Back-To-School Budget
If you have kids, your fiscal year kicks off now!
Parents: If you’ve got kids in school, your fiscal year kicks off in August!
I believe that kids can understand a lot more about managing money than we give them credit for. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for “teaching moments” to introduce personal finance to our kids. Right now, I see one of those moments coming… as kids head Back-To-School! This is one of those predictable, repeatable rituals that gets expensive but you can actually plan for it.
Since the economy is so S-L-O-W, school districts are having to do more with a lot less funding. Parents will be expected to take on even more school-related expenses, like fees for extra activities, budgeting for athletic gear, or your kids typical pencils, pens and glue sticks. If you’re a parent, you’ve got everything from ziplock bags for snacks to zip drives for data on your shopping list right about now.
I’ve been searching for very helpful online tools that can guide parents through the budget process with the hope that the kids can get involved with the budgeting process. After all, it’s their stuff you’re buying! Funny enough, about the same time I was researching tools, I was approached by Chase to help promote a brand new tool called Blueprint that comes with some of the Chase credit cards. I’ve seen a lot of advertising about how you can pay off some purchases, split up others and actually get some control over your debt and monitor your progress. Sounded a little too consumer-ish for a credit card company. I was skeptical, but decided to take it for a test drive.
Well, guess what? I decided to endorse this super-simple planning tool because quite frankly it truly can help you in two big, big ways. 1) This tool makes it really easy to plan ahead how you intend to pay for each purchase on your Back-To-School shopping list. 2) It’s so simple and visual that it becomes a perfect tool to use in teaching your own kids how you intend to pay for all the items on their list!
The bottom line is that most of us need a credit card to operate, and managing that debt is essential to maintaining a good credit score. If you have a Chase card or are comparing cards, I do recommend checking out the Chase Slate with Blueprint. CLICK HERE to find out more and get a feel for what a statement looks like when you use the budgeting tool.
I’ll be talking about this and other Back-To-School budgeting advice during the coming week on shows like Good Money on ABC. Follow me on twitter and Facebook for the latest appearances.
If you miss the segments and want to learn more about, stay tuned. Next week’s blog post will be tips to help parents save money on Back-To-School purchases.
