Save, Spend and Give

So today I chose to hang out in my pj's. Yep, it's 1 pm and I'm STILL in jammies.
I stayed up last night to watch Made of Honor. It ended about 1:30am. Such an irresponsible thing to do, I know. BUT Patrick Demsey.........he's the crush from my childhood days.

As I was laying in bed this morning, I heard the girls voices. Paris had gotten herself out of bed (for once) and was ready to participate in the neighborhood yard sale. All week she had been prepping stuff to sell. So bright and early she grabbed Pumpkin and they headed out.

The husband showed up about 9:30 am from a grueling call shift. Phew....that's over with but not really. Today he's post-call and pre-call with another stinkin shift tomorrow. I guess we'll see the now sleeping beauty next weekend.

Anywho.....he flips the t.v on and to my suprise Made of Honor is on again.....so I'll sit on the couch and watch my crush the movie again.

Meanwhile the girls are outside trying their hardest to sell stuff. About noon (when my movie was over) I figured I should tell them to pack it up. When I got out there, I was suprised at how they had set up their area and how much they had made. They had clothes hung up for easy viewing, items displayed on a table and other things set out in front  of the table. I was impressed with their organization skills.

They came running inside to dump the things that didn't sell and planned on running back out to see what treasures they could find.

It popped into my head that THIS would be the perfect time to teach them about money even if I was still in my pj's.

The girls and I sat down at the table, counted the loot and I began to divide it. Paris jumps in with the comment,"I bought her a purse for $7 and she said she wanted a bunch of my stuff.  I get all the money".

 At that moment I discovered that my oldest child is a shark.

After some explainging by me and complaining by Paris we moved on. They each got out 3 envelopes and wrote Spend on one, save on another and Give on the last one. We then reviewed what tithing is, why we give it and what it pays for. (Thanks Taryn for the RS refresher lesson on tithing).

Paris reluctantly put her 10% aside, Pumpkin put in change so she didn't have to give up any washingtons.

 Then we talked about saving. Why do we save? How much do you want to save? What do you want to buy so we know what to save for?

Paris sat with a nuce around Grant, Hamilton,Lincoln and Washingtons.

While Pumpkin was listening enthuestically and not laying a hand on her neatly stacked pile of presidents and Hamilton.

We had a Dispicable me "light bulb" moment. Pumpkin quickly stuffs 87% of her earnings in the savings envelope and the loose change in the spend envelope. She runs to put them away and says, "I"ll get to buy my own stuff now. Woohoo, Lalaloopsy doll....here I come."

Paris used this moment to bolt from the room.

I have to say, I had zero intention of talking to the kids about money today. I actually had zero interest in doing anything today. Usually I have to plan everything out in advance and don't function well off the cuff. I'm glad Dave Ramsey inspired me to do this.


 Pumpkin wanted to paruse the yard sale and spend her money. Now she's got it put away and is happily playing the wii while she talks about how cool it is to save her up for something she wants to buy.

So glad for teaching moments.

SO glad I can actually say, I did something right as a parent.