Before I start with this morning’s article, I want to ask you to vote for me in the Free Money Finance March Madness contest. The best personal finance article will win the right to give $1,000 (generously provided by FMM) to a charity of your choice. I have selected a charity that helps children. Please comment on this post with the word “figures”. Thx a million!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a quick 3 part series about how to teach your children about money. Teaching money management is probably one of the most important legacies you can prepare for your children. Making a budget, saving money and avoiding credit abuse are fundamentals that everyone should be aware of, especially our youth. One of the first tools you can use to teach your children about money is by giving them an allowance. However, there are certain rules to apply if you want your children to benefit from this experience.

Rule #1; present the allowance as a privilege

Money is not a given, it has to be earned. This is true at any age. If you give your child an allowance, he should know that it is not automatic. It is important to explain why he receives this allowance (keeping his room tidy, washing the dishes, etc.) and that not everybody receives one.

No matter the amount, the value of working and earning an income is more important than the allowance itself. On the other hand, I think that by telling your kids why they receive their allowance, it makes it easier to explain when they don’t do their chores.

Rule #2; no cash advances

Our children will learn faster than we expect to live off credit. And the first lender they will approach is the “Mom & Dad Bank; founded since your date of birth”. So don’t play the payday loan or cash advance service with your children. If they need more money to buy something, they will have to wait until it’s payday before cashing their allowance.

Rule #3; money is not everything

I am a big advocate of making more money year after year. But I don’t really believe in the almighty back; I like what it can give me access to; special moments, treats, comfort and security. As you will always find someone doing your job with a better pay check than yours, your son will surely find one of his friends making a bigger allowance (and maybe doing less work that he does!).

I don’t think the amount of the allowance matters. However, it will to your kid! This is why I will try to spend time with my son and explain that he does help us and we appreciate it. I will also tell him that it is the maximum amount I can give him right now and that we all have to learn to live with this amount; this is called budgeting

Rule #4; when should we give the first allowance?

This is always a big question. I am currently asking this question as my son will turn 5 this year and will start school this autumn. I didn’t talk about this with my wife yet but I think I will start when he enters school.

Receiving an allowance is also a milestone in a child’s life. This is living proof that he is growing and that he can become more responsible. Since he will start school, I think it would be a good way to show him that going to school is like going to work.

I don’t expect to give him much at first, especially since I want to start at such a young age. Probably $1 or $2 a week. Just so he can start calculating how much he makes per month and realize that he can go to the dollar store to buy a toy at the end of the month. It won’t really affect my budget and we will start a great money lesson.

Your take: How do you manage allowances?

As a young parent, I am not exactly quite sure how/when to give child allowance. What is your experience with kids and money?

Author: Mike.

Image source: yup that is my 2 kids

• Teaching Your Children About Money Lesson #3: The Meaning of Sacrifice As you have, no doubt,  already read, I am trying to teach my 4 year...
• Increase your income by tithing This is a guest post by James Rouse who blogs at Capital Couples Finance where...
• Teen money management mistakes I've learned a great about personal finance over the years.  Much of it through writing...
• 95+ Money Saving Tips - From the readers! Last week I invited readers and bloggers alike to share (or blog) your favorite money...
• Entitlement vs. Earning: How to Avoid Harmful Help as a Parent Photo by: law_keven The following is a guest post by Cameron C. Taylor, author of...

As you have, no doubt,  already read, I am trying to teach my 4 year old son lessons about money. It is hard to teach them everything about money at this age, but I can tell you that children can learn a lot more than we think! It’s only a matter of repeating clear and easy to understand concepts. In fact, most personal finance concepts are pretty easy to understand and this is why I am trying to teach them to my son at this tender age.

By starting his financial education so young, I just hope he won’t have to struggle with credit card debt or having trouble plugging his income and expenses into a budget. I hope that if he understands the true value of money before he starts earning it, he will be more careful and make the best financial decisions for himself.

Today’s money lesson is about the limited power of money. While I have described all the good money can bring in one’s life during the second money lesson, money can also be a weapon of massi destruction when it is not respected or properly controlled. This is why I want to talk about sacrifice.

