Wii - less
My son is Wii less...yes, I am the mean mean Mom who wont buy him a Nintendo Wii.
My son Ben is 4.5 years old, and a HUGE gamer. He gets it from his Mom :-)
He currently has an old school Nintendo Gameboy Color, Nintendo 64, Playstation 2, and for Christmas he got a Nintendo DS. But the boy dwells on the fact that he doesn't have a Wii. For the last few months he was playing his uncles' Nintendo Wii, and got hooked....I don't blame him. It's an amazing gaming machine. But after Christmas his uncle took it to university with him, and left Ben Wii-less.
Since a Wii is so far out of our budget when it comes to Disposable Income, I've told him if he wants one, he has to save his money, and earn what he can. Now, for a 4 year old, that is a hard concept. He knows about money, and that things cost money, but has no idea what the actual value of a dollar is. And now it's up to me to make him see just what it takes to earn those dollars.
We've started kinda small, since I really don't have the cash to give him, I want him to actually grasp how much you have to work to earn any amount of money.
So his jobs to date are:
~Drying the Dishes=$2/job (which he loves to do) we don't have a dishwasher (except me) so this is actually a big job.
~Cleaning His Room=$0.25/day (I really shouldn't pay him for this)
~Helping Take Out The Trash=$1/week
~Returning the recyclables=25% off the refund.
This earns him approximately $5/week, we return the recyclables about once per month, and that usually earns him about $7.50 So were up to about $27.50 per month.
He also loves to hit up his grandparents and aunts for their spare change, which probably gains him another $10/month.
So, lets aim low and say he earns about $35 per month. A Wii is $200 plus sales tax, brings it to $226. He's looking at about 6.5 months of earning and saving his cash. Since he already has a month behind him, and has a little over $30 saved, I think this is pretty accurate and he should be able to pull it off.
So how do you teach your kids about money, and the value of it. Would you start as early as I have? And would you do anything differently. I 'd love to hear what you've done, and how it's worked for you.
Labels: Ben, our busy family, saving money, value
posted by A Busy Mommy @ Saturday, January 30, 2010
3 Comments:
We do the same thing although my kids also get a weekly allowance which is $1 for each year. My 13 yr old get $13, 10 yr old get $10, etc. For my oldest, he has a credit card kind of thing where we add money to it. He is also a BIG saver and probably has about $300 saved that he uses to buy stuff.
My 10 yr old is NOT a saver. Any money that comes in her hands goes out immediately. More like me.
My younger 2 kids still don't quite grasp the money concept. they are 5 & 6. They understand things cost money, but can't really understand that 120 is a LOT more than 5 in terms of money.
They think if it's a small item it should cost less than an item that is big.
But I think the earlier they learn that you need to work to earn and that things cost money, will be beneficial.
We did nearly the exact thing you are when my son wanted a Wii! He was 7, and most of the money he earned was from picking bottles and cans with his dad. They would go to places like my hubbie's construction job site, where there were always lots of empties left laying around.
He worked hard, and had saved about 85% of the amount he needed...when I won a Wii! Boy, did I make the lady laugh when I got the call - I was so excited!
The hardest part was waiting the 2-3 months for it to arrive. But my son surprised me by continuing to work for it, even though he didn't absolutely need to. He used the money he had saved to buy a bunch of games and accessories.
I don't think you're starting too early at all! The rates you're paying him and the amount of time he'll need to work/save for such a big item sound totally fair to me. And I bet he'll remember - and be proud of! - his accomplishment for a long, long time.
... if I were his auntie, I'd give him my whole change jar! : )
He is too cute! What a great idea for him to earn the money. Thanks for sharing!
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