With the exception of tax season, there’s no spookier time in the year than Halloween. From costumes to decorations, celebrating Halloween can range from from fun and festive to creepy and gory.
Regardless of how you choose to celebrate; Halloween is the perfect time to teach your children about money. Here are some activities you can do this holiday season.
Financial Education during Halloween
Create a Spending Plan
Holidays, in general, can be pretty costly. So, before you spend any money try sitting down with your children and create a Halloween themed spending plan (aka budget).
How-to
- Choose a maximum amount available to spend.
- Create and prioritize categories such as costumes, decorations, candy, etc.
- Determine how much money should go to each category.
- Go shopping together and encourage them to stay in budget.
Benefits
- Understand the value of planning before spending and setting goals.
- Prioritize spending and using money effectively.
- Budgets don’t have to mean giving up things you want.
Bartering
What would we do without money-well we would just barter of course. After your children get all of that yummy candy they are probably going to find a few items that they don’t like. Instead of throwing it away encourage your child to trade or donate it.
How-to
- Pick out all the candy they don’t like.
- Create two piles: trade pile and donate pile
- Trade pile: have them think about what would be a fair value (for example, trading Skittles for M&Ms)
- Donation pile: have them think who they can give their candy to (other kids, adults, etc.)
Benefits
- Learn about setting and determining value.
- Get into habit of giving instead of throwing unwanted stuff away.
- Understand the problems and struggles with bartering.
Halloween-themed Finances
Halloween is a great time to let your child’s imagination and creativity flourish. It’s also a great time to get some delicious treats. Whether your children get candy from Trick or Treating or (for those of you that participate in church functions) Hallelujah Night; you can use Halloween to teach your children about finances.