Think that you can afford just about everything because you have easy access to credit, Whoa! This will only last so long. This is why it is so important to understand how to fit your lifestyle within your budget. But how do you teach a child to stay within a budget? You can do it with practical examples.

Daddy has to go to work this morning

My son sometimes tells me that he misses me when I go to work all day. He doesn’t like when I come home late (about once every two weeks). As I mentioned in my first post about teaching money lessons to children, I explained to him that this is the price to pay in order to live in our house, do activities and play with so many toys!

I tell him that while my job is to go to the bank every morning, his is to listen to his mother and behave like a big boy. This is his job and this is how he participates at his young age in our household. I tell him that I need to leave the house to earn an income during the day so he can play soccer and skate on the weekends, so we can all go on vacations and to afford ordering out dinner on Friday evenings. I am trying to show him that by making sacrifices, he is also rewarded.

You can only have one toy at the store

When you go to a toy store with a kid, it’s like Christmas each and every time! My son starts out by looking at all the toys with his sparkling wide-eyes and he keeps saying “Hey dad! Look at this one! This is cooooool!”. But I one point, I tell him he can chose only one. He usually asks why and I explain that with the money I have in my pocket, I can buy one toy, pay for the gas and pay for groceries (so the family can eat).

Then, I offer him the choice of walking 3 hours to get home, not eating or having only one toy. Luckily for me, he has never picked the first two options

If you wait long enough, we will be able to pay for it

My son has been asking for a Wii for about 18 months. He played at a friend’s house when he was 3 and since then, he “really” wants one. I told him that a Wii is very expensive. But instead of telling him that we can’t afford it, I told him that we have to wait several months so we can buy one.

So month after month, I told him that we were putting money aside so we can buy the Wii and play. We ended-up buying the console for Christmas. While Santa Clause brought him the Wii, we told him that we used the money we put aside to buy the video games. Each time that we have a big purchase (like going on vacation once a year), we tell him that we put money aside each month in order to get by after a large purchase.

The limited concept of money possibilities

I think that the most important thing to learn about money is that while it can help you achieve great projects, you are always limited by what you have in your pockets. Overspending or taking for granted that you will earn more money later on to pay off a debt is not the best way (contrary to many).

Sacrifices and planning your expenses ahead of time is a much healthier way to plan your personal finances. In the end, I just hope that my son realizes that. If I take the time to explain to him how many months we have to save before we can afford specific purchases, I hope he’ll do the same in the future!

Author: Mike.

• Entitlement vs. Earning: How to Avoid Harmful Help as a Parent Photo by: law_keven The following is a guest post by Cameron C. Taylor, author of...
• Psst! Hey Chicken Little, the economic sky isn't falling I'm not one to rant and I'll try real hard to avoid that in this...
• No credit cards - Here's why "Nope, no credit cards for me.  I don't even carry one."  I cannot tell you...
• How To Give Your Child An Allowance Before I start with this morning's article, I want to ask you to vote for...
• Teen money management mistakes I've learned a great about personal finance over the years.  Much of it through writing...

Many of us were raised in  hostile environments where money was concerned. We saw our parents running after money to pay for groceries, spending many a fortnight calculating budget numbers, by hand  at the kitchen table to make ends meet all the while cursing money as it was the root of all evil.

I guess this is why we have such a complex love-hate relationship with money. While we love it when we have much, we deeply hate it when it is scarce. We have been told that you are better off  healthy than wealthy, that those who make a lot of money must have done something wrong to come by it, that money doesn’t bring happiness, that it only brings more problems.

With this kind of upbringing, I wondered: do I want to teach my children to hate money? To fear it?

Do I want them to understand how it works and the great power money can bring to one’s life.

Some people misunderstand this question and think that I love money and that I think money can fix everything. But they are wrong. I actually don’t love money. But I know it’s importance, what it can give to someone. I know about the power of money and I want to teach my children this money lesson.

When I talk about power, I want to talk about freedom of choice, about financial independence, about living a stress-free life. I want also talk about the power of being generous, about giving to others, the power to help, about being able to sustain to your family’s need.

Teach my son that money can serve good causes

It is never easy to leave early in the morning and sometimes arrive home late at night. While I religiously spend time with my children to play with them several times a week, I always feel guilty the day or two I have to kiss them goodnight while they are already asleep in their beds.

