One great way to give your children practical money experience is to have them complete the grocery shopping for a month. This will be a learning experience for them. In addition you might ask that your child help to plan the menus and cook a few meals each week. Here are five steps to complete to insure a positive experience for your child.
1) Sit down with your child and explain how much money is budgeted for the month. You may want to have your child decide how many shopping trips he will take during the month, and have him divide the money accordingly. If he is planning one big trip and several smaller trips he should plan accordingly.
2) The best way to stick to a grocery budget is to have a menu planned for each week. You should sit down with your child and give her several different options that she can include in each of the menus. You can allow flexibility and creativity in the meals that she plans to cook. If you will still be doing some of the cooking, you may want to choose those menus yourself.
3) You should also take the time to show your child how to look at the ads for the different grocery stores. If you have a price book, you should explain how to use the book. You can also encourage your child to use coupons in order to save money.
4) You can offer to accompany your child, but if you do you should step back and let him make the decisions. It is important that he learns by trial and error the best way to do the grocery shopping. He may make unwise purchases at the beginning of the month, which may cause a shortage later on, but if he sticks to the amounts that he has divided up it will be okay.
5) Finally follow through with having your child cook a few meals each week. This will give her an opportunity to really learn all the work that comes with planning, and making a menu. It will give her some experience, which will benefit her as she moves out on her own.