Teach about money by letting children find biggest saver

In this difficult economy, it's become pretty clear that less is more.

But in the trickle-down, children often want their familiar lifestyle, and parents tell me that they're feeling pressured to still give and do for their children.

I like what Alexandra Stoddard shares in her book, "You Are Your Choices." "Aristotle teaches us about the Golden Mean — the balance, the moderate position, between too little and too much. Be honest with yourself and learn the difference between your needs and your wants. … By using the Golden Mean to poise ourselves between the two extremes of excess or lack, we're able to achieve an ideal balance."

Finding that balance between need and want can be tricky. With young children, parents are inundated with biweekly book orders, fundraisers, school fees and other costs. With older and adult children, it's about clothes, car insurance and even helping with rent.

Although there's no one-fits-all answer, maybe it's good for us to look to the past. I think about what our grandparents learned from the Great Depression, although the current economic climate is nowhere near that level.

During that time, children learned to hear the word no, to go without, and to make what was available work for them.

I recently read a story of a man who was 12 during that time and how he loved sports. When he was focused on football, he luckily received gear for Christmas, only it was so big the shoulder pads reached his elbows and the helmet would turn 180 degrees when moved, causing him to run into a tree!

His mother simply said he would grow into them, and he did, learning that good things come to those who wait.

As cheesy as it sounds, economic experiences like that help us as parents combat the incessant baby-to-boomer marketing that teaches more is best.

One USA Today article a few years ago shared how MasterCard was using a shopping-themed Barbie doll. The doll came with a credit card and a machine that when scanned said, "Credit approved!"

The author of the article wrote, "If they really want to educate kids, they would include a bill and make them fork over interest payments."

Helping our children go without, even for those who can afford it, is helping them prepare for an uncertain future. Last month, we had our children each go to a room in the house and for a few minutes count the items in it. Each person counted about 100-plus items; some included books, furniture, clothes, DVDs, etc. Then we added up how much the items likely totaled and discovered it was about $1,000 to $4,000, depending on the room.

Wow.

To think "less is more," we created a family competition of who could be the Biggest Saver of the month. We shared examples of how we could choose not to spend on things seemingly needful and wrote all our names on paper to track the savings.

In one month we saved about $700 as a family, around $75 per person. These items were fairly basic, like reusing an older sibling's coat rather than getting a new one, using old Halloween costumes rather than buying new ones, and patching up an old backpack for extended wear, among others.

The children were shocked how fast it added up per person, especially when none of the savings items were seemingly big "extras."

If you're game, try finding the Biggest Saver in your family this month and enjoy a little more fiscal awareness and peace with less guilt and stress.

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