This week the next generation of Savvy Spenders was born. He’s not a newborn, but a 9 year old.

The camp my son is attending this week offers the option of taking campers to a nearby grocery store to buy lunch. While he was welcome to bring his lunch, he was intrigued by the independence offered by the first choice.
Disclaimer/Confession: I detest the drudgery of packing lunches so I will admit to urging pushing him to try the shopping trip.  Once I got past the glee of not rolling turkey for five days, I decided it was a good idea beyond my self-interest.
We took a scouting trip to the store to see where items he might choose are located and talked about how much they cost. We talked about bringing water instead of buying it (though the heat midweek led to him doing both).
As we left the store and headed home, it dawned on me that the confidence-building exercise could be even more: He could learn to budget and plan for a week’s worth of lunches. I suggested this while in the car and he was thrilled. We discussed potential overall amounts (getting in some extra math practice!) and settled on one. 
I’m writing this at the end of the week where I’ve learned several things about this young savvy spender: 
·      My son can plan and budget
·      He made healthy choices (as reported by him but believable!)
·      He is proud of himself and this newly checked box on his growing up list
So the experiment was a success, and he has money remaining. But, like all of us, he has his weak spots in the spending department: Thank goodness there is no Apple store near that grocer!
If you have a good example or idea about raising savvy spenders, please share it with me at Donnabeth@Chapelboro.com or with everyone by commenting below. 
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