I see myself as a frugal parent. As a single parent to by four boys and girl, I really have to budget when it comes to weekly shopping and I always shop about for the best value on food.

I noticed my two year old girl has a real interest in "monies" as she calls it and loves going around collecting coins that may have fallen her and there. It got me thinking, does teaching your kids about money at a young age make them more frugal? Will they respect money more? or would they become too risk averse?

My eldest son is always asking me to buy him the latest sneakers. In this case if I taught him at a younger age that he needs to work to earn money perhaps he would be less needy.

My plan is to print out some resource on how to save money. There are lots of resources online like Moneyjojo's saving money tips and Money Saving Experts guide and thinking about using this to teach my kids to be frugal.

As I pointed out earlier I do not want my kids to become uber-frugal and miss out on life's finest experiences because they wanted to hoard their money.

The worst thing is that they become crazy spenders and I have to bail them out of their debt when I am 80, that I do not want!

I guess what I am getting at here is what time really is the right time to teach your kids about money and the fact that it does not grow on trees!

One of the best things to get are money based toys, especially for kids. Cashiers are a great way to teach kids about shopping.

In my opinion, there should be computer games for 12 - 18 year olds to teach them about building a business. I am not talking about Grand Theft Auto type of businesses, but rather games like farming simulator.