Teenager on Food Budget - First Try
March 24th, 2008 by Ana
Y’all asked me to post about how my experiment with putting my teenage son on his own food budget is going. Tonight was our first stab at it, and the testing ground was perhaps the most challenging of all: Wal-Mart. Yes, I turned my 14yo son loose on a Wal-Mart with $35 and his own shopping cart!
I would call tonight’s shopping expedition a smashing success. I fussed at the teenager to make a list, informed him he had to buy his own milk, juice, fruit, pasta, and what-not. I figure I can cover him on things like condiments and margarine, but he is *SO* on his own with the milk. Yes, he objected to the milk idea, but I held my ground then pointed out an obvious benefit: with his own milk he won’t hear me throw a fit when he decides to drink a tall glass of it at every single meal and snack time. I guess it was a huge eye-opening experience for him in the dairy case, since he only bought himself a half-gallon instead of a full gallon!
I know y’all are dying to hear how the kid did: he came in a little better than two dollars under budget for his food! In fact, before we left he ran and fetched his calculator out of his backpack, with no prompting from me. After we got back home, he even put his own food away.
If every week is this easy, this may end up being the singly most brilliant idea I have ever had in my entire life! This shopping trip was free of stress and - dare I say it? - even enjoyable (well, about as enjoyable as a trip to Wal-Mart can be). I didn’t have to guard my cart against packages “jumping” into the cart. I didn’t have to listen to “Mom I want…” And I didn’t have to spend half the time in the store saying “No, no no!”
Hubby is still a bit unsure of the amount of money I am budgeting for the boy’s groceries. I am trying to reassure hubby that $140 for a month is about the same amount I was spending on feeding the teenager (when I could keep things from jumping into the cart, that is) and is about the same I spend on the two of us adults to eat as well. I don’t expect my son to be a natural bargain-hunting coupon-clipping frugal shopping machine … at least not immediately LOL so I tried to figure in a bit of “wiggle room” in the amount of money. I just don’t plan to up it any time soon, so if inflation kicks in the teen will have to learn how to really do some aggressive shopping.
There it is, folks. Week one of the teenage boy doing his own grocery shopping on $35 per week. I have to admit, I am pretty proud of him. When I asked son how he liked the experience, he said he definitely likes this plan. Now he won’t get any more grocery money until next week … so it should be interesting to see just how long that little half-gallon of milk lasts!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Brilliant! I’m a big fan of this plan, Ana, since it will teach The Teenager a lesson. I think he’ll learn to be much more careful with his money and undoubtedly more respectful of the hard-earned dollar.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I love this! I’m not sure I could have done it at 14 - hell, my brother’s 28 and married and he still relies on mum to help feed him.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Better: that is exactly the kind of young man I simply REFUSE to raise. I am also determined to somehow get my teenager to learn how to cook.
Jen: I have the suspicion that has already started … in the dairy case LOL
March 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
What happens when “his” food runs out before the week is over?
Giving him more money to buy food seems like a bad idea, but not feeding him at all is obviously not on the table.
Maybe his “punishment” for running out of food is being forced to just eat health food for the rest of the week.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Oh this is great.
Can’t imagine doing it here.
With 4 kids, we go through a gallon a day. And it will only get worse as they get older.
The guy I buy beef from has a customer that buys a half every 3 months. all his boys are in sports and they are the house everyone hangs out at.
They have a refrigerator just for dairy products.
they go through 2 gallons a day.
Fortunately the are well off and the kids work too. they are farmers and most of their expenses including food can be written off as they are classified as a 24/7 operation.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Mark: his “punishment” will be to eat whatever I fix (although he h as an adequate supply of food). Since son decided over a year ago to become a vegetarian, and I am now refusing to fix anything special for him, his choice will be eat meat or go hungry. The only thing I think he will run out of is milk this week. He actually bought decent food.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
A good Idea but I would give him a little room with the Milk thing. Growing boys need all the milk they can get. And it is healthy for young people.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I’m with you 115% on this one!
My hubby is the budget buster on grocery shopping in our house. He wants fancy protein shakes, and all that stuff. GRRR!
My aunt did this once with her 16 year old daughter for clothes. She was simply a brat who had to have Abercrombie everything. My aunt is a single mom. She did everything she could, but in the end, her daughter’s clothing-snobbery was enough. She quit buying. She told her to get a part time job and buy her own Abercrombie. Otherwise, she would have to live with Target clothing. The girl got a job, and realized it took many hours at $8 an hour to make enough money to buy ONE pair of $80 blue jeans.
She was instantly changed and quit whining about Abercrombie. She is now a very sweet and mature college girl who has an eye for fashion, but on a reasonable budget.
Sometimes us mamas have to do the tough thing to teach a good lesson.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Normal: I refuse to buy those “fancy protein shakes” for hubby or son. They’ve known for quite a while that needs to come out of their “fun money” because I see absolutely no reason to fork over that kind of money when I can still buy cans of tuna for 50-66 cents each!
March 25th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Thanks for posting an update. I was wondering how this was going.
We did something similiar for our teenagers regarding clothes. Starting in seventh grade, they each received $50 per month for a clothing allowance. Whatever they didn’t spend on clothes was theirs to use for other purchases or to save.
Consequently, we never had the problems I so often heard other parents complaining about when it came to shopping for clothes with their teenagers.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I think this is brilliant.
If he gets an allowance, or has other money, he could use that to supplement his food budget - it is all about choices after all.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
[…] (details of the teenager’s first shopping trip on his own personal food budget here) […]
March 27th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I have three young boys, 10 and under. The 10yo already eats like a horse. Keep posting updates, I’m interested in how it goes. I’m bracing myself for the teen years.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
[…] Teenager on Food Budget - First Try […]
March 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Hmm it seems that it may be possible you guys may want my opinion of the little “adventure”.
I’d like to say that about half of my food I bought was fruits, juices, and the like. I’m very into healthy foods since I became a vegetarian. My only mistake in my opinion was second guessing myself when I picked up a whole gallon. I didn’t realize I drank that much milk (which I mainly use in my cereal). This was my last day on the food supply that I bought last week and I still have extra. Also I was on Spring Break this week so I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner instead of just dinner and a small snack after school.
I believe this is indeed a great idea, incliding the milk part which was an interesting thing to find out.
I hope this works as well for anyone else whose tried as it did for me!
April 5th, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] Teenager on a Budget - The First Try […]
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I think I’m a vegetarian too. I’ve heard a great phrase which I agree: “The best vegetable is the pork”. Well in this case I can consider myself a vegetarian. I mean in this case I could be the most vegetarian vegetarian :).