Cell Phones and teenage foster kids

I'd treat it the way many parents used to treat the car privilege: you earn the price of the car and/or insurance.Make a chart: $x for this chore, $y for that chore. He can do as many or as few as needed -- but in no day where he hasn't done the BASIC chores (you mentioned dishes, I believe, which still are not paid for), will he be able to earn money for extra chores. The money isn't given to him, it's recorded, because if you give it to him, he'll probably blow it.This will need to happen until he has earned enough to purchase the phone and at least 2-3 months of plan. Future months of plan would be paid in advance, or the phone will be turned off. This might work best with a pre-paid phone, so you could pay for, say $30-50 worth of plan in the first month, then again in the second month, 3rd month... and IF he had earned enough, then pay for the 4th month.Under no circumstances would I purchase the cell myself....

[QUOTE=alys1]. The money isn't given to him, it's recorded, because if you give it to him, he'll probably blow it. [QUOTE=alys1]. that brings up another thing I am trying to figure out How do I teach this kid to be good with money if I never give him any. we live in a rural area and he is still only 15 so no jobs really. I gave him some cash to go to a movie with friends but he end up going with me. So he still had his cash well so I told him to make the money last for 2 weekends, Spent it all on food, lots of food at house so not needed, so when he wanted to do something I said sorry you are out of money. Lesson learned hoping...... I told him once he started doing his one dishes than we would talk about what he could do to make extra money.....

Ditto the chart - and when he earns enough, buy him a pay as you go phone. Then, let him do the chore chart for a real money allowance. He can decide if he wants to use some/all of the money for minutes on his cell phone OR to buy other things like snacks, movies, etc. IMHO, at 15, he should be doing A LOT around the house if you're going to buy him a cell phone. And I wouldn't pay him any allowance for taking care of his own stuff (like doing his own laundry, cleaning his own room, etc -- those are things he needs to do just because he lives in a home with others and he needs clean clothing to wear). Allowance should be for jobs that help the family like raking leaves, splitting wood, doing dishes, setting the table, cooking dinner, etc. Obviously, you will have to start small if he's not used to doing anything, but definitely make him earn it. We haven't done teens in a long while, but that is how we worked it.

extra money: raking/shoveling; doing household laundry; garbage; putting groceries away. I do have the problem that mynewhomeiowa has. Mine get an allowance but I want them to learn how to save. Any ideas?

My kid has a phone from Kajeet. It allows me to block time (such as not able to use it during school) except for to phone numbers I enter, in my account on their website, as allowable at any time (such as, to call me, the therapist, and a few bfamily members who can be depended on to help calm her down if she is in a teen-tizzy). I also use the time blocking feature if my daughter cusses too much. She used to have to earn the monthly service charge, but somehow that stopped happening, maybe she was too busy with school. But I could just suspend her service until she finished earning the money for the month, though I actually always just let the package renew and charge my card, and I would just block all her time. Was more expensive that way, but less hassle for me, and she was very motivated to finish earning the money. To earn a new phone (because her phones get dropped/broken/drowned in the tub, lost, stolen) she has to do work that I don't want to do myself. For this last phone she got $1 for every bag-worm she picked off our bushes, on condition that she got every last one. I had to go out a few times and inspect and point out some more, but I think she got them all. I'm so excited because I thought for sure we'd have to cut down the evergreen bushes, but now I'm waiting hopefully to see if this works or not. If you can afford it, there is also the feature to see on a map where the phone is located, that can be helpful if the kid can't remember whose house they left it at, or useful to check whether the kid is where they said they were going (assuming their phone is with them).

In high school age there are no more excuses for your teenager not to own a cell phone. They can save money to pay for it and buy minutes to make calls. A cell phone can give you peace of mind and foster your child's independence. Unless you are punishing your child for something there is no way you are going to keep a teenager away from cell phones. [url=http://phonemerchant.com/]cheap cell phones[/url] [url=http://phonemerchant.com/]unlocked cell phones[/url]