Money, Money, Money

I am not very good with money.

In fact, I used to say that I had a disease called "estrogen induced bankruptcy." (It goes hand-in-hand with another terrible plague, testosterone induced blindness, where a man goes looking for something, maybe even with specific instructions as to the item's location and STILL can't find it.)

Mike helped get me straightened out on the money front. He helped me balance my checkbook and create an accounting system in Microsoft Money. I learned to stop spending money I didn't have and realized that debit cards are the root of all evil. For me, at least.

I feel that understanding how money works is a skill that is critical for my girls to have. I don't want them to have that terrible feeling of getting an envelope from the bank that likely contains an overdraft notice. I want them to have money set aside in a savings account and to learn to give money to the church (which is something that Mike didn't do until he and I were engaged. He said his parents always took care of that. Well, yes, but you aren't living with them any more so now YOU need to do it.).*

I have started talking about money with Emily to a small extent. She has a piggie bank and LOVES to put "pennies" into it (everything is a penny).

Recently, we were at a store and Emily asked for something. I explained that Mommy had a certain amount of money to buy food for the week and the item in question (of course I can't remember now what it was) was not included because I needed to buy other things. The same explanation is used when Emily asks for horsey rides at the mall's carousel. There are times when I have money available to do that, but there are others when I don't.

I have been toying with the idea of beginning to give Emily an allowance. I want her to have money of her own that she can decide what to do with, but I'm concerned about several things.

1) My handy "don't touch things in a store" rule is that she doesn't have any money. Which brings about the "When I have money, I can touch things" response. Yeah...

2) She's 3. I'm thinking of giving her 4 quarters a week. 1 quarter for church, 1 quarter to save and 2 for her. Or something.
2a) what the heck can she buy with 50 cents?
2b) will she really understand or am I jumping the gun?

3) Do I want to tie the allowance to chores or not? There are arguments (in my head - don't you wish you were me? I argue with myself all the time) for and against each. For: she contributes to the household, she learns that money doesn't grow on trees, etc. Against: She's 3. How much help is she going to be? Should she get the money just for being cute and being a part of our family?

Mike and I have discussed the allowance issue as a nebulous down-the-road, when she's 3 kind of thing. Well, she's 3 now and school starts this week. If we're doing an allowance now is the perfect time.

And hopefully, once we plow this path with Emily, it will be slightly less nervewracking for the second one. Fingers crossed!

This set of slightly incoherent rambling is brought to you by a PBN Blog Blast from the Parent Bloggers Network and Capital One's MoneyWise tool (hrm, maybe I should go check that out...) If you have opinions about money and kids, you can post them on your blog and be in the running for one of 3 iPhones. BUT you aren't allowed to do that if you have the super-lucky, win-everything-you-enter gene. Because I want one. So there. Oh, and I'm running a little late, so you have to do the post by the end of today.