When my son tells me he misses me, I tell them that I have to work hard. Yet, instead of telling him that we need money to live, that I have to leave him to make money because we will lose everything we have if I don’t, I turn this situation around to a different point of view:

I help him remember how much he loves staying at home with mommy, how much he likes playing soccer and learning how to skate, how much fun we had bowling and going at the zoo. Then, I tell him that to be able to do such wonderful activities, we need money… and unfortunately, we need to work to earn it

I want to show him that money can be used to provide activities, to enjoy life, and to have magic moments with our family.

This money lesson is not only about treating yourself

I also want to teach my children that money has the great power of helping others. As I previously mentioned, we give toys and food at Christmas time. I teach my children that some people have less money and that we should do what we can to help them.

Telling them that I am giving $5 per pay check to charity or that I give to our church won’t reach them. However, when they go at the grocery store to buy food for the one in needs, they understand the immediate impact.

They become somewhat proud of “participating” by putting the food in the basket and selecting a few treats for other children who might not have the chance to eat all the “good stuff” during the Holiday Season.

I keep telling them that we are fortunate to have our health as well as money and this is why we ought to share with those who have less.

Final thoughts about money and power

While teaching my children about money, I don’t want them to hate or fear money. I want them to see the marvellous things money can help to achieve. In the end, money is often a booster. If you want to do good things, money will only help you do bigger or better ones!

Author: Mike.

Image source: M.ADA

• Do you appreciate what you have? My teenage son came home the other day.  He told his Mom and me that...
• Teaching Your Children About Money Lesson #1: Money is not Free During the summer of 2009, my son William  turned 4 years old. I remember that...
• 10 ideas to help you teach kids to save money Given our new perspective on money, my wife and I have been looking for opportunities...
• Poverty - It's our responsibility to help This article is just one of more than 10,000 blog articles being published on the...
• You Never Know What Tomorrow Holds, So Be Prepared James 1:12 - "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has...

During the summer of 2009, my son William  turned 4 years old. I remember that at that age, I didn’t know much about money. You basically only care about what gear you will play with for the next 20 minutes. As both my wife and I love to spend time outside during summer, we use to take a lot of walks outside with our two kids. While Amy was still in a stroller, William was able to get on his bike and go much faster. One day when we were about to leave the house, my son turned at me and said:

-         Daddy, I would like to have some chips on our way back home.

-         All right, but who is going to pay for those chips, William? I replied. The cashier will ask you for money.

William thought for a few seconds and then looks at me with a piece of play money:

-         I can pay with this, he smiles, so proud.

-         But William, this is not real money, the cashier won’t accept it. What are you going to do to get your chips?

-         I will give them Amy’s (his little sister) necklace, pointing at his sister with even a bigger smile.

I started laughing and explained to him that the cashier will only real accept money and that he won’t be able to trade his sister’s necklace (unless it was a real one!). My son looked at me, thinking about his next answer and smiled back and said:

-         I know who is going to pay! You will pay with your credit card so you don’t need to give the cashier money.

This is when I realized that my son understood 3 rules about money (not necessarily the ones I wished he would learn first!):

#1 You need money to pay for goods and services (okay, the first rule is good to know)

#2 If you don’t have money, you can trade something in exchange, barter (if you will) (while this doesn’t really work all the time, the most important part about this rule is that you should trade something that you own first, not your sister’s asset!)

#3 If you can’t pay, get financing. This is where I have decided to start educating my son about money. If he realizes that you can use a credit card at the age of 4, I can imagine in which kind of debt pit he will dig himself into! The very first lesson I am trying to teach my son is the following:

Money is not free. It doesn’t magically appear overnight.

Once you have found the topics you want to explain to your son, you have already made a great step into his financial education. However, teaching money lessons to a child is not that obvious. Since he won’t realize how hard things are during the upcoming years until he reaches the age of 12 and starts thinking about earning more money, I needed to find another way to show him that money is not free and that you can’t just spend it when you have it in your pocket.

I started this first financial lesson by asking him questions such as:

-         Do you like your bedroom? Your toys? What you eat for supper? And your pool during summer time?

