Cash, Cooking & Chaos: Summer Survival with Our Teenagers

Keeping teens busy in the summer isn’t easy - especially when they're 13, 14, 15, and 16. In this episode of Rollin' With the Dolans, we talk about the summer challenge we gave our kids: planning meals, shopping with a cash budget, and cooking for the whole family.

It’s part budgeting lesson, part kitchen chaos, and a whole lot of parenting realness. We share what worked, what didn’t, and why we think this kind of hands-on responsibility matters. We also touch on staying active during the Arizona heat and how we’re trying to keep four teens off the couch (and off their phones).

Got summer survival tips of your own? Let us know!
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Transcript

Our podcast focuses on the joys and challenges of blending families, our interracial marriage, parenting children of multiple ages, and the journey of entrepreneurship.

We share our daily life experiences with a positive but real perspective.

Today's topic is gonna be focused on keeping our kids busy over the summer — and our kids, meaning right now they are 13, 14, 15, and 16.
 Correct.
 Correct.

So one of us has already implemented some of the ideas. Let's start with that. In the spirit of trying to challenge our kids to make mindful decisions, calculated decisions, understand laboring when cooking and going to the grocery store. Would you say all those things?
 Yeah, definitely. And just not laying around.

So what I did was I have an envelope that has cash for each meal that the kids are preparing.
 So first you had a schedule.
 Yes. So that means one child had to do lunch with their budgeted amount, one had to do dinner with their budgeted amount, and the other one had to do dessert every other night — dessert with their budgeted amount.

So we gave them cash, sent them off to the store, and they had to buy the ingredients as well as prepare the meal.
 Yeah. And how did that go so far?
 It has been great.
 How much money did you give them? How did you break it down? I forgot.
 $20 for dinner, $10 for lunch...
 I feel like it was $25 for dinner and $15 for lunch, and then $10 for dessert. Does that sound right?
 I think that's what I did.
 It's close to it, I think.

So far I think that this has been implemented probably about four or five days total, and yeah, I think it's gone pretty well. I think the most interesting thing is that they cook something that's different — things that we've never even had before.

Number one, I was glad that the 15-year-old, he learned how to make burgers. And obviously we've had that before, but he learned: what kind of burger meat should I get? How much burger meat do I need? And then put together a recipe for him to actually go from there.

But that — I think that’s critical. Figure out how to make the patties yourself, don’t just get them out of the freezer. And then you actually had to put them on the grill, flatten them out, that type of stuff.

So I thought it was — it has been really good.
 Yeah. Because I think that — I mean, there's several reasons that I did it. One of those reasons is because they need to pay attention to the price of things.

So instead of — if we just gave them our debit card and said, "Hey, go get groceries for the night," they might come out spending $50 just to feed six of us.

But if we give them cash, then they're gonna think, "Do I need those ingredients? Let me see if we already have those ingredients at home. How much is that chicken gonna cost? How much is that ground beef gonna cost? What kind of side can I have?"

So it gets them thinking versus just relying on us to prepare the food, grab the food, serve the food on their plate. Now they actually have to think of those things.
 Yep. And in one case, the person bought some expensive chicken. How did you manage that one?
 And that’s the thing — they went for the ones on the shelf that were more organic and things like that, not knowing that was much more expensive. And we’re like, “How did you pay that much for the chicken breast?”
 We're okay — we gotta make sure we say that we’re not against buying organic chicken.
 Correct.
 But unfortunately we have to buy that when it’s on sale because of our budget.
 Yeah.
 When you’ve got six people that you’re trying to feed and you’re going through it pretty quickly, you have to find the best prices.
 And she could have gotten organic chicken — but make it like chicken thighs, which to me are actually pretty good if you season them well, and more juicier. So just things like that make them think about it.
 Yeah, definitely.

That was — it really achieved a whole bunch of different things. Like you said, you can list out:

1. The planning
2. The actual shopping and budgeting
3. The actual effort

Yes.
 You have to put into the prepping — because remember, a couple of them were like, "It's a lot to prep."

And normally they would be like, "Hey, when is dinner gonna be done?"

And it’s okay, now you understand the importance of the prep that it takes — especially the kids that really care if it’s really good food. And they realize, "Oh my goodness, I actually have to prep all the things."

They think about it a lot different, and I’m hoping that they appreciate what we do.
 Yeah. We better.

That’s one thing that we’ve been doing over the summer. That’s the biggest — it’s the new thing that we’ve been trying to do.

But in general, we’ve spent time over the years trying to make sure that they can cook. Again, they range from 13 to 16, and I think they can all figure things out for themselves if they have to.

And one fun thing we haven’t done enough of is — we have had cooking contests. We’ve had meals that pair them up — two versus two — desserts, two versus two.

And I think it’s something they enjoy. That doesn’t mean that they’re gonna be chefs or love cooking forever, but they’re gonna be self-sufficient, which is a big part, I think.
 Yeah. That was fun when we put two on one team — so the teams went against each other.

We did it basically like the show Chopped, where they had to have certain ingredients. And it was actually really fun.

We should go back and watch some of those videos. And I’m still waiting for my chance to really just... get beat.
 You back?
 No. Get beat.
 Yeah, get beat. That’s gonna be a blind test.
 No.
 'Cause I’m clearly gonna win this one.
 No — get beat.

Anyway...

Another thing that we are big on is getting the kids out — making sure that they’re getting some type of exercise, whether that’s their scheduled basketball, whether it’s going to the gym, taking the dog for a walk...
 What are other things they do outside?
 That’s most — when it’s 110, you have to be careful. But you...
 160.
 ...trying to stay active, trying to get them up before 10 o’clock in the morning.
 By 10, not before.
 Yeah, by.

If it’s up to them, some of them won’t get up.
 Yeah. Three of the four we won’t see until after 12 if we don’t actively try to do something.

So it is more effort to do things in the summer, but it is necessary, unfortunately.
 Yep.

So that’s just one of our summer challenges that we’ve been working on with the teenagers.
 Oh, you guys should let us know what some of your summer challenges are, so that maybe we can implement it within our family.
 Yeah. What do you think?
 Definitely just keep working on things, trying to see what sticks. So yeah, let us know.

📍 Thanks for listening — and wherever you found us...
 Find us again.
 Oh, you say it like that? The — what movie is that? The creepy "Find us..." What movie is that?
 You look like one of those creepy people.
 "Find us..." I can’t remember.

But anyway — look for us again. And definitely TikTok, YouTube, things like that. When you have an opportunity, join in the conversation. We definitely wanna make it more interactive as we move forward.

Yes. So until then — have an amazing day.
 Have a glorious week.
 Ooh, glorious.

Bye bye.