Healthy Childhood Food Habits That Save You Money

031509kidinstore1 Its amazing how habits formed in childhood continue to persist well into adulthood. Unfortunately, many bad habits related to food and finances persist into adulthood as well.

Here are a few ways to teach your kids some great habits that will save them money and promote good health as they grow into adulthood.

Serve Dinner on a Smaller Plate

At one time or another we’ve all heard that familiar phrase spoken by mom’s nationwide, “You can’t leave the table until you finish your plate.” The problem is that we’re forcing our kids to finish off larger and larger plates.

Like everything else, our plates and cups have become super-sized. In the past, 10.5 inch dinner plates were common. Now 12.5 inch dinner plates are commonly used. Its no wonder that the levels of child obesity have exploded over the last decade.

Purchase smaller dinner plates or reduce portion sizes by making sure food covers only 2/3 of their plate (if your kids are still hungry they’ll ask for more). This will both save you money, and more importantly, it will get your kids in the habit of consuming appropriate meal portions.

Serve Water with One Meal a Day

Drinking the appropriate amount of water is key to healthy living. Serve water instead of juice with the same meal every day. It will save you money and develop healthy drinking habits in your children. Alternatively, insist that your children drink water instead of juice with their between meal snacks.

Dilute Your Children’s Juice

Consider this. The average juice drink is chock full of sugar and artificial flavors and colorings. Simply dilute your juice by adding 20% water. Your children will hardly notice the difference and you’ll instantly save money.

Have Your Children Pay for Junk Food

As a parent it can be difficult controlling the amount of junk food your kids eat. You can provide cheap, healthy junk food alternatives like raisins and hot air popped popcorn. Still, from time to time, your children are going to crave those candy bars, cookies, and chips that seem to be everywhere.

Try this. Don’t ban junk food from your home. Instead allow your children to buy these treats using money from their own allowances. You may soon realize how much they like the healthy alternatives after all.

Make a Game Out of Grocery Shopping

Many financial experts say that you should leave your kids at home when you shop for groceries because children cause you to spend more. I tend to think that, with kids who are a little older, you can create a great learning environment by having them join you when you shop. They key is to make it fun. Kids love games.

Have them search the store for the lowest priced dish detergent or lowest priced cereal. If the kids are older give them a small calculator and let them find the lowest priced cereal per unit cost.

Make a guessing game out of how much all of the purchases in your grocery cart will ring up for at the register. The child closest to the actually amount wins. Alternatively, make a game out of finding which crackers have the lowest amount of salt or which cookies have the lowest amount of cholesterol.

Even consider providing your child with a small purchase as a reward if they do an especially good job. You can make shopping a fun experience for your children, while at the same time teaching them effective lessons and habits in frugal, healthy shopping.

What do you think? Do you have food habits that you’ve fostered in your children to make them healthier and more financially fit? Leave a comment below.

Update: We’d like to thank the Expanding Life website for including this article in the Carnival of Family Life blog carnival.