Depending on where you live, back to school is either right around the corner or has already kicked off. Your kid wants to walk into the classroom with a new pair of sneakers — the cool, expensive brand. But you want him to get what’s best for your bank account. Instead of arguing with him, empower him to make his own decisions, says Jordan Page, a mother of six and founder of the popular personal finance blog FunCheaporFree.

Page, 33, who lives in Utah, says she developed a cash envelope budgeting system for her kids’ back-to-school needs. She sets a budget for each kid, puts the cash amount in envelopes, writes down what they need and how much they can spend on each category on the front, and lets them determine what they’re going to buy.

Page says the system transfers the pressure away from her onto her kids, and teaches them how to be wise with money.

“It is so important to give them the skills now when they’re young, and the mistakes are minor and the money is minor, rather than making them in your 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s,” Page tells NBC News BETTER.

Here’s how it works.

Jordan Page with her husband and six children. Lizzy Williams

She creates an inventory based on each child’s needs

Page has three school-age children: a son in the fourth grade, a daughter in second grade, and a son in the first grade. She also has two preschoolers.

Before she creates her kids’ budgets, she has them go through their clothing and school supplies from last year to see what really needs to be replaced. Then she creates a list of items that each child needs. If her children want something new that doesn’t need to be replaced, they have to pay for it with their allowance.

"My son, for example, his backpack was in mint condition,” says Page. “It was perfectly suitable, perfectly good, and so I said, okay, we’re going to use your same backpack from last year, or you are welcome to buy a backpack if you use your own money, because we just don’t need it in the budget this year.”

She creates a budget for each kid

Page determines each child’s budget based on what they need, not what they want.

“You say, if they need five pairs of pants, a backpack, five shirts, how much does that cost on average? And you set the budget.”

She adds: “My budget is based on what we can afford and what we feel is reasonable, and then the kids have to work within that, not the other way around.”

She gives her kids cash envelopes

Page withdraws cash based on each kid’s budget, then puts the cash into envelopes, which they can take with them to the store. She recommends each child gets two separate envelopes: one for clothing and one for school supplies.

On the front of each envelope, she writes down a list of what they need and how much they can spend in each category. If a child wants something outside the budget, they have to figure out how to compensate for the additional cost — either by using money from their allowance or by subtracting money from a different category.

For example, if her son’s budget for a backpack is $20 and he wants a backpack that costs $25, he can pay the $5 difference with his allowance, or he can subtract $5 from something else from his clothing budget, like shoes.