"Now then, let us check this again. How much have you got on there?"

Sunny quickly checked the notepad sitting on the table. "I've got £45 left. I've got most of the items I need already in there though."

Goldie nodded. "Excellent. So far you've been doing well." She consulted her own notepad. "Not so much luck over here, I'm afraid." She then looked back to the board. "Let's see if any of our luck turns."

For those just entering the story, I do appreciate the above exchange is rather confusing. So, let us make it rather less confusing for the reader.

One of the most important skills a child can be taught is financial literacy, or how to budget and the importance of valuing money. This is taught in a number of different ways.

In Sunny's case, she had an allowance, a set amount of money each month. Once this was all spent, she had to wait, but anything left over rolled over to the next month. Her parents thought this was ideal as this was rather similar to having a salary (and Sunny could supplement it with income from her smoothie operation).

The scenario we have just stepped into is another of the techniques Goldie used to teach this lesson. Sitting in front of them was a board that was set up to resemble a supermarket, and the aisles had different items on them. The idea was that they were working their way round a store with a shopping list of items they had to collect in order to win the game. However, other items did sometimes turn up that weren't on the list, and yet could be added if the player so wished. (This was to simulate special offers and impulse purchasing, which could be awkward at times, especially if it was something you actuall didn't need.)

"OK, I'm ready for the next round," Sunny said.

Goldie popped down the round counter. "OK then. You're now in the special offers pile. And as you're looking through the special offers, you suddenly spot- a Hornby starter set!"

Sunny and her dad had recently started work on a layout in the loft, so Goldie knew this would be something on her child's mind to acquire.

Sunny checked the price tag and compared it against her budget. "Perfect! I can fit that in!"

So she did, whilst Goldie internally sighed. She fell for it, she thought. So many shoppers cannot resist the siren song of special offers.

Sunny then made her way further round the store, and then found the last two items she needed to win, popping them into the representative trolley on the board.

Goldie looked up. "I'm afraid you can't get those. Look at the prices."

Sunny looked at the prices on the objects, then back to her budget. She then did some quick mental math. "I don't have enough money."

"Indeed," Goldie replied. "You've gone over budget. In order to actually be able to win, you'll have to put something back in order to ensure you have enough money to buy those things. Think carefully."

Sunny quickly figured out what had to go back, and put the Hornby starter set back on the special offer section. This cleared the funds needed to pay for the other items, and she could now get a winning result."

Once they were done, Goldie took her daughter over to the sitting area. "What did you learn from that round, Sunny?" she asked.

"That money is... sorry, what's the word that means it only exists once?"

"Finite. There's only a limited amount of it, and you can only spend it once. This is why I'd be very cautious about impulse purchasing. You need to ensure that you have the things you need before you can start to consider the things you might want- non essential items, we'll call them.

"When I budget, I always prioritise things like food, water, the various bills we might have to pay, and toiletries- without them we won't be able to live. Only then can we consider luxury goods or consumer items, and even then I'd strongly advise against impulse purchasing. If you find an item in a store that you want, always consider whether you can buy it for cheaper somewhere else, as sometimes a bit of market research can yield wonders. Take Lego, for example. Often you can find it being sold cheaper elsewhere than the stated price on the website."

Goldie hoped Sunny would take this lesson to heart. After all, she'd had friends who'd been drowning in debt from almost the moment they left the nest owing to poor financial literacy.

A few days later, Goldie decided to see if the lesson she had taught had stuck, and as Argyle was stuck with university work she took Sunny shopping on Saturday. Usually it would be Argyle handling this, but the poor guy needed to get his own pile cleared.

As they went round the various stores (Falmouth still having separate bakers, butchers, and greengrocers rather than a supermarket replacing them), Goldie asked Sunny to look at and read the prices to her. This was not because Goldie couldn't read them (although Hodges the Greengrocer often set the lights a bit too low for her taste), but so that Sunny could put a direct mental image to the price and have a sense of how much things did and should cost.

This continued throughout the morning, with the items they needed for the coming few days soon entering their inventories. Sunny seemed to be quite happy to help, and they even stopped off and grabbed a quick drink partway through their journey in order to refuel.

Goldie checked off elements of her budget as she continued to go around. It honestly amazed her how many people didn't make a list of what they had or what they needed to get before they went shopping. It was honestly no wonder that so much food got wasted in the UK, which she thought was a shame.

Maybe being required to have a shopping list should be made a law.

Last, but not least, she decided to see if Sunny had truly being paying attention to her advice- as attentive as Sunny was, her mind could sometimes wander as she tried to process all the things around her.

So, they stepped into the model shop. This place stocked everything a prospective model maker might want- kits, glue, paint, scenery, track, and all sorts of other things. They also had a dedicated Lego section, which was part of Goldie's thinking.

"Now then, is there anything you'd like?" she asked, noticing exactly where her child's eyes were looking.

Sunny had spotted some sort of construction vehicle in the selection of boxes, and looked at it. "Lego City is somewhat short of construction vehicles," she said. "That would fit really nicely."

Goldie stood back and waited. Moment of truth.

Sunny examined the price tag, looked closely, and seemed to be lost in thought.

Goldie decided to give her a prompt. "Well? Would you like it?"

Sunny thought for a bit longer. "On second thoughts, I don't need it right now. I'll wait."

Internally, Goldie breathed a sigh of relief.

Once outside, the pair sat on a bench looking out to sea. There was a moment of silence, before Goldie decided to speak. "So, what prompted you to wait instead of buying now? We could have afforded it."

Sunny was silent for a moment. "Well, you said that if I find an item in a store that I wanted, always consider whether I can buy it for cheaper somewhere else, as sometimes a bit of market research can yield wonders. I think that was the gist of it?"

Goldie smiled, and hugged her child. "Well done, Sunny. That's an important lesson to take with you in life. Remember that any amount of money can be spent, and that using it wisely is one of the most important lessons you can learn in life."

Sunny smiled. "Thanks, mom."

"No problem, Sunny. Now, we'd best be heading home. No doubt your father is wondering where we are."

The pair returned to their home next to the lighthouse, to return to the smell of food being prepared. Sure enough, Argyle was hard at work getting food put out on the table.

"Hello!" he said. "Got the stuff we need?"

"Sure do, dad!" Sunny said, smiling. "I even helped with the budgeting!"

Argyle laughed, as he turned to his wife. "Maybe Sunny should consider a career in banking!"

Goldie put the bags down and started to unpack them. "Well, they're always saying we need to improve the country's financial and mathematical literacy."

As they enjoyed a lunch together, Sunny found herself thinking about what had just happened that day. Maybe she should try doing this budgeting thing more often. True, she'd been doing that with her allowance for years, but it actually seemed quite fun.

After all, having an idea of how much things should cost is always a bonus.

Author's Note

This chapter is another one which draws on personal experience, as it is loosely based on something my mother used to do. Another major influence was a famous anecdote about Elvis Presley's 11th birthday, where he initially wanted to purchase an air rifle. However, his mother succesfully pursuaded him to purchase a guitar instead, little knowing the impact on global culture this one decision would have.

Financial literacy is a vital skill in the modern world, but I am sorry to say that a lot of people lack it. A certain Mr Chandler is one of them, who has accrued an absolutely obscene amount of debt owing to poor use of credit cards (who thought giving him a credit card was a good idea needs to have their head examined) and taking out loans with punishing interest rates. Don't end up like Chris. Balance your books.