Many of us are familiar with Weight Watchers through commercials or actually having tried one of their weight loss programs. It's a great concept that works on a simple principle: "Watch what you eat".
How about using the same premise to "Watch what you spend"?
We have an easy one-page work sheet that you can use as a budgeting tool to track where your child's money is going. Your kids are far more likely to save money when they see how fast the small things they buy here and there can add up.
Click on the image below to see the full-size work sheet...
Your kids might need some help in the beginning. You can practice filling out our worksheet together with your kids the first time through and let them handle it from the 2nd week on.
Help them write down what they spent their money on each day. They should include everything even the dimes and nickels! After a couple of weeks or so, go over the completed sheets and help them figure out where they can save money by evaluating each expense.
A couple of spot checks each week might help just as reminders...
Depending on your child’s age, using different colors for different categories might make the exercise more fun. That also helps them see how to use categorization as a budgeting tool.
If you would like a printable version (PDF file) of our work sheet please email: clemens.kownatzki@fxistrategies.com
2 comments:
This is a good way to see how all those little things do add up. You can even take it a step further, as well, and, after one month of tracking, have the child add up the totals in one category, say 'snacks' or 'electronics' and multiply by 12. This will give them a rough idea of how much they spend in the given category over the course of a year. It's usually pretty enlightening and can be a great incentive to reduce spending.
Thanks Karyn - great suggestion!
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