Teaching Kids About Money

The Knight and I are big fans of Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover and I wanted to incorporate those principles into homeschooling when teaching the girls about money.

I started by taking three jars each for the girls and labeling them: Save; Spend; Give. I made sure the jars were glass, so the girls could see the money as it was piling up.

Next I made up two chore charts. The first chart are the daily chores the girls must do and they don't get any commission for.
I got this chart from Homeschool Curriculum for Life. Every day they check off the boxes as they complete the chore. These chores are mandatory.

The second chart consists of chores assigned to specific days of the week. All the chores on this chart are optional, but if they choose to do the chore then they get the amount of money assigned to each chore.
This chart I whipped up in five minutes and while it's working for us now, I'm sure I'll be tweaking it to improve on it in the future. The girls look at what day of the week it is. If the chore has an "X" in the box on that day of the week, doing that chore is not an option. I did this so that they wouldn't vacuum every single day of the week. If the box doesn't have an "X" for that day, then they have the option of doing that chore for some commission.

We use the word "commission" instead of allowance to drive home the point with the girls that in order to have money, you have to earn it. No, they don't have to do the chore, but then they don't get money. The more chores they do, the more money they make.

Our family's commission chores are: dusting; vacuuming; cleaning the litter box; cleaning the bathtub; cleaning out the van; watering the plants; and folding laundry.

After they complete the chore, they write their initial in the box so I know who did what. I also check their work when they are done; they don't get paid if they didn't do a good job.

At the end up of the week I add up what they earned. They put 50% of the money in their save jar, 25% in the spend jar, and 25% in the give jar.

So far The Mermaid has been all about earning extra money. It relieves some stress for me as well, because she does such a good job on the chores and it makes for less cleaning for me. The Guppy hasn't been that interested, but I wonder when she sees The Mermaid spending some of her hard earned money if that will peak her interest in it more.

How do you teach your kids about money? I'd love to see any charts you use :)

*Sorry for the poor quality of photos, the lighting was terrible.

Teaching Kids About Money