Thank you for your kind words.

We love that part of thrift store treasure hunting! Way to go!

I really don't care about a name brand. That's kind of ridiculous.

Thank you Cherry, we would love to have you be part of our family!

You are welcome.

Glad we could inspire you!

Thanks for the kind words!

Awesome!

Glad we could help!

we agree! thaks for watching and commenting.

Yes. But you also need to earn enough to live a comfortable lifestyle.

Diane, initially we had the same opinion regarding allowance. We weren't going to give our kids an "entitlement" (money for simply being a part of the family). But we did choose to give them consistent opportunities to earn money from us. And that money was used by them to give to charities, save for the future and spend on things they wanted. Eventually they earned more as their responsibilities increased and they were responsible for buying their clothes from their earnings. They were taught to budget what they earned and to plan ahead to pay for camps, sport fees and christmas presents they wanted to buy. Eventually, when the got their first jobs, they were prepared to manage larger sums of money and paid cash for their cars. So while we agree that an allowance for essentially doing nothing is detrimental, having a system within a family to train a child to work, earn, save, and spend is critical to their growth to becoming a mature, self-sustaining adult. Did you know that 60% of parents are currently supporting their adult children?

You should give your kids an allowance not based on chores. They have their chores, they have to do, plus they can earn more from extra jobs. Maybe dishes (loading, and emptying the dishwasher, or washing and drying by hand), doing their own laundry, helping put groceries away, making their lunches and cleaning their own room are their responsibilities that have to be done regardless. Maybe give them $3 a week, plus money from the extra chores. Washing, drying, folding and putting away other laundry (towels, sheets etc), taking out the garbage, cleaning the bathroom, cutting the grass, shoveling the driveway, cleaning out the fridge, vacuuming, grocery shopping (if they are a little older), cleaning litter boxes (if you have a cat) washing the floor in the garage, weeding the garden, preparing meals for the family, watering the flowers/garden, repairing clothes, (you can teach them how) Each chore has a monetary value (except for the chores that they are responsible for), they can write it down, and then at the end of the month you can pay up. If kids don't have money, they will never learn how to handle money. That is a huge parenting mistake. They should have a bank account by the time they are 8.

Interesting

Thanks!

Great tips Purdy, unfortunately most family's here do not know how to stretch their dollars.

So sorry about that.

Good for you Mika. Everything can be washed.

+Anastasiya Hoefflinger Good job, keep going, the sky is the limit for you!

We have 3 books. They should all be available at your public library. Here's a link to our website store if you want autographed copies....moneysmartfamily.com/shop/

Good for you

Simple living can be very good!

Interesting ideas Michelle.

You would be amazed at the silly requests we've had from producers who want to see some extreme money saving ideas. the stuff we do to save money doesn't necessarily make great (extreme) tv, but it does make the saving add up quickly.

We don't know the name of the song, our publisher picked the music.

As long as you don't spend more than you bring home each month, you are fine. Remember that folks who have a fat savings accounts are good for banks too. This means banks can lend more money!

Your humor is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

It's not humor. It's reality. My income is very small.

Truth, read our books!

Everyone has their own preferences. Annette wanted to be with our kids, saving money helped her do that.

Not at all. Our kids are grown up now, and they all are very frugal in different ways!