Those of you who have teens or have had teens please give us some ideas on how to save money for kids in this category.

From the vote the other day, it was nearly unanimous that the teenage years are the most expensive. How can we all begin to think about saving money during those pricey years?

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First, raise non-materialistic kids. Seriously, my oldest dd had to have name brand of everything!!! I think I was way too indulgent with her. My younger dd hardly ever asks for anything name brand. She likes good tennis shoes, so he usually gets one expensive pair a year and she is fine with that. Otherwise, she could not care less where her clothes come from, as long as she likes them and the are comfortable.

Also, if you want your child to participate in sports, be prepared to pay. It costs money, no way around it!!!! But you can save money on less expensive sports shoes, and used equipment.

Put limits on what your children can do. Don't let them expect to doe something every day. Let them know that money does not grow on trees and that you do not have an endless supply.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Two words: allowance and budget.

All our teenagers got an allowance. That stopped them from 'nickle and diming' us every time they wanted to go out to do something fun with friends. Yes, my heart broke for them when I'd see them have to turn down an invitation with friends because they had already blown their allowance, but that was apart of the learning.

BTW, giving them an allowance also meant they couldn't hit us up to do odd jobs in order to earn more money. If they wanted to earn money they had to market their services to the neighbors.

There were some items we didn't want them to pay for out of their allowance. It is still our responsibility to pay for school related items, clothing, etc. With those things they got a monthly budget. Some months were mighty lean! There were times when the teens got their budgetted amount and I got nothing, trust me. Anyway, we never handed them the budgetted money, it was completely under our control to spend. For instance, if they needed clothing, the teens could go pick out what they wanted and put the items on hold. I would then go to the store to select and buy what I (1) would allow them to wear and (2) what they could afford. Certain items like a good winter coat and decent shoes or special occasion clothing (a nice outfit for a relative's wedding, for instance) were completely out-of-our-pocket and not apart of their regular budget.

Aside from that:

1) Take control of electronics. Teenagers drive up your electricity bill like nothing else. They have cellphone chargers, game consoles, laptops, hair dryers, curling irons, lights, stereos, TVs, etc. Instead of ironing their clothes - or heaven forbid, hanging them up, my teenagers used to toss ONE ITEM into the dryer for an hour to get out the wrinkles. Ugh!!! If it works for your house, make your teenager responsible for keeping the electricity bill within a certain budget. You may even create a reward system like, if the electricity bill is a certain dollar amount or less, they get a bonus added to their allowance.

2) Watch the pantry. The teenagers decimated my food storage and household goods pantry. Their idea of taking lunch to school would be taking an entire Costco-sized bag of chips, an entire jar of salsa, an entire loaf or bread and a selection of entire packages of cheeses and lunch meats to school so they could all share. My teenager used to drag her run away friends home so the kid could take a shower then my teenager would outfit these friends with a new toothbrush, a new tube of toothpaste, anti-perspirant, et al out of my storage. One of my teenagers took a brand new box of corn dogs out of the freezer, microwaved herself a snack, then left the entire box on the counter on a hot summer day because she 'couldn't find room in the freezer' to put it back. My point is, you know how with a 5-yr old we make them ask before getting a snack? Well, keep it up with your teenagers! Make a certain area in your kitchen available for snacks and free-range entertaining but if they pull from any other area, they have to ask. I swear I should have gotten a freezer with a lock and put a lock on a second refrigerator. It would have been cheaper to pay for the electricity on the extra appliances than to keep refilling my pantry.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I bought my teens "Money Matters for Teens" to work through - then we came up with an allowance that we could afford and they could frugally budget their needs and some of their wants. There also is a sister book for teens heading off to college. Some things i still pay for, like shoes - very expensive - winter coats, that kind of thing. along with this my teens participate in the shop/cook budget, and are aware of the monthly allowances we have for electricity, sports classes etc, my daughter sews her own clothes, all to encourage frugal thinking. They also have a say in the fun spending too!! Our budget is mostly a family concern, which solves a lot of the problems which mostly come from thoughtlessness.

I have four daughters, ages 8, 11, 16 and 19. The older two are definitely more expensive!! I am a strong believer in allowances as a way to teach them to budget. After my oldest graduated, I no longer gave her an allowance, besides she had a job by then and was making her own money. She is now paying her way through school with the help of scholarships and government grants. She hopefully won't need too many student loans, but my husband and I are not in a position to help her in that way. When she was 10 years old, we started giving them $1 per every year of their age. (10 years old = $10 a week). It sounds like a lot, except they have to pay for almost all of their clothing and almost all of their gift-giving, plus any 'extras'. We still pay for school expenses, basic toiletries, and of course, their groceries and medical!! This has worked for us for the past nine years, though it must be done consistently and persistently.

I hate to admit it but we cannot even afford to give our 15yr old an allowance right now,but he does have the opportunity to earn extra cash by doing yard work for neighbors and babysitting the neighbor's 3 boys (they just love him) he recently earned $50 helping a friend of ours tear down an old shed and moved all the wood for him. He knows if he wants a cell phone or a new MP3 player he is going to pay for it himself.
Clothing is bought mostly at rummage sales and Goodwill and yes, it is possible to find good quality and excellent condition name brand clothing at both these places, so he's not the laughing stock of his high school. I think too many people assume rummage sales/goodwill's equal outdated 70's disco clothing......NOT TRUE!! I will buy him name brand athletic shoes only when Kohl's has their big 50% off sale,otherwise he needs to earn the money and buy them himself if he exceeds that one pair. I am lucky that he's stayed at one shoe size for awhile now.(Men's size 13), found him an excellent pair of Nike's at a rummage sale for him just 2 weeks ago for $1.00 and they still look new!
Snack foods are usually bought at Aldi's or Dollar General, that stuff adds up so quick at regular grocery stores. When it runs out, that is it for the week and both my kids know that,so they learn to pace themselves when it comes to eating up the snack foods.
Popcorn is a cheap filler!
They know better than to expect the latest new gaming system, DS got a PS2 for Christmas a few years back, that's good enough, if he wants to upgrade to something else....he knows he better start saving his money. Besides i would rather he be outside and active than sitting infront of video games all day.
Senior pics are something i am already thinking of ahead of time, so i will either start a savings account for them or hope that my SIL (she used to work in a photography studio) will be able to take them for us for just the cost of film and developing. My dad is holding an older jeep wagoneer for ds's first car that will only cost us about $400.00 when the time comes. He knows he has to get a part time job to pay his own car insurance and gas.

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"Go on, get outside, get the stink blown off ya!!"