Other

3.    Select one food category for the first round of comparison.

4.    Set both the generic and name-brand items on the table, with proper utensils and bowls or plates, for your kids to examine, read, open, taste, and so on.

5.    Have your kids review each product and record their findings on the assessment worksheet. You may have to help them fill it in or prompt them for ways to think about comparing taste, the box copy, nutritional information, and so on.

6.    Once the worksheet is complete for the first two items, discuss what your kids uncovered in the comparison.

7.    Finally, have your kids vote on whether the generic version is better than the name brand, based on your family’s criteria.

8.    You can rerun the exercise any time to compare other products.

Bonus:

Do a blind taste test and see whether your kids can tell which is the generic and which is the name brand.

What you will need

Food items for comparison; store receipts

Pad of paper

Pencils or pens

Calculator (optional)

Talk About It

After completing a round of comparison, ask your kids what they thought of the exercise. Did they learn anything new? If so, what? Would they like to compare other products? What would they like to compare?

Things

Things! The more the better! iPods, clothes, snack foods, American Girl dolls, you name it — someone out there wants your kids to want it and ask you for it, and they want you to get it for them. It's really important that our kids learn to distinguish between those things the advertisements tell them they must have and those things that they truly need — things with real meaning and good value.

If you had all the time in the world, you would be able to teach your kids how to avoid every possible trick used by television, radio, print, and packaging advertisers to get us to “want” what they have to sell. But it’s more likely that training your kids will happen one conversation at a time. And the conversations will grow in depth and richness as your kids mature.

How to start those conversations? Here are some suggestions that parents tell us have worked for them.

When to Do:

Spare moments, quiet time on Sunday morning, in the car

What to Do:

Try one of these questions, when the moment is right, to start a conversation with your kids that can help them recognize what's truly important about the things in their lives.

1. Area to Explore: "If our house caught on fire, and we had to run for our lives, and you could save just one thing, what would it be — and why?”

Why Ask: This question can help you and your kids determine which of the items you own are just “things” and which are truly precious — things that you really need for that sense of rightness in your world, things that would be really hard to replace.

Follow-up Activity: Work with your kids to do a simple inventory of their own personal things, and then assign rankings of importance. When they are done with this, try listing things that belong to the family and ranking them, too.

2. Area to Explore: "If you could give any gift to anyone you wanted to, what would it be and who would you give this gift to? Why would you give the gift to that special person?”

Why Ask: This question taps into your kids’ natural spirit of generosity, kindness, and compassion. It turns all things into potential gifts, and it encourages your kids to focus on how good it feels to give to others.

3. Area to Explore:  "If you could invent something, what would it be? What would it do?"

Why Ask: This question asks kids to evaluate how necessity and creativity can lead to the creation of some really cool stuff/things. These inventions might be great, or a variation on something that’s already available, or hysterically funny.

Follow-up Activity: Talk with your kids about whether what they want to make would be valuable to others or just to them. If the conversation leads that way, talk with your kids about whether we really need more things to be made. For example, what kinds of things might help others and what might just fill our garage?

4. Area to Explore: "If you were going to be alone on an island for one year and could take only one book to read, one song to hear, and one movie to look at, which would you take — and why?"

Why Ask: Some things have continuing value and importance to us. We want to read them, hear them, and see them over and over again. Pausing to think about why these special things have such lasting meaning can reveal what your kids hold dear and what lifts their spirits.

Things to note:

·      Be prepared to volunteer your answers to the questions and to answer your kids' follow-up questions.

·      These questions can help you learn what your kids value most — beyond the things. It's a great way to find out how much your family values really are shared.

What you will need

Paper, pencils or pens

Time to talk

Talk to Your Kids

This is a fully “talk to your kids” exercise. 

Set for LIFE

We are always being tempted by the number of choices in life. Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, shoe shopping, card shopping, gadget shopping — to name just a few. And with all of these choices, how can we ever stay on budget? How do we model staying on budget for our kids when we’re faced with never-ending temptation?

You can help your kids get set for LIFE — mastering the basics of budgeting and how to work within their budgets — by teaching them the LIFE method. This memorable acronym can help keep your kids to stay focused on their priorities and have some fun along the way.

When to Do

When preparing to shop and when out on a shopping trip

What to Do

The four components of our LIFE strategy focus on key elements of budget management and provide easy-to-remember words as a simple learning aid.

L - Lists are important.

       Lists can be fun to make, and they help us to put some thought into the spending and buying we do. Encourage your kids to buy only items on their list. This helps to curb impulse buying and later regrets about spending.

I - Is it a need or a want?

       A smart spender will purchase things he needs before buying things he wants.

F - Find the best price.

       Shop around for the best prices, watch for sales, and, whenever possible, use coupons. 

E - Evaluate impulse shopping.

       After a shopping trip, compare what you bought with what you set out to buy, then consider how you might have chosen differently. Were your unplanned purchases smart choices (say, an unexpected sale on a need) or indulgences you wish you had resisted?

Step 1: Review the LIFE components, then think about your recent purchases and find an example you can use to demonstrate to your kids how you followed the LIFE strategy — and one to show a time that you didn’t follow it.

Step 2: Make a 3x5 card for each of your kids, listing the LIFE components. Leave room for them to personalize and decorate their cards. They can keep their cards with them to refer to until they get into the habit of following the LIFE steps.

Step 3: Using your examples from step #1, introduce the four elements to your kids and walk them through the LIFE strategy. Share how you felt and whether you were successful in following the LIFE steps. Give them their LIFE 3x5 cards.

Step 4: Get your kids ready for a shopping trip and go through the LIFE elements with them. Help them to do research, and help them in the store if temptation comes knocking.

