A few months ago, we started giving Rebekah pocket money of $2 per week:)
We started this mainly to stop the "Can I please have this?" questions when we were out shopping and also to try to instill a respect for money in her.
So, each week she got her $2 and blissfully spent it on whatever little thing that took her fancy. However, a couple of months ago, she saw a book called "The princess handbook" at Borders and fell in love with it. She is getting into "princesses" now:) It cost $14.95, hmm hmm, a bit more than $2 so we saw it as the perfect opportunity to teach her a new and valuable lesson - the power of saving!
So, we explained how it worked to her and she slowly put her money away in her little piggy bank (which previously was just a toy) each week.
In the back of my mind, I was thinking that surely she would get impatient and frustrated at how long it was going to take to save up for it. So Ron and I discussed it and decided that if that happened, towards the end, we would tell her that seeing that she had saved so hard we would chip in and pay for the difference. However, I must say that she was determined and never ever gave up. We would re-visit Borders several times in those weeks (our local one has a great GJ's by the way so it was easy to re-visit:)) and I think that kept the vision alive in her. Well, here she is in the picture, the proud owner of something she saved for, for almost eight weeks! What a proud moment it was for her when "daddy" took her in with all her coins to pay for the book. Well, Ron said she got a little shy actually and hid behind him while he paid for it:)
I was so impressed with my little daughter and what a powerful lesson to learn at such a young age! Now that she has learnt this, she has saved up and bought a $7 Barbie (which actually ended up being on sale for $4 when we went to pay for it) and she is truly learning the value of money and things!
A lesson for us grown ups too!
5 comments:
Cutest picture ever!! What a happy girl. Thanks for posting this--it's something we seriously need to implement with Ava. I am impressed with Rebekah's patience. She has more than I do, I think! :)
Hi Joyfulmum!
Just checking out your blog. I read Jean's blog, A peaceful day, and just popped over from there. Happy blogging!
Sounds like a successful experiment! We're considering what we'll do with the whole pocket money bit - it is nice to read your positive experience!
What a wonderful gift you're giving her! We do something similar with our son, although I don't think he has the patience and persistence of your daughter. He'll save but he's an "agitated saver".
I had a conversation today with a woman I'm helping buy a house. She has very little assets, but what she does have is great credit which is enabling her to provide a great new home for her family. It turned out at the last minute she needed slightly more money and was able to get it from the bank because she's protected her credit.
I told her how fortunate it was that she had good credit and she said, "Well, that was something my dad drilled into me over and over and over when I was growing up. I've never forgotten it." That's made a big difference in her life.
I work through a lot of financial issues with people in my job. It's amazing how many people are ill-prepared for adult life in that regard!
Wow, I never expected to hear from people I've never even met! I started off this blog just for my friends here at home, amazing to see how far away Wendy and Ruby are from (well Ruby you're not too far away!) Anyway, thanks for the kind comments all! As Wendy said, yea wouldn't it be great for us all to have learnt this at a young age! I certainly didn't so am determined to do things differently with my daughter.
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