The Concept of $$$

While our children are pretty appreciative of the things in their lives, it has become clear that they have no concept of money.  Here's a couple of examples:

- One of the first nights here, we walked by a gelato shop and the boys asked if they could have some.  After glancing at the prices, I quickly let them it was too expensive (the cost was $5.90 for a single scoop!) and after sharing the price, Jacob said he did not think that was too expensive.  Geeze!

- At the zoo, they wanted an overpriced slush drink that comes in fancy container (which they would never use again) and after sharing the price, they again thought it was reasonable priced.

So, Jason & I had a parenting brainstorming session to figure out how we are going to help our boys understand the concept and value of money.  Growing up, I was given a monthly allowance and learnt how to budget and manage my money.  I had to use this money to purchase clothes, for entertainment purposes and for any other incidentals that came up during the month.  Once the money was gone, it was gone and I was not allowed to ask for any advances from my parents.  So, Jason & I decided to start this with Jacob and Joshua.

First, we sat them down and discussed the concept of money.  It was really interesting because in Jacob's world, he shared that he thought that anything under $20 was cheap (hence why he was ok with spending $6 on gelato and $6 on a slush drink).  Then we discussed the parameters for their monthly allowances:
- At the beginning of the month, they will each receive $20 (10% of which they need to tithe).
- We will buy them an ice cream on Friday and Saturday from the ice cream stand man (which only costs $1) and if they want gelato, they would need to buy it with their own money
- When we are out touring Singapore, they will need to bring their wallets as we won't be buying anything beyond the basic (lunch, water, etc).

And so far, it has been working!  The other day, the boys & I were walking down the street and we walked by a gelato store.  Josh wanted to stop and see how much it costed and decided it wasn't worth spending a quarter of his allowance on one ice cream.  Before going to Universal Studios, we let the boys know that we would buy them lunch but if they want any snacks above that, they would need to use their own money.  They never once asked us for anything!  We walked through numerous souvenir  stores and they would look around, ask about the prices, but always decided that the item was too expensive.  Josh did buy an ice cream but thought about it before making the purchase.  We were sitting at a restaurant having a drink before the parade and an ice cream stand was near us.  Jake & Josh went to see what he was selling and the cost and after coming back and thinking about it for 5 minutes, Josh decided that he wanted to spend the $3 on the ice cream.

Jacob is down $9 which he spent at an arcade on day 1.  We were visiting some friends at the British Club and the boys wanted to play the arcades.  Jacob decided that he wanted to spend $10 from his allowance; I tried really hard to convince him that it was not a good idea but he reminded me that it was his money to spend.  To his credit, he shared the $10 with Josh and their friend, Jude.  He gave Josh and Jude $3 each to play the machines and only kept $4 for himself. At the end of the gaming session, Jacob had $1 left.  But since then, has not bought anything.

Anyways... we will see how this plays out in the next couple of months.

Here's a picture of Jacob & Joshua's room.