W found the knife guy right away. After he spent a good 20 minutes smelling around looking for a boot knife, he finally decided he needed a diving knife. Keep in mind their are no oceans here in the middle of Kansas and darn few lakes that would be clear enough to make diving enjoyable. However, by-golly we’ve got boots. Bunches and bunches of boots. All that aside, he needed a diver’s knife. (Ben told me boys could never had too many knives or guns. Shocking thing is, I believe him.) Anyway. W wanted something he could strap on since they were lacking boot knives.

The last thing I told them before walking in was don’t forget to dicker. Deputy Barney all but ignored me and W just nodded. So I’m acting uninterested. At least as uninterested as I can with a camera in my hand. Reality is I had to be there to say it was okay to sell a ten year old a concealable diving knife, when W said this…

“Eighteen dollars! Is that yer friendliest price?

“I’d go fifteen for you.”

W nodded and immediately said, “Thirteen?”

The knife dude looked at me, shocked. I suddenly was in a conversation with myself about gum or something, digging wildly in my purse.

He smiled after a good long  as he felt his profits going out the window and said, “I guess…for you *sigh* I’d take thirteen.”

W handed him twenty. I about died. There’s nothing better than coming home with a little cash still in your pocket. I hate to brag, but dang I’m proud.

Poor Barney on the other hand didn’t have as good of luck.

He wanted a croking frog and before he even got to the dickering part, the old man in the top hat said, “Buddy, those are my wife’s frogs. If I don’t come home with exactly enough frogs and money she gets maa-add.”

So Barney just paid him and the man said, “Go ahead and pick out the one you want. Try them all out.”

Barney already had and said, “No, I’d hate to make your wife mad. She sounds mean.”

Frogman almost peed himself laughing. You  would think with that kind of comedic timing he would have given a discount, but what do I know?

Simply,

Sis

Kids and money. Two things that go together like…cats and dogs, water and oil, bailouts and capitalism, or me and skinny jeans. They ‘phidn’t dit’ I mean they didn’t fit. What I’m trying to say is, they just plain old don’t work.

Regardless of whether it’s a good idea to put them together or not, it is necessary. Money lessons now, may save little Jr. and Missy from living with you later. We love our kids, but try to get them a little closer to the door every day. Much to my chagrin, that will come sooner than I really want it to.

So, how do you teach kids about money? It’s like that kids book, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie,” or as W used to say ‘read a mouse a cookie…’. If you give a kid a dollar…he’s gonna want a five to go with it…If you give him a five…it will remind him his allowance commissions are due and he’ll want ten…the ten will remind him of his birthday money from Grandma and he’ll want a fifty…That sounds too much like a stimulus package. We love capitalism here in our house, so there are only three ways to get paid: Earn it, earn it or you could earn it.

That breaks down into chores, grades, and bonuses. There are chores you get paid for, and chores you do because you are part of this working family. Some paying chores we have, are hauling wood, stacking wood, weeding garden, dumping the stink bucket, making beds, etc.. Cleaning room, picking up your toys, and hanging up your towel in the bathroom doesn’t bring forth wages, but does keep you from getting into trouble. Hows that for a bonus? Doing your best in school, gets you cash. A–$2 B-$1 C-$.50 D-$.25 F $0. If you get all A’s…we double it (a bonus). If your kids drive you may get a discount on auto insurance for A’s. Check it out.

So first, make a chore list and pay them like clock work. On pay day: sit down with each kid and do three things. Tell them what they did right, what they need to work on and pay them. You did this…you get paid this. You didn’t do this…so you don’t get paid.  

Help them get a plan for their money. According to personal finance guru, Dave Ramsey, there is three thing you can you with money: give, save and spend. Give some. Let the kids decide to who. School, church, local food pantry or homeless shelter are some ideas. Our kids like to feed some school kids in India.   Save some: they will need a car someday, and we will match anything they save now.  Spend some: the rest is theirs to do with what they want. 

Our kids use the envelope system (just like their parents do). The picture above is of Barney’s homemade  money envelopes. After they put the money into the envelope to give or save they can’t spend it. If they can’t learn to stick to plan now, how well do you think they will stick to it later?

We don’t bailout our kids at the checkout counter. We feel they will have a bigger “I did it all by myself” feeling and take better care of their purchases if you don’t ‘rescue’ them. Case in point. We were at Game Stop the other day and W was a little short on his much wanted PSP. We were discussing what he could sell to get the money faster and he said, “I know, why don’t you pay the rest and I’ll pay you back…”

That sounds an awful lot like a credit card company. Last time I checked that didn’t describe me. Sorry, if you don’t have the cash, you won’t be going home with the PSP.

I know I’m a meaner. These are simple principles but if learned at an early age…your kids could easily retire RESPONSIBLE millionaires. Time is on their side. Then who is the meaner?

What are you doing to teach your kids about money? I would love to know!

Simply,

Sis