Creating money smart kids

Earlier this year, we started reading some of Gail Vaz Oxlade's books. The one I particularly liked is her Money-Smart Kids book. I ordered it through the library. It is short and an easy read.

She really believes in giving kids an allowance. We have sporadically given Sophie an allowance but it wasn't done with any real regularity. She needed to learn the basics of money and Gail believes that you have to give kids the tool (money) and teach them how to use it.

So, Sophie gets $5 per week and Fynn $2 per week. We have debated over the years if the money should be attached to do chores and there are different philosophies on this. How we work it is, that the kids have some core chores they must do to earn their allowance: Sophie making her bed each morning and Fynn getting dressed each morning on his own. Those sound so easy and fundamental but let me say that it was about 4 days of reminders for Sophie to get into the habit and I can't honestly say that Fynn has found it a habit of getting himself dressed on his own yet. There is still much complaining and gravitating to mom or dad doing it for him.

If they don't do their core chores or only do it a occasionally, I deduct dollars from their allowance. Sophie earned $2 this week and Fynn .50 cents. It was one of those weeks. Hit and miss.

The like the money that I use for their allowance to come from "extra" cash that Vic or I might have coming in that week if possible. For me this week, I took in a bunch of their outgrown clothes to the consignment store. This particular stores buys the clothes outright and pays me 30% of the price she puts on them. I think I got $14.50 for the lot of them, which is better than nothing or having them sit in drawers and closets taking up space.

Sophie seems to be connecting the dots with money much more lately. She took her own spending money to the pool today for a snack. Like anything, kids have to learn and the best way is usually by doing.

Vic and I have a date night tonight. We are off to see Side Effects. Can't wait.

a deal

Vic is over on a guys' bike / road trip to the Halcyon Hot Springs area. I've been doing my best to keep these two entertained today. We hit the playground, had lunch and then wandered over to see if any of the downtown merchants were open. Sunday is not a great shopping day in Salmon Arm.

The Baby Barn (my favourite consignment store) was open and while Fynn and Sophie played with the Thomas the Train set, I found a very close to brand new Please Mum winter jacket for Fynn. For $10.99 I thought that was quite a deal on something that appears to have been worn barely at all. The new Please Mum little boy jackets are about $69.00 according to their website!

Kids' Consignment Stores

About a year ago a new children's consignment store opened up in our town. I'd never really had much to do with consignment before, but once I started, I'm a big fan.

I've successfully sold our Baby Bjorn carrier, kids' shoes, and clothing.

Today I got a call from them saying that they had a few t-shirts that hadn't sold so I needed to pick them up, plus I had a cheque for $34. That made my day!

I picked up a cute little Old Navy t-shirt for Fynn for $3.00 and got my cheque.

The trick with having your stuff sell is making sure it is clean, in good shape, no stains (at all), and "brand" names like Gap, Old Navy, Mexx, Roots, Gymboree, etc really help too. I have sold stuff that isn't necessarily brand name, too. Provided it is in good shape there is often someone who will need it. If it doesn't sell I take it to the Salvation Army or pass it along to someone who needs it.

You won't make a ton of money, but it is certainly better than nothing and it helps with paying for some of the little extras that come with having kids (like Sophie's endless string of birthday parties that she is asked to attend).