Explaining Financial Troubles to the Kids

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:57:00 GMT

With disappearing 401(k) savings, exorbitant gas prices, and piling up medical bills, many families are being forced to make serious changes in their spending patterns. This can be a shock for teens and preteens who grew up in the 90s, during affluent times in which the prevailing wisdom in the U.S. extolled making your kids happy. Average teen allowances nationwide are upwards of $100 a month, and many high schoolers have credit cards.

But last week, a survey found that teen spending had dropped by 27 percent. Considering that much of this spending money comes from allowances or gifts, we can be pretty sure the kids are not being thrifty out of choice.

As parents struggle to explain the crisis to teens freaked out by dire newspaper headlines and cutbacks in family expenditures, parents may see their kids as spoiled or bratty, while teens may see their parents as unreasonable or over-anxious. One mother interviewed by the New York Times started showing her confused and upset teenagers the monthly bills. Another father threatened to charge his kids’ friends rent for sleeping over.

Some families have found the crisis to be a good opportunity to become close with their children in new ways. Asking your kids to brainstorm about ways to cut back on family spending makes them feel valued and useful, and helps prepare them to find their own way in less than optimum economic times. Some parents have stopped hiring lawn cutters and housecleaners, choosing instead to pay their kids (far less) for the same services.

How have other parents changed your families’ spending patterns? Have you talked to your kids about the changes?

Photo: New York Times

Kitchenista: Just In Time For Lunch

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Dinner has never been my Waterloo. I'm pretty good at planning, prepping and preparing some kind of dinnery meal most nights of the week. Breakfast, too, is one of my strengths, even if it is just cereal and milk. It might not be flashy but it is there. Lunch, however, is a completely different story.

Lunch just brings me down. I don't want to spend money on it. I don't have time during the day to whip up anything that requires my brain. If I weren't starving by this time of day, I'd just skip lunch and wait for dinner to roll around. Lunch. I resent it.

Which is why Squawkfox's Top Five Frugal Lunch Ideas are a nifty find. They are easy, mostly, inexpensive and healthy. Pictured at right is one of my favorites -- a hummus wrap. Yum. I wonder if I have any chickpeas in the pantry...

Strollerderby : frugal

Explaining Financial Troubles to the Kids

Kitchenista: Just In Time For Lunch