[jills55]

What are your opinions on FP Jr? It's on sale right now on the website and I was thinking of getting it for my kids for Christmas. They are 6 and 8. They also have the book set on sale too, that I thought looked good for teaching them more about money.
Anyone already have this?

 

[Nishu]

We haven't had the entire Jr set but I got a couple of the books for the kids to read. They were kind of lukewarm in their reviews. Sorry, that's all I got for ya. :laugh:

 

[Lindsey]

I didn't think the jr. was all that great. My sister bought it and I looked through it...she never even did it with her kids.

We just try to teach them as they're growing up the right way to do things and we very rarely "loan" them money. To me it would be like teaching them credit.

We had Haden on an allowance, but he just blew his money ($20. a mo) on 20ozs and candy, so we stopped. He can now do extra chores to earn money. He saves it so much better this way I also have Haden make dinner once a week on a "budget",so he can see the value and know why we can't have frozen pizza everynight. It has worked very well!

With our girls, I do give an allowance. I have one daughter who as soon as she gets it, asks to go to the store to spend it and my 4 year old hoards hers. She rarely spends it. After almost a year of getting an allowance, she asked about 2 weeks ago if I would take her to the toy store so she could buy a Barbie car. With the spender, every allowance day when she asks to go to the store, I use it as a learning experience. At first I let her blow all of the spending money (their allowances are broken up into spend, give, and save) and then when her younger sister had so much and then was able to buy something big, it clciked! I was so happy. They recieve very little ($2.).

When they are teens, I will have them go through the DR program, but they are very much involved with our family finances, so they can see how the real world lives.

 

[mek42]

Lindsey, is the allowance vs. earned income difference based on age? If so, about what age are you planning to make the transition for your lasses?

Also, do you have Haden follow a nutritional budget in addition to fiscal when he makes dinner?

Thanks!

 

[Lindsey]

Mek, I think each child is different, so I have no clue on when they will go to a earned income. I know it will NEVER be based on grades. In my house, if you don't earn an A then you get no electronics. The kids (even the 4 year old) have chores, so about the only thing Haden can do is clean my bathroom. I also tell my friends that he can babysit. I will also pay him to babysit if it's something like a date night for my hubby and me. I don't pay him if I'm just going to the store or doing family errands. My 6 year old can make money by folding mine or my husbands laundry and or putting it away.

When Haden plans his menu, I am right there with him. The first time I did this was after a dinner and he was complaining about something, so I said fine, you make dinner Friday night for under $6. Now I know $6. is a bit much, but he has never even cooked before (he came to us in Sep). He tried frozen pizza...mac and cheese..a whole bunch of stuff we don't eat, at least alone anyway. He finally came up with spaghetti, canned green beans, and bread. It took a long time for him to come up with that though. Not sure how his eating habits were before he came here. I eventually would like to get him to $4.50 and now it's a set, once a week thing, so he can stock pile if he wants.