By MICHELLE BERAN
Cottonwood Extension District
Serving in Family Resource Management is important to me, reflecting the 20 years I spent working in retail banking.
When incomes are small, it doesn’t take much to push an already tight budget over the edge. If you don’t have a budget, it can make this even more difficult.
I love working with youth and young adults to help them make better financial decisions than I often did at 20 or 21.
4-H has several great financial curricula for different ages to assist in the discussion about needs vs wants, as well as setting up budgets and learning about banking. Wants vs needs is a hard topic that even adults don’t like to have, but starting in grade school can help kids build skills and knowledge that they will need to be successful later.
A good example is to discuss the grocery budget for the week or the month. For instance, does it include snacks, sodas, and pre-packaged items that really should be “extras”? I certainly like a cookie, but it needs to be at the end of my grocery list instead of the beginning of the available dollars.
Kids can help with all of these! It takes a little practice to help them understand that the same dollars spent on a box of cookies can stretch to provide many more items for basic needs such as rice or dry pasta.
When our kids were little, we started teaching them about spending and budgets with an envelope system.
The envelopes were labeled “save” - to go to their savings account at some point; “spend” - they could buy something as long as we were good with the purchase and it encouraged them to save toward something larger; and “give” which was for church or a charitable donation. More than once, they would stockpile the “give” envelope and use the money for an Angel tree gift, food bank donation, or something similar. When our oldest was little, he used his “give” funds to contribute to a sock and mitten drive at school.
Whatever method you use, it is never too early to start talking to your kids about how you budget, what your savings goals are, or how to put an envelope system into practice!
Keep learning. Keep showing grace and kindness!