Gifted Money Plans

My Grandpa gave each of my daughters $100 again.  This happens a couple times a year for random reasons.  Since my girls have plenty of "Stuff", I usually use the money for something fun like staying over night at an indoor water park.

I told Mr. R this morning that I am just going to save the money for our cruise in February for the girls.  Big R over heard me and said "Hey! That's my money!"  Ummm.  Right.  I'm not giving a 7 year old $100 to decide what to spend it on.

So I explained to her that there are going to be lots  of things on the cruise that she is going to want to do that cost extra, like playing games in the arcade, having a character breakfast with Dora and some other characters, or buying souvenirs.  The money is still hers to use but it will go toward her cruise spending.

She didn't seem too happy about that but accepted it.

Money Lesson for a Second Grader

Big R lost a school library book.  I didn't find out about this until the second to last day of school.  We looked every where and haven't found it.  The book is called "Unicorn Dreams, Silver Lake Fairy School".  I told Big R that she will have to pay for the replacement book out of her change jar.

If we just pay for the book, we will have to pay the school $8.99.  I found it on Barnes and Noble for $4.49 but with shipping, it's still over $8.00.  Unless I spend over $25 then we would get free shipping.  But I don't think there are any other books I plan on buying now.

Big R received a dollar from the tooth fairy the other night.  After carrying it around all morning, I told her to go put it in her pickle jar (it's where she keeps her money).  She looked at me and said, "I don't want to.  That money is for the book I lost and I don't want to use this dollar for that."

Smart girl as we haven't discussed the book in a couple weeks.  But lesson learned, she needs to take care of her library books.  In the end, the dollar went in the pickle jar and will be put towards paying off her library balance.

Do you give rewards for good report cards?

When I was younger we never got anything special for our report cards.  We knew we weren't allowed to get anything less than a "B" on our report card or else we would be in trouble.  It was just expected of us that our grades would be good.

In high school, my grades were tied to being able to take driving lessons and having my own car.  I kept my grades up because I loved that freedom and if my grades dropped, my car would be taken away from me. 

So Big R brought her report card home over the weekend.  I just happened to find it in her book bag yesterday morning when I was making sure she had everything at school.  In first grade, she doesn't get real grades.  But she's doing good in all of the areas they watch for and exceptional in some areas.  She's reading above the level they expect a first grader to be able to read at.  She loves writing books and working on math.  Her teacher wrote a really nice note about how great she is to have in class and how Big R is always nice to the kindergartners and offers to help them whenever they need it.

Mr. R was so proud, he gave her a dollar, which just absolutely made her day.  So it got me thinking.  I know some kids in school would get rewarded with money when they got good grades on their report card.  And it makes sense.  As an adult, if we're lucky a good review can be linked to a raise in income.

I guess I'm trying to figure out if I want to start this tradition or come up with some other reward to motivate my children. 

Do you give rewards for good report cards? 

Santa's Workshop at Big R's School - Learning about money

I took a half day off tomorrow to volunteer at Big R's school.  They are having a Santa's workshop where the kids can bring money and shop for their family.  The parents that volunteer help the children pick out gifts and stay within their budgets.

Big R is really looking forward to it.  Not only to do some shopping, but it makes her really happy when I volunteer at her school

The school sent home an order form for me to fill out who she can buy for and how much she can spend for each person.  Big R and I raided her piggy bank and she will be buying gifts for the family with her own money.  I let her help decide how much to spend on each person and then I helped her count out the money. 

Big R. chose to spend $2 on me, $2 on dad, $1 on her sister, and 50 cents on the cat.  She wanted to be able to buy herself something also, so I asked her how much she wanted to spend on herself.  She said "a hundred." 

A hundred what?  I'm not sure.  But I talked her down to $2.

Random thoughts and grocery spending

I am trying to keep our grocery spending under $440 this month.  We've gone to Aldi's once and Acme once.  So far we've spent $194, but we're pretty well stocked now. 

Tomorrow is Baby Ripples third birthday.  I made a white cake from a box tonight then poured Strawberry jello on top.  It has to sit in the fridge for 4 hours and then I can ice it with cream cheese frosting.  Hopefully this ends up better than the strawberry cake I tried to make for Big Ripples birthday.