-         Do you think everybody has what you have?

-         Do you know why your friends at the daycare have different things than you?

Because we cannot have everything we want. We need to pay for everything we have. This is why your friends don’t have the same toys you do. This is why some of them have more toys and some other have less. It is not because their parents love them more or less than we do, it is because they all have a different amount of money to spend on toys.

-         Do you know how you get money to buy things, to do activities or buy what you will eat for supper?

-         Do you miss Daddy when he leaves the house before you wake and only gets home at night in time for supper?

-         Do you know why he leaves the house for so long everyday?

If you like your bedroom and all you have, Daddy has to work to earn money. This is why he leaves the house so early in the morning. It is not because he doesn’t want to play with you, it is because he needs to work really hard to pay for what we have.

So he can understand a little bit more the concept of working, I tell him that his job is to go to the daycare during the day and to listen to his mother and I when we are together. It is not always fun to go to daycare (and even less interesting to listen to his parents!) but he needs to do it because it is his job, his responsibility.

Another trick to teach your child the importance of money:

For the past 2 years, we have given 2 toys to our community center just before Christmas. We ask our children to go in their playroom and select 2 toys they want to give. We also ask that they give something that is fully functional and in good shape

At first, they were somewhat surprised and didn’t really want to say good bye to Timine their teddy bear. However, we told them that not every child is fortunate enough to receive Christmas gifts because their parents don’t have enough money. We emphasize the fact that money is hard to earn and sometimes, even when we work really hard, we don’t have enough to pay for everything.

The other key point we are trying to teach them about money is to realize that they have a lot of toys, they do a lot of activities and they only eat good food. We want them to appreciate what they have and realize that not everybody enjoys the same blessings. We must be thankful for what we have and share with others.

Since we have started talking about money with our oldest child, he has started saying that he is thankful for what he has or that he really appreciated when we went bowling during the Holidays.

What about you?

Being a financial planner, teaching people about money doesn’t seem so complicated for me. However, when it comes down to my children, I find it a little bit more complex. I would be curious to hear yours tips or any money lessons you give to your children?

Author: Mike.

• How to be debt free How to be debt free is a question I get asked often via email.  The...
• Our dumbest purchase ever Debtkid recently shared his dumbest purchase ever and is asking others to "fess up". As...
• How much do your kids know about money? I know that many of us are still recovering from the long weekend, so my...
• Ask the M-Network Inquiries Over the past few weeks I've received a number of Ask the M-Network questions.  Normally...
• What should I do with tax refund? - Ask The M-Network This article is part of the Ask the M-Network series. Samantha submitted a question and...

On my personal finance journey, I have come to understand that knowledge is power. Nothing demonstrated to me the wastefulness of our spending habits until I started keeping track of our finances and could read it in plain black and white. I cannot say that I have continued this habit to this day – Mrs. Stew and I have a different approach to budgeting nowadays and it works for us. However, I thought I would share two anecdotes that could help you to reinforce this principle in your children.

My first story is about my boyhood pastor. “Pastor T” is well into his 90’s now. I’m not sure that he has the mental capacity to still track his expenses to this extent, but when I knew him in his 60’s and 70’s, he tracked every cent that he spent, by hand. Pastor T could tell you to the penny what he had spent on soap in 1954. I was young, but I distinctly remember reading our church financial reports and seeing every penny of spending accounted for. I even remember an incident where he took a group of us boys into the bathroom and showed us how to keep our toilet paper usage to a minimum. Not graphically, but showing us how to count the exact number of squares that were necessary. Something like that might sound a little creepy nowadays, but he impressed upon us the importance of wise stewardship – in everything.

Pastor T is a man who never went into debt and he trained his congregation to use money wisely. The ministry that he left behind has undertaken a number of large building projects and supports a large number of missionaries even though the church itself has never really numbered more than 100 members or so. They have no debt.

Another person is a family friend who grew up in the northern Midwest. I met “Emma” about three years ago and in my conversations with her husband he shared that Emma had tracked every expense since she was four years old. Over the years she developed good money habits and when they got married, she handled all of the finances for the family. They have been married about fifteen years and in that time, they purchased and resold several houses, each time they managed the equity to the point that they were completely debt free when we met. Everything was turning out well for them until my friend lost his job suddenly and Emma was diagnosed with cancer – both events happening within six months.

