How to teach the kids to deal with money is an interesting project. I've found, in giving allowances, that money throughout the week, spread out around the house. So my wife came up with this idea, Why don't we give them a check for their allowance. So what we did was, set up an automatic bill pay account. Every week, they get a check in the mail. It gets them excited to run to the mail and get this check. We take them to the bank, they cash the check, see the check transform into green cash. Then we make them split it up. One-third to charity, one-third to their own savings, and one-third to buy whatever they want with it. Then if they want to use their savings to buy a bigger item, we usually share that cost with them. We'll pay half and they'll pay half. That's how we do it.