4 Simple and Effective Budgeting Activities for Kids
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When it comes to life skills, money management is one that can make a huge difference to your quality of life.
People who know how to budget their money (and actually stick to that budget) are generally less stressed than people who don’t.
For one, people who don’t know how to budget may end up stressing over not having enough money to pay for their regular living expenses…let alone have money left over for fun things or emergencies.
Secondly, not knowing how to budget can result in taking a lot longer to achieve goals such as buying a car or a home, and may also lead to an unhealthy reliance on credit cards.
While kids aren’t at the point yet where these things are concerns, a good financial education will help prepare them for success as young adults and beyond.
With that in mind, here are some of my favorite budgeting activities for kids that you can sneak into your next homeschool lesson plan!
Teaching Kids Budgeting Basics
Before we jump into the budgeting activities for kids, let’s talk a bit about teaching your kids the basics of budgeting: earning, spending, and saving.
The first thing you should do is talk to your kids about the fact that money is something you have to EARN. For most people, this is done by having a traditional job or business, though it’s also possible to earn money in other ways (such as through various rewards apps).
For children, a great way to earn their own money is by doing chores around the home. This gives them the opportunity to earn money on a consistent basis.
You can also help them figure out other ways to earn extra money through tasks like babysitting, walking dogs, mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc.
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9 Things I Want My Kids to Know About Money
Next, you should talk to kids about spending money. You can talk to them about how important it is to keep track of your regular expenses so you can make sure you have enough money to do everything you need. This is also a good time to talk about paying bills on time since that can help prevent you from having to pay additional money in late fees.
Last, but not least, you should talk to them about saving money. You can discuss saving money for a specific purpose (such as buying something fun or big) as well as putting money aside for unexpected situations (a.k.a. an emergency fund).
Of course, you can also dive into other aspects of money management, such as debt and investing, but the three categories above are the bare minimum.
Fun Budgeting Activities for Kids
You’ll have to decide what is right for your family, but I think that being open and transparent about your own financial goals and responsibilities goes a long way, even with young children.
And one of the best things about homeschooling is that we have so many opportunities to practice these “real world” skills!
Here are some of the best ways you can begin instilling good habits and teaching about the importance of budgeting to your kids at an early age.
Budget Through Chores
As a general definition, budgeting is the act of deciding how to spend the money you have. As mentioned above, a great way to introduce this concept to kids is by empowering them to earn money through chores.
There are many different opinions and strategies for implementing chores…and again, here you’ll have to make a judgement call on what works best for your family and how you want to assign chores and allowances. Here’s what I do (and I’m a little biased, but I do love our method!).
When I was little, my mom created a system where the more chores I completed, the more money I earned. This can be a big motivator for some kids! The more money they earn, the more practice they can get with planning what to do with their money.
One thing you might do is actually sit your kids down, go over the chores they can do around the house, assign a dollar amount to each chore (or to a set of chores), and then help them decide how much money they want to save, spend, and give for every X amount of money earned or received.
For example, perhaps they want to spend 60% of their money, save 30%, and give 10%. Or maybe they will set aside $1 for every $5 they earn. Talk to them about what they’d like to achieve with their money and help them decide the best way to achieve that goal.
If you’d like to read more of my thoughts on giving your kids an allowance, I’ve got a post about that. And if you’re looking for an easy way your kids can track their giving, saving, and spending habits, savings goals, and overall monthly budget, grab the budget worksheet pack I created below.
Budget Real Life Events
The best way for kids to learn any skill is to practice it in real life, and the same goes for learning the importance of budgeting and the value of money. Next time you have an event that you’re planning, hosting, or attending, let your kids take part in budgeting for it.
For example, let them help you budget for the next family vacation, holiday gathering, or birthday party. Let them do some comparison shopping with you when you’re at the grocery store or running errands. Helping them see all that goes into these kinds of things can give them a lot of insight into how to budget in real-life scenarios.
My husband and I have used a program called Every Dollar for years now to create and maintain our family budget. Whether or not you use a program or write out a budget by hand each month, allow your older kids to be a part of the process and see how this works in “real life”.
I love how Every Dollar allows me to set up funds and sections for all of the expenses we have, and pulls in all of my transactions automatically, so I can see exactly where every single dollar is going each month (talk about eye opening!). Can you believe I didn’t start doing this until I was in my 30’s?
I definitely don’t recommend waiting that long to get a good financial foundation and plan set.
It’s so valuable for your kids to see how you budget for all of your family expenses each month and learn how to do this themselves! When my kids get a bit older (probably when they get their first jobs), we plan on setting them up with their own Every Dollar account and working through it with them each month to start good budgeting habits early…and avoid some of the mistakes we made ourselves.
Budget Challenges
Do your kids love a good challenge? If so, you can have them create or join in on a budgeting challenge.
For example, they could take part in a kid version of the 52 Week Saving Challenges that a lot of adults do each year. Or perhaps join in on a No Spend Month where they aim to save all the money they earn that month.
Need ideas? Here’s a list of 21 Money-Saving Challenges to check out (they might even inspire you as well!).
If you do happen to grab my Money Manager printable, there’s a goal tracker included which your younger kids might like using to help them reach their goals.
Budget Games
Another great way to teach kids about budgeting is to make it fun…and what’s more fun than a board game? Plus, they’re great to work into your school day as you can definitely log those homeschool math hours.
Here are a few games that help kids practice money management skills and financial basics:
PayDay
Learn how to get from a Payday to the end of the month. The game board resembles a calendar month, and each space has events like a buying “deal” or receiving “mail” (includes bills, insurance offers etc.). The object of this fun game is to have the most money at the end of the game, which is over after as many months as the players decide on.
Money Bags
As they make their way around the game board, kids collect, count, and exchange money—the player with the most money wins!
Managing My Allowance
Managing My Allowance gives children experience in handling money and saving towards a goal. The winner is the person with the most college savings and who has saved the most money on discounted purchases. Kids use bills and coins to pay for purchases, make change and handle allowances. Children are rewarded for accuracy and thoughtful financial decisions regarding sales and saving.
For even more ideas on budgeting-themed games to play with your kids, check out my post on the best books and games to teach kids about money.
Teaching a Valuable Lesson at a Young Age
These are just a few ideas to get you started on teaching financial responsibility to your kids. Don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside the box!
And while I think these ideas are great for young kids, you might need something different for your high school students.
When you do get to the point of having high schoolers in your homeschool, you’ll want to point them to this great personal finance class that is interactive, fun, and will definitely prepare them for the “real world”.
Let me know in the comments: what is a valuable lesson you have learned over the years regarding money or budgeting, that you will make sure you teach to your kids? I want to hear it!
Related Posts
- Best Books and Games to Help Teach Kids About Money
- 7 Key Reasons Your Should Give Your Kids an Allowance
- The Personal Finance Class All Teenagers Need
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