Family budgets do not have to be a painful chore. In fact, if you get the whole group involved and brainstorm some family budgeting ideas, you can make it a fun game. Starting the kids early on with the importance and necessity of being frugal and buying on a budget could set them up for a lifetime of good behaviors that they will carry on.
A fun task to think about with the kids is family budget recipes. Figure out what the kids like to eat the best, and then sit down and discuss the easiest and cheapest way to make that food. What cheaper foods can be substituted out for the more expensive ones? Or what does a certain dish taste like, so that you can recreate it in a cheaper, original way? Not only does that introduce your children to the idea of frugal grocery shopping, but it also gets them interested in food and cooking. Yet another skill that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.
While family budget recipes are a good, practical, every day concept to be teaching your family, perhaps you should think on a grander scale as well. For instance, family vacation ideas on a budget can be much more challenging to pull off successfully. When you say the word vacation, most kids think of Disney, but there is so much more that can be a vacation at a sliver of the price. Introduce your kids to the idea of camping. Start by simply pitching a tent in the backyard. Explore the area around where you live. There most be a state park within driving distance. Expose them to the outdoors. Prove to them that you do not need to spend money in order to enjoy yourself.
Working your family on a budget can do many things for you. It will help you to save money, with the support of the rest of your family. It will teach them valuable skills and life lessons that they can pass on to their own families. And it will even bring you closer as you work and think together, and experience a world that does not need money to function, just each other.
