And another one bites the dust

Yup, I've waved goodbye to another pound of lard. Not quite sure where it has gone from, but frankly, so long as it has gone, and for good, I'm not going to enquire too deeply. Possibly as a consequence of this vanishing act, I need some new jeans. Perhaps my arse has been silently shrinking this week?

Not that I've got any money left for purchasing new jeans. After much discussion, we decided that it was time to give the Kids some pocket money. Thus far, we have avoided this issue simply by occasionally chucking them the odd pound here and there, but a few things struck me. In bygone times, when I was a child, a pound pocket money would buy me a comic, some sweets and some caps for my gun, with even a bit left over to rattle around in the bottom of my money box. These days, a pound might buy them the use of a shopping trolley for half an hour but that's about it. Additionally, it seemed to me, having random lumps of cash appear gives them no sense of the value of money, and no idea about budgeting.

So, we have elected to give each child a lump sum on pay day, to last the month. A pre-determined amount is to be put into a Charity Box, and similarly, they have to put the same amount each month into a Holiday Savings Jar. Taxes, if you like.

The contents of the charity box will go towards filling next year's shoeboxes. For the remainder of the money, we will pick out a couple of charities each year and get the kids to research what it is they do and how they help; the kids can vote which one gets the contents of the jar. The Holiday Savings Jar is to pay for some kind of treat/excursion on our annual summer holiday - to be voted on by the children. They will also be expected to buy a small Christmas present for granny.

They have a couple of basic daily chores that they have to do, and on pay day, their room has to be tidy or no dosh. Once they have put their donations and savings into the relevant jars, the rest is theirs to do with as they will. However, they have a list of things that they are now expected to pay for: sweets, magazines, toys, texts and phone time for the two that have phones, tuck shop money for school discos, general crap purchased at church fairs and so on and what I consider to be "unnecessary" clothes (fancy dress items from Asda for instance).

I am hoping that this arrangement will help them learn to budget, appreciate the value of hard-earned cash, and actually, save me a small amount because now I have a record of who's getting what instead of the constant drip-effect that we were suffering before.

And on Saturday, we had our first family outing with children who had money in their pockets. It was interesting to see how my three very different offspring dealt with this new situation.

Kid-in-the-middle and her Little Sister both wanted to go to Build-a-Bear to purchase outfits for their existing teddies.

Little Sister wanted glitz and glam, and carefully dragged me around the whole shop, asking the price of each glitzy and glamorous outfit. I pointed out that if she bought one of these, she'd not have any money left for the tuck shop at the school disco this month, and wouldn't be able to buy a comic later on either. She then made me work out how much money she needed to keep back for these items and dragged me back round the shop looking for an outfit that didn't cost more than she now had.

Kid-in-the-middle ran round the shop in the manner of a deranged granny at a jumble sale, grabbing seemingly random items and without once checking the price. She had a gleam in her eyes: I can get STUFF! We made her add up the total cost of all this stuff and it became apparent that her budget wasn't as amazing as she'd first thought. Reluctantly she put some of the stuff back on the shelves. I wasn't going to stop her spending every last bent ha'penny, but I did feel duty bound to point out that if she did this, there'd be no halloween disco, and no sweets, and no texts for her phone. Looking less like a triumphant bargain-bagger and more like a man heading for the gallows, she trudged back round the shop and deposited a few more items back in their original places.

We left Build-A-Bear, proudly sporting shopping bags, for the first time ever, and headed to Game where Eldest Kid wished to spend his money. Or at least, I say that, but Eldest kid wasn't in a hurry. He slowly perused the shelves. Twice. And then, he gravitated towards the section of the shop with the big "BOGOF" sign. Which he scanned, slowly, and several times. Eventually, he made his choices, and paid for two games with his birthday money. His pocket money was still intact. And no, he had no other purchases to make. He wanted to go home, play his games and stroke his money. That's my boy!!