I only have about 300 dual given because I am still going to school and was only able to use my certificate last summer (and plan to teach again next summer).

Simply the act of showing you care about their money they are investing is usually enough. If the clouds are low and we wont be able to get many maneuvers done, and that is what the student needs to work on, then I'll say "I don't think a flight today will be very productive, but its your choice if you'd like to fly or not."

If you put yourself in the students shoes, and ask yourself, is this flight or ground session worth their time and money - then you are golden. You may loose a few dollars initially; however, in the long run - they will tell their friends how "great" of an instructor you are, and your students will surely come back to you for their instrument rating. So you will get more flight time and income in the long run, not to mention the additional respect and happy students you earn.

There has only been one case where "me" trying to save someone money hurt me. I had a elderly guy come in who had just recently gotten back his medical and hadn't flown in a couple years. I took him up a couple times and he was doing great, the only thing he was having trouble with was VOR tracking.

So I decided to save money, I'd throw him in the sim, and work on VOR tracking there for the obvious financial benefits, and the ability to pause the sim and draw stuff on the white board.

Long story short, he got very very frustrated with the sim and called me and said he did not want to continue flight training with me. He said he would have much rather paid more money and did the VOR tracking in the air.

Lesson learned? Don't treat every student the same, cause they are not the same. This guy probably was not very computer illiterate, and I never asked him straight up if he'd rather do the VOR practice in the sim or in the air.

As for ground, I charge similar to Rick - I tell my students that ground doesn't always mean we are sitting in front of each other talking about aviation ground subjects, but time I wait for them to pre-flight (if they did not show up early and pre-flight, and the aircraft was available), sign logbooks and etc.

I tell them ways they can save money:

Take the online practice tests

I ask them questions from the chapter they were supposed to study, if they answer them correctly then we can pretty much skip through that and move onto new material.

and the usual, fly often, make sure you have enough money before you start, and sit in the airplane or a chair and "pretend you are flying." (chair flying)

Good input everyone