Shopping and Finances

Gess and I practice shopping in many different ways. Sometimes she writes her own list, sometimes she just follows mine. I always try to have her find things herself. I will pick a few items and have her take me to that part of the store and find it all on her own. I will send her down and aisle while I wait and have her grab things I know she can find. She also helps me check out of the store. She loves doing the self check out for she can do that all on her own! She even knows how to pay with a debit or credit card as well as cash.

This past year we have been focusing on cost. We practice rounding items in the store to add as we go along. At one point she looked up asked me, "Are we doing math at Wal-Mart?" I was busted and admitted that we were. I also used that as an opportunity to explain we always use math at Wal-Mart or any other store. Shopping requires math. Whether you do it in your head or just let the cash register do it for you, math is required!

The latest element I have added is having her realize how much all that stuff costs. The total, of our entire shopping bill. The first time she heard it she exclaimed, "Wow that's a lot!" Indeed it is. Budgeting is a very important life skill so for now we are addressing it by having her simply get a handle on how much it costs to feed our family and keep our pantry stocked each week. We usually shop at 3 different grocery stores (unless it is a very hectic week). After we get home while I put groceries away Gess sits at the table, finds our total on each receipt and adds them all up with the calculator. She is getting really good at it!

I plan on incorporating more budgeting in the future. She will help get the mail, open our bills, and see what they cost. For now it is planning our grocery list, figuring out how much we can spend, doing the shopping, and then seeing how good we did to sticking to our "budget." I can see she is getting it because she is now always asking me, "how much does that cost?"