Teach Money Sense with Coupons

Photo courtesy of OOingle.com, Creative Commons License

I recently turned my 12-year-old daughter into the chief coupon clipper at our house. I wanted to increase her money sense and shopping savvy. Instead of telling her which coupons to cut, I devised an entire program. Here’s how it works.

Each week we get the coupons out of our Sunday paper. I give them to my daughter with the barest of instructions, “Cut these.” It’s her job to decide which coupons get cut according to the products she knows we use at our house. She’s allowed to ask me questions, and she also can search through the cupboards to see what products we normally purchase. After she cuts the coupons, she puts her initial somewhere on the coupon. She then must go through our coupon organizer and remove any expired coupons while also adding the new coupons. Now it’s time to shop!

When I go the grocery store, I make a list of any coupons I use with her initial on them. At the end of the trip, I total how much she “earned” with her initialed coupons, and she receives that amount of money as payment for her work. Granted, it reduces the amount of savings on my grocery bill, but I believe the lessons she’s learning are more valuable. Since we’ve started this program at our house, I’ve noticed that my daughter has grown in several areas.

Her money sense has improved. The value of a dollar has to be taught. She’s starting to understand what food and household items cost by looking at coupons and thinking about the products we need to buy for our household.

She understands why it’s good to save money. My daughter now realizes that a coupon helps the family spend less at the grocery. Several dollars shaved off the grocery bill means there’s more money to be spent elsewhere. Cutting coupons is worth the time and effort. Hopefully, this early exposure to the concept of saving money will stick with her as she grows to adulthood.

She’s learning about brand name products versus generic ones. As she makes choices on which coupons to cut, we have conversations about brands. In our house we have certain items, like laundry detergent, where we are brand specific. For other products we have no brand loyalty. She’s learning lessons about choosing the right products for our family.

Photo courtesy of OOingle.com, Creative Commons License

Her organizational skills get a workout. She cuts, sorts, and categorizes as she works with the coupons. This process helps her learn more about organization.

Her work ethic is strengthened. I’m not going to lie, cutting coupons and organizing them is not always high on the list of my daughter’s favorite tasks. However, she enjoys receiving her earned money after I come back from the grocery. This gives me a chance to remind her that the money is a direct result of the work she did earlier in the week. She’s beginning to make a connection between working and earning money. There’s a bonus lesson, too...the work has to be done, even if it’s not much fun.

Try the coupon method in your household and see how it begins to introduce your child to the world of money management and savvy shopping.