Yes! I did it. I kept my New Year’s resolution. I had to. Last fall I constantly heard, “Spanish trip, Mom. Gotta have money for lunch.”
“Mom the kids from church are eating out after church …”
“The FBLA is going to …”
When I suggested “What about taking a lunch or some snack food with you?” his look squelched that idea.
I gave him a ten. “Bring me back the change.”
There was no change. Maybe it’s old age, but it seemed like last year one high schooler went on more trips than his four brothers ever took.
Then it was my daughter’s wardrobe:
“Mom, I need more socks.”
“We just bought you five pairs.”
“They don’t match my T-shirt.”
“Will you buy me these jeans?”
“They don’t fit.”
“Yes, they do.”
“Not on my budget, they don’t fit.”
I had had it.
While my husband figured the taxes, I added up all the canceled checks for clothing and miscellaneous.
I divided it out into pay periods and said, “Now here is the plan. I am going to give you the amount of money we can afford and I think you need for clothes, school supplies, gifts and any activities at church and school. Overnight trips and more expensive clothes you will have to save up for. Got it?”
She looked me right in the eye. “I can buy anything I want? Even those jeans?”
“Yep, but remember if you spend all your money on jeans, you won’t get more money to eat out after church.”
We went shopping – they bought pets. A hamster for her to put I a borrowed cage and tropical fish for him with a small tank he found on sale.
The hamster escaped the fish went belly up.
They check out the library books about pet care, found the hamster and replaced the fish.
We went shoe shopping. After they recovered from the sticker shock, they began reading and shopping the ads in the newspaper.
We shopped for an Easter outfit and ended in tears. She could not afford the one she wanted and her hamsters.
“Actually,” I muse out loud, “the outfit you want would be easy to sew and it would cost less. You buy the pattern and material and I will sew it for you.”
She designed her own outfit. I stitched it into realty.
Her brother bought material and I made him shorts the first time, then I watched him do it himself.
They discovered garage sales. He upgraded his tanks three times. The last time he asked, “would you take less?” The seller agreed and he came home with a larger, fully equipped, but still new tank.
When I told her I saw a hamster palace at a garage sale, she begged her father to take her there in case they still had it.
They had it. And now she has her “dream’ cage for a fraction of the store cost.
Although we have looked at them, I still haven’t had to wash any of those expensive jeans. Funny thing happened on the way to the field trips, he began loading up when I offered him snacks and he always has changed when I need a loan.
Hmm, maybe this year, I’ll put myself on an allowance, I could use the change.