This year, John started understanding "red envelop" was not just an envelop but can be used to pay for something he wanted. He counted how many he got and wanted to use it for some of good he wanted to buy. He does not have any idea about how much it is inside of the "red envelop". He just knows how many he has.
Because of this, we told him to make good use of his red envelop because he would not have received any red envelop until next new year. In the beginning, he did not know how to manage (because he thought "19" envelop was many and it would be take a long time to use it up) so he decided to use 7 of them when we were in Taipei. However, one day, he counted he had used 7 and there would be 12 left only...and he realized there was 12, no longer 19...
It had been 5 months now after Chinese New Year. John had used additional 5 more included one for Myanmar flood donation. He would control his desire and only buy those things he really wanted.
I do not know if this is good or bad for a little kid at age 5. But at least we have observed he knows to value the things we bought and use his "money" more carefully...