Learning the lessons we teach our children

I spend a good proportion of my time trying to save money, or at least not to overspend, and on the whole I don’t do too badly. My attempts to teach my children the value of money veer from not bad to ‘clearly not getting the message’, as is the case when my 7yo informs me that if we don’t have enough money we can ‘just make some more’.

In my own budgeting there are peaks and troughs (as I like to call them so I don’t sound like I’m not in any control at all). There was one this week where the ATM said no, and my telephone banking representative gently informed me that I appeared to have an obscene amount of payments pending on my account. Argh!

This is why I’m constantly telling myself of the need to spend more time working in cash only; those forays into online shopping only ever end badly, resulting in a medium to critical cash-flow-crisis that I’m in no position to weather.

So, as well as budgeting tips this week, I’m looking for money-making tips. My children seem to be way ahead of me here though. Yesterday I committed to paying them 50p each to clear out my car. Actually that’s a really good deal when I consider the amount of rubbish that was in there….. although it was their rubbish, so in effect I’ve just paid them £1.50 to pick up after themselves. Hmmm.

My son is storming ahead in the ebay selling stakes too. He put his first DS game online (with me paying the fees) and earned himself £10. He’s now having a really good clear out and looking to see where else he can make himself a bit more pin money.

It’s always gratifying to see the lessons you try and teach being taken up and used. Maybe I need to spend a little more time listening to my children’s ideas for how to make money? A bit more time working and a lot less time shopping and I really would make more!
 

Friday, 30th March 2012

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