Ideally there’ll be something similar, say, a Malibu Barbie for $1 at the thrift store and a Princess Barbie for $25 at Toys R Us. Ask the kid if they think the one is 25 times better than the other. They may not say no…but where would they rather spend their allowance?

(Yes, this approach is stolen from The Complete Tightwad Gazette.)

A lot of people I know, including myself, had pretty thrifty childhoods, and we are no less better when it came to wanting and acquiring stuff later in life.

The conclusions being drawn from simply buying the kids stuff (like they are learning that expensive purchase equals happiness) is eventually unprovable. I know some grown-ups who had wealthy parents, were spoiled materially as kids, and they have good financial sense when they grew up.

If you want to prepare your children for their financial futures, I think it’s a great idea to focus on teaching them to save, budget their own money, and earn extra with chores. You’re not gonna ask your kid to budget for her own bedroom’s furniture, so why scrimp on it?

I honestly think the get them into debt idea is pretty silly. Why focus on teaching your kids negative stuff you don’t want them to end up in? It’s like putting the kids’ hand in fire so you can have a talk later where you tell them not to put their hand in fire.

I would have to recommend the classic book “Brave New World” by Huxley. Among many other issues, it takes a similar approach to consumerism, presenting a futuristic world where the goal is stability, partially through wasteful consumerism (for example, in the book the people may wear clothes only once, play games which use consume commodities, and other consumerist/materialist activities).

About a year ago we decided to stop buying trains for him, instead, we gave him chores around the house (except for birthdays and Christmas). We pay him 50 cents for cleaning his toys before bath time. After cleaning he goes to one of our kitchen drawers and gets his 50 cents for his work. (funny, he knows where the money is but never takes it without working)

As he is earning his money, he saves it for an engine, tracks, or other train stuff he wants. He decides what to buy. It’s his money. During Christmas, he had saved $20 dollars and was ready to buy something. We went to the train store and he looked at all the train stuff. He knew what his budget was and was looking at all the items that were under $20. Things he could afford. He looked at an item that was $24.99 and told me “it’s to expensive”. So I put it back. I wanted so bad to “lend” him the money but I resisted. I believe it is important for them to know what they can afford not what parents can afford.

Lastly, We are also teaching him to give (tithe) from his earnings. We believe that charitable giving is an important aspect of money management. He was not very excited about this.

I went to a small Catholic school, and the whole ideas that uniforms prevented kids from being picked on - but you had to buy from their approved store (which was pricey) resulting in some kids have less clothing choices then others - and then still sporting $100 shoes and wearing pagers/name brand back packs, sporting certain items…

Plain and simple, it does take a community to raise a child, and unless you live in a small wooded community that is self sustaining your kids will start asking for stuff because someone else has it - my nephew at the age of 5 started asking for Pepsi - not Coke, mind you - despite not having a TV in his house, and my sister and brother-in-law did not consume it (they bought the cheap stuff, trying to show that it didn’t matter). He still comes at them with requests from other kids of stuff they have, stuff he saw driving to the store, etc.

I had the same problem as J.D. - I grew up the youngest of five so it was hand-me-downs all my life. When I got a job at 12 (newspaper) to working fast food (at 14) my checks were splurged too frequently. Now I work on salary and still attempt to focus my money on saving and only spending on necessities, not nicities, while focusing my career on making me happy and comfortable, not rich and spoiled.

My father was an entrepreneur, and had two successful businesses. But for most of my childhood, we were poor. I grew up craving the Stuff the other kids had. When I finally had money of my own, I bought Stuff like crazy because I could afford it and because I wasn’t going to go without. I even put myself into debt to get this Stuff. Crazy! But it’s because I had no conception of what debt could do to a person, and because I had such a hunger for Stuff. It’s still an urge I have to fight.

As Heathcliff Huxtable said to his kids, “We are not rich. I am rich. You have nothing.”