Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Value of a Dollar

A couple of weeks ago, while out shopping, Maggie got upset because we wouldn't buy her a "short girl toy." I don't remember exactly what she wanted, but we decided to start giving her an "allowance" for helping out around the house: a quarter for putting her clothes away or helping empty the dishwasher or watering the garden. She also gets a dime at church (and is supposed to give 1 in 10 back, but she's never in church during offering). Yesterday, we needed to get out of the house and needed to get a few things at Target anyway and Maggie decided she wanted to buy a toy. So, we got out her coin purse and added up her total: $2.60. Do you know how many toys are out there for under $3.00? Not many choices! And of course, there are so many other "awesome" "totally cool" toys out there that cost a lot more than $2.60.

We searched through the dollar section, but there wasn't anything that Maggie wanted. We went back to the toy section and went through aisle by aisle. Even Barbie clothes are $5!! We found some Matchbox cars which are under a dollar each, but Maggie didn't want a car. She found a horse "cage" that she decided she really really wanted: but it was $13. Finally, we went to the outdoor toys aisle and she found some wind-up toys for $1.99. She decided to get a wind-up duck to play with in the bathtub and pool.

We took it up to the check out and carefully counted out her quarters and dimes. She proudly showed her duck to Dad. She wound him up all the way home. We got in the house and suddenly the pouty lip came out. "But I really wanted the horse cage." We told her she didn't have enough money to buy the horse cage and she would have to save up to buy the horse cage. We talked about other ways for her to earn some money around the house, like changing poopy diapers. She thought that sounded like a good idea. And after seeing how much even little Barbie clothes cost, I'm thinking we need to increase her "allowance"!

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