Every grown-up has said it: “When I was your age, that cost 10p.” To a seven-year-old it sounds like a story. This game lets them feel it happen instead, with the same pocket money, the same shop and prices that won’t sit still.
Four or five small things to sell — sweets, stickers, little toys — and about twenty buttons or counters. You run the shop. For the last part, a grandparent or older relative, in the room or on the phone.
How it works
- Open the shop. Lay the things out and put a price of 2 buttons on each one.
- Year one. Give your child 10 buttons of pocket money and let them shop. They can buy five things.
- Jump forward ten years. Put everything back. Same shop, same 10 buttons — but now every price is 4.
- Shop again. This time they get two things and have 2 buttons left over. Let them notice before you say anything.
- Ask what changed. The sweets are the same. The buttons are the same. So what’s different? Help them put it into words: the buttons buy less than they used to.
- Switch on the time machine. Ask a grandparent what a bag of sweets, a comic or a bus fare cost when they were your child’s age. Let your child guess first, then hear the real answer.
Prices usually creep up over time, so the same amount of money buys a little less each year. That’s called inflation — the sweets haven’t changed, the money has.
What usually happens
The second round gets a loud “that’s not fair!” Good. That feeling is exactly what inflation is, and it’s worth letting it sit for a moment rather than rushing to explain.
The grandparent call is often the favourite part, and plenty of children are convinced they’re being teased about the old prices. If they ask why prices go up at all, keep it simple: making things costs more over time, because the people and ingredients behind them cost more too.
Make it easier
Skip the phone call. Play the two rounds, count what they bought each time, and ask which year they’d rather go shopping in.
Make it harder
Add a third round with a pay rise: 15 buttons, prices still 4. They’ve got more money than in year one, but can they buy more? A pay rise only helps if it keeps up with prices.
Why £1 buys less than it used to, and what makes money worth more or less over time, is lesson 3 of the ten-lesson Smartmonies programme. See the ten lessons →