Bear and Money

Bear had a marvellous time at his party, and came home with a shedload of presents plus £40 in cash.  He already had a large stash of cash from Christmas that I hadn't intercepted and put into his bank account, and some left over from my over generous allowance during the summer.  Bear is desperate to add to his stash of nerf guns which seems to be an ultimate boy's gadget.

I had a discussion with DH and we came to the following agreement.  Bear is going to get pocket money every Friday.  He is getting one pound for every year of his age, that is, £7 per Friday.  However half of that has to go into his savings account and then he gets £3.50 in his hand.  He can, of course, buy treats for himself with that money, but he also now has to buy presents for immediate family from it.  I anticipate many trips to the Pound shop.  However I think it is an important principle.  He has a fixed amount of money coming in, and he has treats he wants to buy, and he has things he has to buy for the family.

DH has set up a calendar on his computer and every Friday we can look forward to what is coming up and what he will need his money for.  I'll probably top it up a tiny bit (but less than last year) when it comes to the summer holidays for visits to the charity shops, and bear can make his own decisions.

It is a lot of money, and I was considering a lot less.  However I am going to be getting stricter and stricter about what I expect him to get from that money.  I am a bit worried that the generosity of father and uncle will sabotage this a bit, but all I can do is try and get a rhythm and habit of financial planning into bear.  I know I would have benefited from this.