Finance 101

So my parents church has an annual Spaghetti supper and silent auction to benefit their youth mission trip. Each year, the kids love to go. Each year, Nana and Papa have spoiled them by buying things for them. This year I decided the kids are all old enough to save their money and buy whatever they'd like themselves! So they've been saving, each had over $20 saved to spend. Of course, as luck has it, this year there weren't many things there they wanted. Or perhaps nothing they were willing to spend THEIR money on! Ellie found a pink Webkinz pony that she put a bid on, and even raised her bid when someone else posted a higher one. Then after thinking about it for a little while, she went back and erased her bid. She decided she really didn't need another Webkinz (she doesn't!) and didn't want to spend her money on that. She was thinking about the vending machine bank she saw at Walmart and really wanted to get. She decided she'd rather have that instead.

Josh found some clay that he won for $3. He uses alot of clay in his stop motion film making. Darren found a set of 3 stone plaques that each has a different type of grape (in a bunch) on it. They look nice on the kitchen wall with a trivet I found there last year - sort of looks like an Italian vineyard scene.

So today, all 3 kids have money left over and want to go out to spend it! LOL! They have been saving so patiently, for so long, and all had researched what they wanted to buy, so after doing our morning chores (coming home to a clean house is SO nice!) we headed out. First to Walmart because Ellie is the loudest. She bought the vending machine bank, along with 4 packs of fun-sized candy bars to fill it with. She was a bargain shopper and once her brother pointed out the 8 pack fun size bars for $.97 she quickly opted to go that route. She could get more variety that way versus a bigger bag of one type. After getting home and getting it set up I quickly found out that we needed some sort of guidelines on how much candy can be "purchased" from this machine per day! LOL! We've agreed to one piece per person per day. Hopefully this will work! Of course, once the candy is gone... someone has to take her to buy more... and that someone might just postpone it for a long time!

Josh also found his choice at Walmart. Some sort of Nerf gun that is a "blaster" and also a night vision scope with extra darts. He pretty much depleted his spending money but is very happy with his purchase. He's also saving for a new (to him - it's a used one) Macintosh i-Book which will work better for his stop motion programs. He has a birthday coming up in May and is hoping to put all the birthday money toward that as well. He is back to mowing lawns regularly for the guy down the street (our grass isn't ready for cutting yet though so he's not up to his "summer level" income yet!). That's helping his money quickly add up - he should have the laptop after his birthday, I think!

Rylie was looking for a specific detective kit she saw on Target.com. So after a quick run through the library's pick up window we were off to Target. Unfortunately, Target didn't have what she wanted so we headed home to check it out again on line. This time we noticed it was an internet only item. But after looking at it, we decided it seemed rather cheaply made and she set out to research other detective kits. None met her idea of what she needed, with the level of quality she was wanting. So she has listed all the items she wants to create her own kit. We'll scout those out tomorrow.

I was really proud that they all knew exactly what they wanted to spend their money on, waited to see if there was anything at the auction they might like better, and didn't just spend willy-nilly on anything and everything! Guess we've bought enough "junk" in the past that they are beginning to learn that it's better to hold out for quality items than just buy any old thing that catches your eye.

Check off math and consumer finance for the day ;-)

Ellie and I finished "On the Banks of Plum Creek" today also. We then started "On the Shores of Silver Lake" - which has a sad beginning. Jack, their faithful bulldog, dies of old age. I'm a sap - I cried... ;-) I'm reading ahead now, to be prepared for any further sadness! LOL! I read all these books when I was about 10, but haven't reread them since then. Well, Rylie and I started them. There was way too much description of animal killings for Rylie's tastes in the first couple books and we didn't make it even all the way through the 2nd book. Ellie LOVES them though. She wants to go visit the Little House site near Independence, KS soon.

We also found "The Wright Three" - the book Rylie and I have been reading aloud - on CD at the library. So now we're listening to it in the van and all 3 kids are enjoying the story. I love how she puts so much fact into a fictional book - we're all learning alot about Frank Lloyd Wright, and other history! I also just got two books by Howard Zinn at the library today. One is based on his "People's History of the United States" but it's written more for younger audiences. I think it's really important for our kids to know that not everything written in their history books is accurate. It's ok to question things and ask "Why?" And to know that not everyone was a good guy. This one is called "A Young People's History of the United States" and there are two volumes, spanning from Columbus through G.W. Bush and the "War on Terror." These are definitely going to be added to our personal family library!

Oh, Rylie had a vocal recital on Saturday. I recorded her song (Candle on the Water), but I'm not sure if I can post that here or not. I'll try to figure it out. I think we need a different type of connector cord to hook the video camera up to the computer. All this technology is beyond me and Darren hasn't had time to look at it either. Hopefully at some point we'll get it all together!