Neatest proof that set of finite subsets is countable?

I am looking for a beautiful way of showing the following basic result in elementary set theory:

If $A$ is a countable set then the set of finite subsets of $A$ is countable.

I proved it as follows but my proof is somewhat fugly so I was wondering if there is a neat way of showing it:

Let $|A| \le \aleph_0$. If $A$ is finite then $P(A)$ is finite and hence countable. If $|A| = \aleph_0$ then there is a bijection $A \to \omega$ so that we may assume that we are talking about finite subsets of $\omega$ from now on. Define a map $\varphi: [A]^{<\aleph_0} \to (0,1) \cap \mathbb Q$ as $B \mapsto \sum_{n \in \omega} \frac{\chi_B (n)}{2^n}$. Then $\varphi$ is injective hence the claim follows. (The proof of which is what is the core-fugly part of the proof and I omit it.).

Solution 1:

Subsets of $A$ are in bijection with subsets of $\mathbb{N}$ so it suffices to enumerate the latter. Any subset of $\mathbb{N}$ can be written as a finite string using the following thirteen characters $$0\ 1\ 2\ 3\ 4\ 5\ 6\ 7\ 8\ 9\ \{\ \}\ ,$$ By setting $${\{}=10 \qquad {\}}=11 \qquad {,}=12$$ writing out a subset of $\mathbb{N}$ is a base-$13$ expression of an integer. For example $$\{ 0,1 \}_{13} = 10 \cdot 13^4 + 0 \cdot 13^3 + 12 \cdot 13^2 + 1 \cdot 13 + 11 = 287662$$

The map sending $$S \mapsto \text{the least}\ n\ \text{represented by}\ S$$ defines an injection into $\mathbb{N}$.

Solution 2:

If $A$ is an infinite countable set, $S$ is the set of finite subsets of $A$ and $S_k$ is the set of $k$-element subsets of $A$, then

$$ |S| = \sum_{k \in \mathbb{N}} |S_k| \leq \sum_{k \in \mathbb{N}} |A|^k \leq \sum_{k \in \mathbb{N}} \aleph_0 = |\mathbb{N}| \cdot \aleph_0 = \aleph_0 $$