What I realized after starting an allowance system when I was worried about how my child spends money

I was worried about my child's wasteful spending.

If I gave them 100 yen, they would spend it at the arcade.
And later, they would regret it, saying, "I should have bought snacks instead."

Seeing that, I wondered what I should do.

They are five years old, and it's not wrong to use it for games.
If they are enjoying themselves, I think that is also an important experience.

But at the same time, because money is limited,
I also wanted them to use it carefully.

However, I didn't know how to teach them the value of money.

I decided to have them experience an allowance system

After worrying about it, I tried one method.

・Give an allowance of 10 yen for each chore done
・Leave the use of the allowance to the child


These are the simple rules.

Honestly, at first, I didn't think much of it.

It helps if they do even a little bit of chores,
and I felt it would be good if they could learn about money at the same time.

My child started thinking about how to use money

If you do chores, you get 10 yen.

Perhaps because they were happy with that experience,
my daughter started doing a lot of chores.

And one day, she said this:

"Maybe I'll stop playing at the arcade and save my money to buy snacks instead."

Until now, she would just say "Buy this" without thinking, but now she was thinking about how to use it herself.

She started thinking about whether she really wanted something

What surprised me even more was what happened at the 100-yen shop.

Before, when we went to the 100-yen shop,
she would buy some toy or other.

And she would get bored of it immediately.

That was the norm.

But one day, my daughter said this:

"I can't pay for this toy."
And she put the toy back on the shelf.

Honestly, I was shocked.

Even though she used to say "Buy this" so much,
she thought about the value herself and chose not to.

The value of money is better conveyed through experience than words

What I felt from this experience was that

the value of money
is better conveyed through experience than by telling them with words.

Rather than saying "Use it carefully,"

・Earning it yourself (chores)
・Using it yourself
・Thinking about it

By experiencing this flow,
perhaps they learn it naturally.

Thank you for reading this far.
I hope you have a wonderful day.