Balancing your summer nanny budget

The summer holidays can be a long time, and days out, crafts and cheeky ice creams from the ice cream van soon mount up!

Your term time kitty may not go very far in the holidays so introduce your charges to the idea of budgeting and find a balance of free, low cost and splashing out activities. Developing money sense is important from a young age, and children sometimes love the challenge of finding free or bargain activities to do. It also introduces the concept of making a choice, or several choices, based on a limitation.

A day out might look like a bargain if it’s only £5 for children and £8 for adults. With 2 charges you can do that for under £20. Unless of course it’s a 50 mile round trip that your boss will need to pay 45p a mile for, and you’re not allowed to take a picnic so you have to buy lunch for 3 there….

Get a head start by ‘saving’ kitty money. Ask your employers if you can create a savings jar – ideally a see through one so children can watch the pennies mount up – and put what remains of the weekly kitty into the jar to use during the holidays. If you have some discretionary spending money include the children in making decisions. Would they prefer to have an expensive ice cream after school or a simple lolly and save an extra pound towards a fun day out?

Teach your charges how to prepare a business plan and approach their parents for financing. They can create their wishlist of summer projects and work out how much it will cost, then go into a mini Dragons Den and pitch to the Bank of Mum and Dad. They might not get everything they want but it will make them come up with convincing arguments for the things they desperately want to do.

Finally budgeting will prove to children that you don’t need to spend money to have a great time and the best thing in life can be free!

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