Your next family vacation is a great opportunity to teach your kids some basic budgeting skills.
Instead of caving in to your kids’ feverish impulse pleas for chotchkies in the moment, plan out a souvenir budget in advance.
Communicate the rules clearly before the trip:
- You’ll dole out a souvenir allowance based on the budget.
- They can make purchases within the budget.
- Decide whether there are any restrictions on what can be bought.
- Decide whether they’re allowed to kick in their own funds to cover anything over the limit.
- Decide whether they get to keep any unspent funds.
- Decide what happens if the money is lost or stolen. (Consider putting the funds on a prepaid card. Kinda fun for the kids, and safer than cash.)
The kids will learn a little basic budgeting. The parents will endure less whining. The family will save some money. A vacation trifecta!
P.S. For older kids, consider putting them fully in charge of planning and managing a piece of the family vacation budget — like lunches or snacks.
Get tomorrow’s tip here.
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