Step 5:  Practice, practice, practice, using the LIFE cards.

Tip: Once in a while your kids may find themselves splurging without thinking on something they not only didn’t need — but also didn’t even really want! When this happens, treat it like a slip-up in dieting or exercising: don’t make a big deal of it, get back on track, and use those splurges as valuable lessons.

Talk About It

After one of your shopping trips, talk to your kids about how successful they felt they were in following the LIFE steps. What did they remember to do? What could they have done to be even happier with their spending choices?

Grooming Savvy Shoppers

We need to make a determined (and continued) effort to help our kids become smart and savvy shoppers. Kids are easily swayed in their shopping decisions — partly because advertisers, hoping to score big sales, target them heavily, and partly because kids have very little shopping experience.
Train your kids to be smart shoppers; this skill will serve them well their entire lives. The sooner your kids learn good shopping habits, the better they will do for themselves.

When to do

Ongoing

What to do

1.    Set good examples.

Our kids learn a lot more from what we do than from what we say. They watch every move we make, so it’s important that we set a good example. How are your finances? Do you overspend? Is your way the one you want your kids to follow?

The holiday season can be an excellent time to talk to your kids about the limits you have set for your spending. Let them participate in the process of selecting gifts that meet your holiday budget. If they see you doing this now, they are much more likely to build the habit and keep it up as adults.

2.    Model decision-making.

Let your kids hear your thought process when you make a purchase decision. Get in the habit of doing this — and if you don’t always remember to, ask your kids to remind you the next time. Do it for the little items as well as your bigger purchases. Expose your kids to the full variety of strategies you use in deciding whether to buy, what to buy, and how much to spend.

Then, when your kids are in the throes of making a purchase decision of their own, ask them to take you through their thinking process — out loud. As they are learning, they may need you to remind them of helpful ways to think about purchase decision-making. Start with simple suggestions; as they get better, introduce more sophisticated ideas.

3.    Let them fail.

It’s far better that our kids learn early, through simple, low-risk mistakes, to be smarter shoppers. The consequences of buying a poorly made toy are low compared to the consequences they might suffer later from buying a poorly made car. The lesson they learn from spending a few bucks on a plastic action figure that doesn’t stand up to energetic play will stick with them for a very long time.

4.    Choose not to buy.

Kids can learn from your example when you actively choose not to buy something new and instead get creative in repurposing things you already own. Sometimes our best lessons lie in helping our kids notice the abundance already in their lives; we can demonstrate being a savvy shopper by choosing not to buy something new.

What you will need

Time and patience

Talk About It

Do your kids appreciate your help when you offer advice on making a purchase decision? Do you accept advice when your kids offer their input into your decision? Ask your kids to notice whether practice helps: does it get easier or harder or to choose between two items they really want (and can afford), or does it stay the same?

Acts of Kindness

Valentine’s Day, February 14th, is a fun day for both young and old! More than just a day for romantic couples, it can be a day to celebrate friendship and kindness, and to show our appreciation for all who are dear to our hearts.

Because young kids are concrete thinkers, it can be hard for them to understand an abstract concept like kindness that can't be represented by a physical object. However, by noticing when people around them give to others, offer their help, or take actions that make others feel comforted and loved, your kids can learn that "You are kind" means so much more than three words inscribed on a Valentine’s candy heart.

 

When to Do it

Valentine’s Day, or any quiet afternoon

What to Do

Here are four kindness activities you can try with your kids this Valentine’s Day — or any other time during the year!

1.    Card Kindness

a.    What would Valentine’s Day be without pretty cards? Help your kids make cards of Kindness for those they appreciate in their lives.

b.    Help them identify ways in which their friends or family members have been kind.  If they have trouble coming up with examples, give them some hints. (Hint for parents: take a little time in advance to recall some of these acts of kindness, so you’re ready to jog your kids’ memories!)

c.    Once they have some ideas, help them make cards thanking these special people for the various acts of kindness.

d.    Help them decorate with red paper, doilies, and stickers, or glue on candy hearts.

e.    You can suggest they also describe the kind act in writing — people love knowing that their kindness was noticed and remembered.

2.    Special Gift Kindness

a.    As your own budget allows, give your kids a special gift budget to buy small Gifts of Kindness for a few of the kind people in their lives.

b.    Help your kids pick out items that mean something special to each of the people they have chosen. Suggest they remember gifts that they themselves have particularly enjoyed and treasured, and think about why they feel that way.

c.    If they have money left over, suggest they treat themselves to a Gift of Kindness — or save the money for something more special later!

3.    I Spied Kindness Box

a.    Decorate an empty box with fun heartfelt images. Close it and cut a slot in the top. 

b.    For a one-month period, ask you kids to be on the lookout for acts of kindness.

c.    Have them describe each kindness on a sheet of paper (the youngest kids may need your help with this), and drop it into the I Spied Kindness box. 

d.    At the end of the month, open the box and spend time reading aloud all the acts of kindness.

e.    Give your kids a Gift of Kindness for all their hard work of noticing when people do kind things to others.

4.    Kindness Jar

a.    Have your kids decorate a Kindness Jar to fill with spare change that your family will collect for a month. (Kids will love to watch the jar fill up day by day.)

b.    At the end of the month, help your kids sort the coins into coin roll wrappers and decide where they would like to donate the money.

c.    Take them to the chosen charity and let them hand over the contents of the Kindness Jar.

What you will need

Colored paper, doilies, stickers

Candy hearts

Jar

Box (a shoe box or candy box is a good size)

Scissors

Tape, glue

Talk about it

Was it hard for your kids to find people who were kind? How many people do they know who are kind? Did they find it fun to do the activity you chose? Do they think they are kind? Are you? Are their siblings? Why or why not?