Teaching Kids to Be Frugalby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 17 Jun 2009 04:56 PM The other day we were out doing some grocery shopping. I told the kids that they could pick out whichever cereal that they wanted (I was feeling generous, and we were at Trader Joes, a store with mostly healthy food choices). While my youngest grabbed the box with the panda bear on it, my two older kids consulted to compare prices and ounces of cereal to get the most for the money. While I was very proud of them, it might justify my pride even more when I tell you that my "older" kids were four and seven. Teaching kids to be frugal is both harder and easier than it sounds. On the one hand, the kids are constantly being bombarded with opportunity to spend and dispose, from the 40,000 advertisements they will see in a year to the stuff that their friends bring to school or talk about. On the other hand, kids tend to model their behavior on what they see their parents do, so if you have been doing research before making a purchase, using coupons, doing cost comparisons, finding ways to reuse items and buying used items over new, well, they will pick all of that up as well. There are some definite things that you can do to help teach your kids to be frugal, sort of some extra insurance here. Here are my two favorite. Reduce their exposure to advertisements. Reduce the television viewing time and/or choose viewing that has no commercials, such as PBS, Noggin or pre-recorded shows (although DVDs and videos sometimes carry ads). Allow them to earn and spend money. Give them extra jobs around the house to earn some spending money and then sit back and allow them to choose how to spend it. While I will offer my advice, I let them make their own mistakes (which is a great teaching tool). I'll only forbid something if it is dangerous or inappropriate, which so far hasn't happen. You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here! or subscribe to this blog using the subscription box on the right. Favorite Deal Websites: Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags frugal living, Kids, saving money Discuss this article
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