They would have never survived financially if they had not been debt free with a good-sized savings to boot. Emma learned the value of a dollar at a young age and used that knowledge to protect her family during a time of great financial turmoil.

Here is what we can take from these stories – teach your children to value money properly. A great way to do it is by writing down every expense. There will be times when your children spend money wisely and times when they spend money poorly, keeping a record of financial missteps is a good way to teach them to do a cost benefit analysis when planning future purchases.

I think it is a good time to buy a notebook for my five year old and seven year old daughters.

Article by Stew

Photo by u07ch

• The Friday gathering - ouch edition My boys had been planning a big family football game the day of Thanksgiving.  All...
• A Night At The County Fair - Memories are priceless Photo Copyright JennsPhotography We decided to visit the county fair last night. We've gone over...
• November 2007 In Review Once again, this year just seems to be flying by. It will soon by Christmas...
• A story of two friends Adam and Dave were the best of friends.  They met sometime during middle school.  They...
• Teaching Your Children About Money Lesson #1: Money is not Free During the summer of 2009, my son William  turned 4 years old. I remember that...

There were so many questions from yesterday’s post on Homeschool Finance, that I decided to do a follow-up post today and explain a few things:

Mike asked: Have you calculated the option cost of having your spouse at home teaching your children instead of working full time or part time?

Good question. My wife stays home with the kids and actually makes money by watching other children in our home. Some of you will remember that Mrs. Stew almost worked outside the home this year, but we were going to get free tuition/preschool for our children as a benefit to her job. At the last minute we decided that she would stay home. I doubt whether Mrs. Stew could get a job that would justify the up front expense of work clothes, a second car, child care, etc. and still bring in money. Providing child care in our home has been great for our finances.

Given the ages of our children, I think that a stay at home wife is overall a cost savings. That might change as they move into junior high and high school.

Greg stated: The one thing you left out was the cost of home school curriculum. This can be very pricey. The savings on clothing (you still have to buy clothes), transportation (field trips, library visits), and food (you don’t need to buy lunch at school and you can use reusable containers) is negligible to the cost of the curriculum.

The truth is that our curriculum is free! Our state provides a free online curriculum and so far, my wife and I have been pleased with it . . . well, it is not free . . . might be more accurate to say that it is paid for by the good tax payers of our state. The online curriculum provides a schedule and accountability. Yes, we do have to buy clothes, but they definitely do not get the wear and tear that school brings. There are some transportation costs to field trips – but only once or twice a month – and the library is within walking distance. My intent was not to list all of the expenses due to homeschooling, but rather just a list of the ways that we save money.

Gina’s question was interesting: If you have “other” students, would you charge a nominal fee to cover the curriculum costs? Would other students require more licensing (such as w/a daycare)? What sort of creditentials are involved w/being a “homeschool” teacher?

I think they are called “homeschool co-ops”. I know that the homeschoolers in our old church used to use the church facility once a week to meet and bring in a teacher to handle specialized subjects that some parents found difficult. We are not currently involved in anything like that, however, Mrs. Stew often gets the kids together with other homeschool friends of ours for playdates. This might eventually turn into some sort of co-op. The definition of what constitutes homeschooling is defined by state law and is different in almost every state.

Evan asked: What about the lost socialization with other students around their age? Beyond siblings?

I think this concern is valid, but often over-stated. Our kids play with other children on a regular basis and we are faithful to church, so there is socialization there. As they get older, we hope to involve them in community and club sports as well. Furthermore, there are some peer influences from which we would like to shelter them – at least for a little while longer.

The bottom line is that while there was a financial component to our decision to homeschool, this was not the only factor. Many pros and cons were weighed. One factor that is not financial is the fact that my job allows me to participate in homeschooling. I teach thirty to forty percent of the material in order to give Mrs. Stew a break. If my job ever changes so that I can no longer bear part of the burden, our kids will probably go back to school.

Any more questions?

