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.
I think that's a great idea! You could also tell her you put it in the bank, and when the cruise comes around, you could put 10.00 with the 100.00 and teach her about interest.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea!
DeleteIt seems every time your children are gifted money it is spent on family activities. What about teaching them to save their money ?
ReplyDeleteI've thought about that. But I think that the people gifting the money would want them to use it for something they would enjoy. In particular, this time, the money came from my grandfather. His health isn't very good and he said he didn't know if he'd be here next year so he wanted to give them some money now.
DeleteI think holding the money for the cruise does teach about savings and not wasting money on impulse purchases but instead planning a good use for it. I like the idea about adding to it to teach about interest.
You might remind the girls at the time of the cruise that grandpa gave them $100 and let them have input on the choices in how it is spent on the cruise. While its been many moons since I have negotiated spending money with young children, I recall doing similar, special things with gifted money with my kids and letting them blow it on frivolity and learning what happens when the money runs out and how much (or how little) they have to show for the experience.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I'll definitely remind them who it came from. I already told them the types if things they could use it fo on the cruise: arcade, character breakfast, souvenirs... I'll let them choose how they spend it. Hopefully they'll learn what is a good value (character breakfast) compared to what is a waste of money (arcade)
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