Aside from birthday and holidays, I buy my kids toys… about never.

They have plenty, but few are from me.

There are nearly daily pleas to buy them the latest and greatest shiny object in every store.

“No, I won’t buy you that. But you can save up your own money.”

And the rebuttal, “But dad, you have enough money to buy that.”

To which I reply with something like, “I do. But it’s my money. Not yours.”

I’ve worked hard to put my family in a fortunate position.

With that comes the opportunity for them to take a lot for granted.

So aside from ensuring that my kids are healthy, my next priority is to ensure that they’re not spoiled.

When you teach your kids about saving money, it can seem like a never-ending effort with no progress to show.

My oldest son wanted to go to Toys R’ Us to buy something.

He kept asking questions about the price of toys, as if he was being price sensitive.

Not normal.

Usually, he’d ask about a price and would reply “I have that much!” But this time he was thinking hard about something.

It seemed like $5.99 was ok, but pushing it. $6.99+ was definitely too much. He appeared to be striving for < $5.

He finally picked some Hot Wheels.

After he bought his new cars with his own money, he collected his change and receipt and left the store.

kids saving money

As we walked outside, he said, “Dad, I tried to find low numbers (money) because high numbers would use all my money and then I wouldn’t have any more.”

The hard work is paying off.

I knew one day it would click with my son, and I’m proud to see that it happened this week.

Keep at it, parents.