Article by Stew

Photo by lepiaf.geo

• Ask me anything - The Answers Photo by: goldberg About 2 weeks ago, I gave my readers a chance to ask...
• 95+ Money Saving Tips - From the readers! Last week I invited readers and bloggers alike to share (or blog) your favorite money...
• Brand Spankin Used While driving down the road the other day, I was behind a car that had...
• Homeschool Finance When my wife and I started to have children, we never thought that we would...
• That old question: Work or stay home? Last week, MoneyNing posed a question to his readers: Should I be a work at...

When my wife and I started to have children, we never thought that we would end up as homeschoolers. This year we are just that. We have a first grader and a kindergartener and we are educating them at home. I do not want to get into a long discussion about the pros and cons of homeschool v private school v government school. The bottom line is that we believe this is best for our children at this point in time and in the future, circumstances might change that will cause us to reconcider and possibly even choose one of the other options. Today, I just want to talk about the financial aspect of this decision.

Here are the ways that we save money by homeschooling:

• Clothes. We have been able to avoid the cost of clothes brought on by a dress code (some private schools) and by peer pressure. Our kids go to school in their play clothes and we save some money this way. I think the greatest area of savings is in shoes.
• Transportation. We do not have to drive our children to and from school. Getting to school is as easy as walking downstairs.
• Food. We do not have to buy the school lunch and we even save money on packing a lunch since lunch at home does not require a lunch box, sandwich bags, beverage container or even the proverbial “brown bag”.
• Tuition. This is the obvious cost savings over private school. Public school would not require us to pay tuition, obviously.
• Fundraising. All schools, public and private, require students to raise money for one thing or another. We do not have to deal with selling candy bars, magazine subscriptions or participating in any other ways to bring in money to the school.
• School supplies. Our kids share school supplies and many of the things that they use are items that we already have around the house.
• Vacations and travel. Because we are not bound by the school year, we are able to travel at “off-peak” times of the year. We save a lot of money by booking flights on week days or staying in hotels on school nights.

We did not chose to homeschool because it was the cheapest option. We chose it because in light of all of the circumstances, it is the best educational choice for our children. I am thankful to live in a country where we have the freedom to educate our children at home. While there is a financial component to the decision to homeschool, I certainly believe that it is important to invest in education and hope to have the money  in the future to spend on the best education possible for my kids.

Article by Stew

Photo by tiffanywashko

• How to save money One of the things I enjoy doing every so often is doing a little research...
• 95+ Money Saving Tips - From the readers! Last week I invited readers and bloggers alike to share (or blog) your favorite money...
• Update on our home situation My wife and I just finished signing the contingency contract waiver on the new house...
• Ask the M-Network - Questions from college and on housing This article is part of the Ask the M-Network series.  Over the past few weeks...
• The Friday Gathering for 12/14/2007 4:00pm today signals the beginning of 3 weeks of vacation. I don't have to return...

As many people during these tough times, we are cutting out extra’s in order to make ends meet financially. We are doing everything possible to not add debt, to make our current income go farther and to try to increase and diversify our revenue streams. One of the items at which we are looking critically is vacations.

My wife and I have been married for almost nine years and we have yet to take what many people would consider a major vacation. I’m talking about a cruise or Disney or some kind of resort. A vacation where money is spent on travel, lodging, food and entertainment. Throughout our marriage, our vacations have basically consisted of traveling to visit family and maybe staying one night in a hotel en route. There have also been some instances where I have taken my family along on a business trip – my vocation allows for this from time to time – not really a vacation, but I think it feels like one to my family. We hope to someday take a major trip, but we have a lot of other financial priorities before that happens. Here are some thoughts as you consider different options for some R and R.

The first question is, do you need a vacation? I’m not kidding, our culture has conditioned us to see vacations as normative. Everybody goes away for a week or two, don’t they? The reality is, that as our economy changes, we might see fewer and fewer opportunities for vacations – and fewer options due to the expense. Prior generations rarely (if ever) took vacations. The family farm did not allow for it. Most of the vacation spots did not exist. Tourism was an option for only the super rich. For most of us, time for relaxation is a necessity, but a travel vacation might not be a necessity.

I think my number one recommendation to someone who is considering a vacation is, do not finance your trip! I can’t believe the number of people who go into debt for a vacation. Even a honeymoon is not important enough to take out a loan. We have all seen the home equity loan ads or received the credit card “checks” that suggest that you pay for your next vacation after you get back. Dumb idea. Take a trip that you can afford, better yet, save up for it in advance.

