How to Teach Your Teens the Value of Money

Shopping and teens usually go hand in hand.  However, it usually involves them spending your money, rather than their own.  While this might seem like a short road to bankruptcy, you can actually use shopping to teach your teens about financial responsibility and more.  How might you accomplish this?

First, one option is to give your teen a specific amount of money for shopping, and tell him or her that they can use it for whatever they want.  However, you should make sure that they know they have to purchase ‘boring’ drugstore items that they might regularly need, such as deodorant, along with their ‘luxury’ purchases of clothing, personal items and entertainment. Make it plain to them that once they have used up that money, there will be no more for a specific period, and follow through with your word.

Do not cave if they use up all their money early and come to you begging for more. If you give in just once, they will never again take this exercise (or you) seriously.  This will help teach them how to prioritize their shopping and organize their available finances.

Another good tip is to give them their spending money once a week rather than once a month, to avoid binge or impulse spending – some teens can find it hard to control themselves if given a lot of money in one go!

Second, you can teach teens about shopping and money by allowing them to make their own clothing purchases, within a specific amount.  For instance, give them one hundred dollars a few weeks before term begins and tell them that they can build their own school wardrobe from it.  Of course, make it clear to them that this is all that they will get for the rest of the term, and that you will not be buying anything if they choose to blow their money on unnecessary clothing items or “designer” brands. 

If your teens consistently buy overpriced trendy clothes, take them to used clothing stores and thrift stores and tell them that you’ll buy them any designer item they can find.  You’ll be surprised at how quickly that motivates them to start digging through the shelves for designer gear – and they’ll be surprised at how much ‘buried treasure’ they will find for a fraction of the price they’d pay for the item brand new in a regular store.

One final great tip is to ask your teen to do the grocery shopping for you one week.  Provide a good excuse why you can’t do the shopping that week, then give them a set amount of money – in CASH – and tell them to buy supplies for the whole family that they think will last for the whole week.  Of course they’ll pile the shopping cart high, and have a very educational surprise at the checkout when the final bill comes to double their available cash!  They’ll have to put their junk items back, or pay for them with their own money… which you can be sure they probably won’t want to do.  It’s a great exercise to teach them the value of the overpriced items they mindlessly toss into your shopping cart every week!

Teaching teens about shopping and money can be a valuable thing, as it helps them prepare for the future, when they will be responsible for providing for all of their various needs with their own money.  So don’t delay – start today.