Summer Spending Challenges For The Whole Family

We write a lot about saving money, but we seem to focus less on spending. Isn’t spending less what leads us to saving more? Yes! So we think summer is the perfect time to put some spending goals in place that the WHOLE family can work toward. At the same time you can teach these young minds about budgeting and money. This is a great time to get your children on board to benefit the whole family. Here are a couple ways to get started!

Give Your Children A Simplified Summer Budget To Follow

As an example…this may include a budget for groceries, a budget for outings and a budget for stuff. It may feel large and freeing to them at first, but it holds them accountable to how many snacks they ask for, stuff (or in many cases, JUNK) they want to buy or outings they want to go on. When kids are “bored” they often agree to or beg for just about anything. When they have to consider the cost, it begins to change the way they think about their options.

Brainstorm A FREE Summer Bucket List

At the beginning of the summer sit down with your children and create a bucket list of activities to do. They either need to be free or you could say less than $5 or whatever you are comfortable with. This could include projects, outings, community events, play dates etc. One of our favorite things to put on this list are things to sight see in our own town or neighboring towns. You don’t often need to look far to find something you haven’t done or haven’t done in a while.

Expect Your Children To Spend-Check Their Requests

Whenever you come up with a plan, have your children re-check it and find a way to save. This could be as simple as making a plan to go to the beach for the day. Ask your kids to recheck it. Their answer could be as simple as “packing a cooler” or bringing their own snacks from home. I have to credit a friend for this idea. By the end of the summer, her kids would come to her and say “Mom, we want to do _________” and we are going to save money by doing it like ___________ .” She approached it in a fun and upbeat way and it completely changed the way her kids thought about activities!