Chris and I presented a budgeting Family Home Evening lesson to our girls that was hands on and thought provoking. I created a fictitious budget with income and expenses for them to work with, plus emergency expenses. We gave them Monopoly money to work with to try and cover all of the monthly expenses. It helped them learn how I budget, why I sometimes say "It is not in our budget this month," or how to make a choice for including cable tv, cell phones, and other "extra" expenses. I'm sure we could have even spent more time on the lesson, but after a couple of hours, the older two had homework to finish.
We hoped that they got the notion that just because you have money in your bank account, it doesn't mean that you can spend it. It might already be allocated. Also, Chris and I wanted them to understand about saving for big expenses. We put money away all year long for Christmas, vacations, some utilities and expenses that are paid on a quarterly or yearly basis, and car registration to name a few. It is never too young to be financially savvy and to develop good spending and saving habits.
