Teaching the Value of a Dollar

The other day I decided that I was going to bring Mason to Barnes and Noble for a little play time and Mommy reading time, when I first got there I had him in the Boba and I was browsing the magazines to find one to bring back to the children's section when I heard a couple of women talking about Will and Jada breaking up. Knowing this information was false thanks to the stunning research done by Emily at Baby Dickey I quickly reassured them that all was well with the world and Will and Jada were NOT breaking up. 


Somehow it quickly turned into an hour long conversation with two of the nicest women I've met in the Burg. They were older than I and each had a male child, one was 25 and the other was 15 and the conversation turned to teaching your child the value of a dollar. It quickly got me thinking about how I'm going to do that when it comes to Mason. When you only have one child it's easy to spoil them and give them everything they want, you want them to have better than you had right? But that's certainly not the right thing to do or at least that's the conclusion I came too. 


So the obvious thing to do would be to make them work for the things they want in life.  But then I think about my siblings, they're all in sports and literally have NO time to do anything else. Practicing every day will do that to you and they don't really have an off-season so it's hard for them to find a job that would be willing to accommodate such a demanding schedule of school and sports. So how do you teach them to value their money? 


You put them on a budget. One way you can do that is by setting them up with an American Express pre-paid card. It's great because you can link it to your bank account and you decide how much money you want to put on it. If you give your child a budget of $100 a month that's how much goes on the card and once they're done with it they're done, they can't spend any more than that like they could on a typical credit card. You can also set up an account online so you can see what purchases are being made and where. It's a great way to help teach them the value of a dollar and how to budget. Although I still think the best way to do it is to make them get a job ;) There's nothing like curbing your spending habit when you realize how much those jeans cost in relation to the number of hours you had to work! Best budgeter ever! 


The American Express pre-paid cards are also perfect for sending your older children off to college, no need to worry about sending a check or giving them enough cash to last the semester, you can re-load the card whenever you need too, online, by phone through your bank account or with cash! I would have loved something like that when I was in college! It would have made things so much easier. 


While I still have time to think about how I'm going to teach Mason the value of a dollar and how to budget I can't help but think of it now, I like to be prepared! :) 

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of American Express and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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