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"We have a lot more disposable income than teenagers do." That's arguable. Most people I know with teenagers would say their kids have more influence on famil
by jobu 13y ago
"We have a lot more disposable income than teenagers do."
That's arguable. Most people I know with teenagers would say their kids have more influence on family spending than they do.
For me personally, years of barely scraping by have left me with anxiety and guilt anytime I spend money on frivolous things. My kids on the other hand seem to have no issue spending their allowance on movies, toys, and shitty little trinkets. I'm not sure how to instill a sense of frugality without letting them go hungry for a while.
- johnchristopher 13y agoI would fake the paycut. You think it would work ? I am not saying you shouldn't spend money on things useful to them (education, clothing and food) but that might do the trick.
- DrewRWx 13y agoMake them get a part-time job. Realizing that a trinket equates to a couple hours of their life should demotivate frivolous spending.
- Amadou 13y agoI'm not sure how to instill a sense of frugality without letting them go hungry for a while. Non-parent (I only rent them from friends and family) advice here: Charitable work with the poor. Anything that gets them interacting with the less fortunate on a personal level, not just abstract stories from Dad about it was like when he was a kid, but stories from the people living them right now. You don't feel bad about depriving your kids, they learn some empathy for people with different life experiences and how lucky they are to be born into the right family and last but not least, in the process you help to make the world a better place.
- GuiA 13y agoMy parents never gave us an allowance. If we wanted to go to the movies with a friend, or if there was a book I wanted, they'd pay for it (within reasonable limits)- but no allowance. The only cash I got was from grandparents for birthday/christmas, or doing yard work. But my main hobby was reading, so I just went to the library and never did any yard work as I didn't need the money. As a teenager it slightly irritated me, when I saw some of my friends whose parents gave them 20 euros a week or w/e- but now as an adult I live as frugally as one can live as an engineer in the bay area (I still eat out way too much, silly social pressure) and am glad my parents did it that way.
- smileysteve 13y agoAs you indicate, you were the minority. Teens are perhaps one of the most valuable consumer markets.
- GuiA 13y agoYup, I realize that. OP was sharing his interrogations about how he could best instill a sense of frugality in his kids, so I thought I'd give him an additional data point :)
- twic 13y agoI'm not sure there's any way to learn frugality without having to practice it for real. It is likely that a point will come in their lives when they do have to practice it; at that point, they will learn it. If that point never comes, they won't have to learn it. But, hey, they never needed to. I remember my dad making various attempts to teach me to be careful with money when i was a kid. It was all water off a duck's back, because it was obvious to both of us that it was just a game. Then i went to university and had a rigidly fixed amount of student loan to live off. And hey presto, i learned how not to spend money.
- rayiner 13y ago> That's arguable. Most people I know with teenagers would say their kids have more influence on family spending than they do. I don't have any teenagers, but I spend way more money as a young adult than I ever did as a kid. Kids spend money on movies and toys and trinkets, but grownups buy cars, handbags, computers, meals at expensive restaurants, etc.