How Do You Teach Kids the Value of Money?:
A couple of years ago, I took things in a totally different direction. I decided on no allowance but rather to put my son “in charge” of a set amount of money to be spent on specific things, his two favorite things, McDonalds and video games. I essentially gave him control over part of the household budget. This was money that we were already spending, the only thing that changed was the control of it.He was given $20 a week to spend however he wanted on these two items. The first week, we ate at McDonalds three times in two days. The money was gone. Actually, for the first couple of months, we ate at McDonalds quite a bit until he wanted the new Sonic X game and didn’t have any money for it.
It didn’t take him long to figure out that a video game costs about the same a 5 or 6 trips to McDonalds. It took another couple of months before he was finally able to get his game. Today, he totally understands the value of a $20 bill.