Saving Money...

As most of you know, Ashton has had a “job chart” for the past several months. She has been earning an allowance in which she puts half in her savings account and half in her piggy bank to spend how she wants. She has loved being able to spend her own money!

Up until recently, she was spending her money on little things. A few months ago we had taken a trip to the mall which included “window” shopping in the Disney store. If you don’t know Ashton, she loves night gowns (especially the elegant ones from the Disney store with Princesses on them), dress up shoes, and dress up dresses. In this visit to the Disney store, she had fallen in love with this Ariel night gown and fancy matching slippers. She said she wanted to buy this with her money….only she didn’t have enough. I used this as a teachable moment and explained that she could save her money until she had enough to buy it herself. She was so excited…at this time she didn’t have the concept of how long it would take her to actually do this. The night gown was $24.50 and the shoes were $14.50. Her allowance each week has a maximum potential of being $2.50 if she does all of her jobs…meaning she would only be able to put $1.25 in her piggy bank to spend.

So after she was given her allowance the first week, she was ready to go to the Disney store to buy that night gown. We again explained to her it would take a little while to save up enough money. We asked her how she thought she could earn more money. She gave us these responses: dumping the trash cans from around the house in a big bag, taking the recycling to the garage, and help clean the house. We decided to go with these. So each time she did one of the above things she would earn a random amount of coins. This also became a lesson in coin identification and counting money. She would tell me what coins I gave her and we would count them….again using teachable moments!

We wanted her to experience what it feels like to earn your own money, save it and then buy what you have been working for. We realized this could take forever (especially for a 5 year old) so as a reward for getting smiley faces in her folder at school every single day, we gave her a $10 gift card to the Disney store.

Every few weeks, she and I would dump out the money in her piggy bank and count it to see how much she had and figure out how much she needed. Today we counted it and she had $18 dollars (mostly coins) in addition to her gift card. She had enough to buy her night gown. She had already decided she would put the slippers on her birthday list. Bobby took her to the bank to trade in her coins for dollar bills and deposit the money for her savings account.

After her bank trip, we went to the Disney Store to get the night gown. She was so proud of herself. When we got to the display, there was a bonus….the nightgown and slippers were on SALE! She was able to get both! She was so excited. There was gigantic smile plastered on her face as she carried her things to the checkout counter. She paid for her things and was given yet another bonus….A coupon for 15% off a purchase in July! She was so thrilled to have HER VERY OWN COUPON!!!

The elegant Ariel night gown...
The fancy matching slippers (they are high heel which makes them even better)!!

She was beaming! I was so proud of her…this is yet another grown up thing she has experienced. We discussed how she felt about this purchase, knowing she earned the money and saved it and got something she really wanted. Now she is thinking of what she is going to save up for next!