Extreme (Grocery Bill) Makeover: What Happened When We Put Our Kids in Charge

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

01 Nov 2007 01:08 PM

In case this is the first blog you're reading about this I'll just give a brief synopsis:

Kids eat lots of food. Kids grow--want more food.

Parents trying to control budget. Think of brilliant idea.

Parents give kids money to buy their own food. Twins don't count. Four year old only buys snacks. Dinners, fruits and vegetables are free. Does mom lose hair or are kids happily budgeting? And the question everyone is dying to know is did it save any money?

We presented our idea to the kids. They were all for it. To them, it's free money that they just get without having to earn it. We also realized that we needed to prepare for the inevitable and made two more rules. Saving money by skipping breakfast was NOT an option, there is definitely a sugar limit. So here's what happened.

We were spending about $150 (for two weeks) before on the kids' food including breakfast cereal that they love, snacks which include the trip to Dunkin' Donuts and the prepackaged goodies that I might get for when we're out at classes. We figured that we could give the older two kids $7 for breakfast cereal for the month, and $1 per day for snacks (which include mid-morning and mid-evening snacks). So my older two children got $14 for the week (we needed breakfast cereal) and will get $7 per week for the rest of the month. My four year old got $7 for her snacks. To summarize:

Under Old plan: $150 for two weeks

Under New Plan: $104

Total Savings: $46 per month which then is used to buy fruit for the month.

The Breakfast Cereal Test

The cereal my kids wanted at Costco was more than $7. The looked at us with their big cute eyes and realizing quickly that they were succeeding to do nothing they quickly went to work. If they each put in $5 of their money, the figured they could get the cereal they wanted and have extra snack money or more money to add to the cereal budget for next month. Impressive I must say. So they bought the cereal and each child paid us $5.

The Snack Test

They carefully planned together seeing as how they had so much success with the cereal and came to two conclusions. They could not agree on suitable snacks and snack food costs a lot more than they thought. Suddenly the fruit is looking good and water goes with every thing. With my son's snack budget he decided he can get one lunch able and one hot chocolate and donut per week. Otherwise, he'll take the fruit. My daughter is undecided as for what to do thus far.

Is it working?

I honestly think we'll have to be at this for a little while longer to tell if it's really working. I have a feeling that the novelty will wear off and we'll encounter a few more glitches than originally thought. But so far, I figure by allowing my kids to budget I'm getting them to eat healthier, I'm teaching them budgeting skills and I'm saving about $20 per bill doing it. Not a huge amount of savings but if you figure all the learning that's going on--I figure it might, just might be worth it.

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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