Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505160010
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Everyone handles money differently, even kids. Some, like middle school pupil Stephen Robbins, already are putting money away for a car.
Others like fifth-grader Laura Riddlebarger ``usually spend all the money [they] have.''
Sandra Saner's fifth-grade class at Glen Cove Elementary School in Roanoke County kept daily records of the money they spent during April. Tammy Shomo's seventh-graders at Maury River Middle School in Lexington and Sharon Harrison's fourth-grade class at South Salem Elementary also took part in the survey.
The pupils wrote down how much money they spent and what they spent it on. Many, like Katie Bennington, were surprised at the results. ``I spent more money that I thought. I really don't know where a lot of the money went.''
Seventh-grader Mike Ratcliffe was surprised that he spent so much money on clothes - more than $80 during the month. Raymond Snyder couldn't believe ``how fast money can burn a hole in your pocket when you have it.''
A common suggestion for someone starting a diet is to write down everything he or she eats for a week. It helps one realize how much food is being consumed and where extras that add pounds can be eliminated. The same goes for money.
Writing down what you spend for even a short time, such as a week, can show you where it goes. If your income is less than your outgo, or if you're not saving money you'd like to, it's easy to see where you can go on a ``money diet.''
A quick look at the surveys, which included questions, showed some obvious patterns: The older kids are, the more money they spent. And kids like to eat - a lot. The older they are, the more they spent on food - lunches, snacks, candy.
A lot of pupils weren't aware that items they were buying, especially clothes, were so expensive until they had to look at and write down prices. POGs were definitely a popular item to buy, so was sports equipment.
How do kids earn their money? Some get allowances and money as gifts, some work, others do chores. Some ``lucky'' pupils just ask their parents for it when they need it. But there is a limit, usually.
``My parents give me money when I need or want it, but they must agree that I am spending their money wisely,'' said Mayumi Smitley. ``I've learned to think before I spend, so my parents are pretty generous.''
``My mother gives us chores to do with a price marked beside it,'' said Amenie Mitchell. ``As we do each chore, we collect that money.''
Holly Wilcher also gets money from doing chores but can ask her parents for a loan if she needs one, ``but when I get enough money, I have to pay them back.''
Kids earn money by baby-sitting, earning good grades, mowing grass and doing other yard work. When Kris Moore rakes the leaves in his yard, he earns $50, ``but we do have a big yard,'' he said.
Charlie Conner works on his family's farm, taking care of the animals, building fences, dragging fields and gets extra money if he wrestles well. Matthew Spence also helps on his farm and shows and sells steers at the market.
Justin Wright works on his grandfather's farm and spent a lot his hard-earned money on new calves. He thinks of that money as an investment which can earn him more money in the future.
Jordan McArthur is satisfied with the amount of money he gets. ``My mom and dad give me the money I need,'' said Jordan McArthur, ``but they don't need to give me money they could use for food. I would spend it on something I don't need.''
``I think what I get is a reasonable amount for doing chores and helping my mom around the house,'' said Sarah D'Antonio.
A lot of pupils are saving money regularly, but their goals are very different. Some were saving for college, a car, a vacation or summer camp. One boy was saving for an iguana, another for RollerBlades, a girl for a cordless phone.
Sandy Saner used the survey to help her fifth-graders learn about computer databases, bar graphs and pie charts. Each pupil entered his or her money spent onto a computer program set up in columns, with each column representing different categories - entertainment, clothing, food/candy, etc. Then, they totaled each column and could see where the money went.
Saner put the whole classes' databases together and averaged each category. From that, she made a pie chart and bar graph.
In a bar graph, the taller the bar, which looks like a rectangular building, the higher the number. A pie chart looks like a circle with different size slices. The bigger the number, or amount of money spent in this case, the larger the slice.
It was easy to see from the tallest bar that her class spent more much money on clothing than on anything else. (Remember, though, you can buy many, many candy bars for the same amount of money as one item of clothing.)
One of the skinniest slices in the piece chart was for books and school supplies, but it was thicker than the one showing how much was spent on toys or video games.
When Saner totaled the amount spent by her class during the month ($1,479.86) and divided it by the number of boys and girls in her class, she got the average amount spent ($61.66) by each pupil. That means that some pupils spent more, some less.
Multiply $61.66 by 12 and you'll know the average amount each pupil spends in a year. What's amazing is that if you multiply that number by the number of preteens in the United States, it will tell you that they spend 14.4 billion - yes, billion - dollars a year.
Some of the pupils in the survey learned a lot about their spending habits. Allison Horan learned that ``you can spend money really fast and just be wasting it and not even know it.''
``This assignment was helpful because now I can keep track of what I'm spending and what I'm spending it on,'' said Clay Smith.
Katie Huffman had a quick solution for cutting her spending. ``The bulk of my money went to lunch. I'm spending more than it's worth. I'll pack more often now.''
by CNB