The second suggestion is to figure out your mission. What is the purpose of your vacation? Is it just rest? You might be better off staying home, sleeping in and going out to eat every night to give your household cook a break. Are you taking an educational vacation? I know, sounds nerdy, but I would love to visit an old battlefield or Washington D. C. and just read every historical marker I see – maybe you could stay with friends or family for a trip like this. Are you looking for an adventure vacation? Whitewater rafting, backpacking, water park are all great options, but remember that you might come home more tired than before you left. Maybe you want a decadent experience with lots of luxury. Maybe you are celebrating a special occasion – these are all great reasons to take a trip if you can afford it, but it is important to think about the purpose of your trip so that you can budget appropriately and so that you do not get to the end of the week and have regrets.

My family’s recipe for a frugal vacation right now?

• A clean hotel booked on a week night and through a website that offers discount rates.
• A good free breakfast in the hotel.
• A swimming pool is a must. My kids are happy to swim all day.
• A cooler to store food for lunch – we only eat out once a day.
• We really try to get a two-room suite so that we can put the kids to bed early . . .

I know that my children will not always look on a 36 or 48 hour hotel stay as a vacation, but until their expectations get a little more sophisticated, we are more than happy to spend quality time in the hotel swimming pool.  - Article by Stew

Photo by mode.

• The Friday gathering - Finger update edition Nothing like a broken finger to make you appreciate our health care.  I visited a...
• One-hundred percent living Last week, I wrote about my belief that when it comes to giving and tithing,...
• 12 Frugal Tips from Readers For 2010 A while ago, I hosted a contest for “IN Cheap We Trust”. I thought of...
• Best Free Events to Enjoy Almost Anywhere Kids are famous for complaining to their parents that they are bored or that there's...
• How to Save Money at Auctions We did something interesting and different yesterday, we attended an Estate auction. This was my...

All of us come from different family financial backgrounds and those experiences shape who we are today. I was brought up in a household where money was in scarce supply, but even more scarce was any discussion of money. My parents almost never discussed finances. Even though they were successful at handling this important tool, they did not do the greatest job in teaching their children about money.

The positive result of this method was that I left home and went through college and entered my career without being obsessed with money or without a bent toward serving money. Salary was never a factor in my parent’s occupational decisions and salary has never really been a factor in my job decisions. This is one of the reasons that both my parents and I have worked almost exclusively for non-profit ministries. The other positive of this approach is that my siblings and I grew up mostly without a television, video games or vacations to exotic locations. Furthermore, we never pined for such things because we did not know what we were missing. We read, played hard outside and went camping a lot. We never really coveted the lavish lifestyle (by comparison) that some of our peers lived. We did not think about it; money was never a part of the daily conversation.

For most of my youth, my dad earned money on the side as a carpenter. When school was out, my brother and I would go with him to the job site and from the earliest ages, we found ways to help out with simple tasks and then more complicated as we grew and became more skilled. He never paid us. We never talked about money – we thought it was fun to work with our hands out in the sun all day with our dad. It sounds ludicrous, but I remember the first time that I helped out a different contractor for a couple of days and he wrote me a check . . . I couldn’t believe it. I was actually surprised that a person could have all this fun and get paid for it too. I think I was a sophomore in high school and it ruined me for working with dad.

We never expected money when we worked on a house with father, but my brother and I did earn extra money by shoveling snow, mowing lawns, raking leaves and other odd jobs. But we were embarrassed by any discussion of money. We would knock on the door, ask if the person would like their driveway shoveled. If the answer was yes, we simply went to work and left the level of pay up to that person. Sometimes we were even squeamish about knocking on the door when the job was done in an indirect reminder or a non-verbal request for payment. We just hoped the person would notice that we were finished and lean out of the door with a check or some cash. I know that at least once, we left a freshly shoveled driveway and just walked home rather than go through the excruciating pain of asking for payment.

I come from the kind of family that tips even when the service is poor and if the server makes a mistake with my meal, I eat it and pay for it anyway. For some reason, the subject of money was as taboo as sex.