We received the rental check for our investment property yesterday which was exciting.

Sunday Fun - On Sunday, my mom, stepfather and the little ones and I went to a restaurant that looks like a barn.  There is a little lake with ducks to feed, some swings and a few little stores also.  I let the girls each pick out some candy at the candy store and then Big Ripples had $5 of her own money to spend at the toy store.  She bought the stupidest toy that she broke within 5 minutes of being in the car on the way home.  It took a lot for me to let her waste her money on that stupid toy but I figure its a good way for her to learn the value of money and hopefully next time she'll consider the quality of the toy and the amount of fun it can provide before spending her hard earned money.

When to shop and when to save

In the car yesterday, we had to stop at the dollar store and so I told Little Ripples that she could take some money out of her pickle jar to buy something.  At first she said she wanted to buy 3 things, so I told her she would need three dollars. 

Earlier at Target, she found a Brave costume she really wanted that was $20 dollars.  So we had a conversation about how she could spend her money on a few little things from the dollar store or she could save up and buy the brave costume.  We went back and forth a few times explaining this and she finally got it.  She decided she would only take $2 dollars to the dollar store and save the rest of her money to buy something bigger later. 

I was proud of her for really thinking it through and deciding to hold onto some of her money for later.

The Piggy Bank vs. The Pickle Jar

I bought this piggy bank for Little Ripples when she was a little baby.  I have tried many times over the last year or so to get her excited about helping around the house and earning an allowance.  If she helped out, I would give her a some change.  She doesn't really understand that each coin has a different value yet so I don't have a set amount that I give her.  She's happier with 5 pennies than she is with a quarter!  A couple times I would empty it out, count it for her and let her buy something with it.  But she just didn't really seem to care much about saving money in her piggy bank.

Recently, we finished off all the pickles in this large jar.  My husband rinsed it out and cut a slit in the top to put coins in.  Now, Little Ripples loves to earn some change so that she can watch it pile up in her jar.  She already has over $8 in it. 

When she used to put the money in the piggy bank, it just kind of disappeaered in there.  Being able to see her progress has really helped. 

Now, we have to be careful about leaving change out or it disappears pretty quickly. 

Cost Benefit Analysis - Vacations vs Bigger Home

Cost - $3600 (cost of our most recent vacation)

Choice A - Increase our mortgage by another $300 per month to be able to afford a bigger house
Total Annual Cost: $3600
Benefits:
1. More room for storage, house looks less cluttered
2. More space for kids to play
3. Little Ripples and Baby Ripples get their own rooms

Choice B - Take family on a nice vacation
Total Annual Cost: $3600
Benefits:
1. Family

• Reconnect with partner
• Strengthen relationships with children
• Create memories

2. Learning through new experiences
3. Trying new foods
4. Relaxing - allows you to mentally and physically take a break
5. Being away forces you to focus on yourself and your family away from all the normal everyday complications of life.

OK, so this is a very simplistic cost benefit analysis. And there is a lot left out, like the extra expenses a house will incur and there is definitely some stress related to travel with young ones and coordinating everything.

But when I try to explain to my daughter why we don't have a big house like one of her friends or whatever the new expensive toy is that everyone is buying, I hope that I am impressing upon her an understanding of why we choose to spend our money the way we do.  Everyone has things that are important to them, and in our family, we make the conscious decision to save money and spend less so that we can do more.

A Proud Day for the Ripples

Yesterday, my 5 year old helped me clean the house.  Like really clean... not just play clean.  She picked up the toys, tried to vaccuum and swiffered the floor.  She actually did a really good job of mopping with the swiffer.  I didn't even have to redo it after she was done.  Little does she know that she now inherited this chore.  Ha ha! I'm sad when I think that my girls are getting older, but there are definitely some advantages to it. :)  One less chore for me to do...check.  Wonder what else I can find for her to do.  Hmmmm....

We let our daughter keep the change she found while cleaning and my husband paid her $1 too.  She had to put some of the change in her piggy bank, but I took her to the dollar store to spend some of her money.  She had 2 dollars in her pocket.  She picked out two craft items, a painting set and a puppet making kit.  I let her pay the cashier and accept her change.  When she was done, she had the biggest smile on her face and said "I did it."  She was so proud of herself.  And so was I.