On the other hand, as I look back, I wish that I could have known more about how both of my parents spent the money that they did have. My dad never told me what he made in a year, althought I’ve pieced some of it together since then. He never showed me a monthly budget, althought I knew he had one. He never showed me how much he spent or saved or invested. If I asked him for an item that I thought I needed, he would either say “no”, “maybe” or “buy it yourself”. When it came time for me to file taxes for the first time, I remember that my father handed me a 1040EZ and said “figure it out”.

I left home without a burning desire to be rich – a good thing. I was content to live a simple life with the money that I had. As a result, I was fairly successful at handling my money when I was single and in college. However, when I got married, started having children, and started to develop more expensive taste – the wheels started to fall off our money wagon. The thing that I had missed was how to be an intentional steward of my money. I did not know how to create and execute a financial plan for our family.

I know now that my father was good at budgeting and good at spending money wisely. My mother fed and clothed five kids for little money for years. They both had great frugal habits, but those habits did not do me any good because I didn’t know about it. I hope to intentionally train my children to handle money wisely.

What were the pros and cons of your financial upbringing?

Photo by photo8.com

• 40 personal finance lessons I've learned A long time reader named Bobbi sent me an email recently. The email contained a...
• Creating a financial plan with eFinPlan Ever get up one morning and decide you just want to take off somewhere? "Honey! ...
• The Friday Gathering for 8/24/2007 It's time again for school to start. All of my children but 2 will be...
• 10 principles for saving time Part II On Monday, I shared the first five of ten money saving principles that I learned...
• How I saved 1000's on remodeling and home maintenance and you can to! Photo by: Sean F From Glblguy: This is a guest post by my dad who...

We’re almost half way through summer break and I don’t know about you but our kids are getting bored to death already.  We’re constantly on the lookout for frugal or fairly frugal things we can do with our kids.  We’ve been hiking, visited the library, visited historical areas and a number of other things.  My wife had a great idea a few weeks ago: build the kids a fort.

She gathered up all of the scrap lumber I had around the house (which seems to be a lot for some reason), all of the nails and screws I had and got the kids together to start building a fort/play set for our younger kids.  The design was simple: just a small deck with railing and a slide.  I didn’t help much, as she wanted this to be something that her and the kids did, so I stayed out of it the best I could.

The kids had a blast and the project kept them busy for a few days.  I was in the house working most of the time, but constantly heard the sounds of little hammers, saws and my cordless screw driver.  Every so often my wife or one of my kids would come in and ask me question about how to do something and then head back out to build some more.

As it turned out, their wasn’t enough supplies here at the house, so in the end she ended up putting about $100 or so into it to cover the cost of the plastic slide and the additional wood that was needed.  Worthwhile investment though, as our kids learned a ton from doing it:

• Since they went with Mom to buy the supplies, they very quickly learned how much wood, nails, screws and brackets cost.  They were shocked that wood cost that much.
• They learned how important it is for something to “square” which leads into the next learning…
• They now understand that when building something if you don’t do things correctly the first time, what seems like a little mistake slowly becomes a very big mistake later as you build onto it.  As a result, the platform is a little crooked.  It’s solid though, so big deal.
• I think the most important thing they learned was they’re mother is far more knowledgeable about stuff than they thought.  Until this project, they had always only seen me build things, never my wife.  My wife is pretty handy though and while not perfect, overall I think her and the kids did an awesome job.

So, looking for something to do with your kids over the summer that will help teach them about money, construction, team work, and doing things right the first time?  Build a simple “fort”.  It will keep them busy for days AND give them a great reward at the end.

• The Friday gathering - Updates and cell phones I've received a number of emails from readers asking about the status of our move. ...
• Building a compost bin Building a compost bin is something I've had on my list of things to do...
• Finding and Killing Nemo along with my Debt Snowball About 4 months ago, I found a 75 gallon tank, wooden stand, glass tops and...
• So you want to buy a house.... Photo by: Nadia308 This is a guest post from Darlys who writes at JasonandDarlys, her...
• Entitlement vs. Earning: How to Avoid Harmful Help as a Parent Photo by: law_keven The following is a guest post by Cameron C. Taylor, author of...