Success! September 7, 2008
Posted by Tracy Gullett in Earning, Goals, Saving, Spending.add a comment
Thanks to dedication, diligent saving, patience, and the deal at ToysRUs, G was able to reach her goal today! She purchased a Nintendo DS Lite, an accessory pack, and her first game – “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Including tax, she paid $145.07 in cash, which she earned with checklist jobs and extra jobs, with some birthday money rolled in as well.
As we were eating dinner, she told me how the thought of buying the game system motivated her as she was cleaning all the bathrooms in the house today. She said, “As I was scrubbing, I was thinking to myself, ‘DS…DS…DS…’”
She missed one minor thing in one of the bathrooms, but overall it was a good job. She earned $19.75 out of a possible $20. All the mirrors, sinks, counter tops, toilets, and floors are nice and clean now. Yeah, I think that’s worth twenty bucks to me. 
My wife snapped some photos before G opened all the boxes. As you can tell, she is a very proud girl!
Her mom, her sister, and I are all proud of her accomplishment!
G Is Almost There! September 7, 2008
Posted by Tracy Gullett in Goals, Saving, Spending.add a comment
Ooh, the house is abuzz this morning with talk that the long-awaited Nintendo DS may actually be within reach! In today’s ToysRUs ad, there is a special offer for a 25% discount on a combination of a Nintendo DS Lite, one accessory, and one game. After doing the calculations, G and her mom figured that she could come pretty close to making this happen this week before the special expired.
G came to me with a plan to earn the money that would put her over the top. She wanted to know whether I would pay her 50 cents to clean all the bathrooms in our house. We have three and a half bathrooms here… and she was willing to clean all of them for 50 cents. OK, so the kid needs a little more training on the deal-making skills. I told her I was willing to pay more than that if she did a really good, complete job. She thought I may bump it up to a whole dollar. But when I told her I would pay five dollars per bathroom, her jaw about hit the floor and dollar signs lit up in her eyes!
After a training session from her mom, she spent about 45 minutes on the half bath and then moved onto the jack-and-jill bathroom she shares with her sister. She’s doing a great job and is sticking with it so far. I am trying to remember the last time I saw our 9-year-old stay focused on one task with this level of determination for an hour.
Keep in mind that G has been saving up her spending money for this. She hasn’t even considered pulling money out of her saving envelope to make up the difference. As this has been somewhat of a long-term goal (several months is long-term for a kid age 9), we plan to suggest she draw from that savings envelope if she’s a few dollars short so she can take advantage of the special offer. What I won’t allow is for her to draw money out of her ING Direct savings account, because that money is for true long-term savings (her first car, for example), and has already had 401(kid) matching funds applied.
At this rate, I figure we’ll be jumping into the van around mid-afternoon and heading to ToysRUs to make the deal a reality. I hope so, anyway. My wife and I are probably just as excited to see G achieve her goal as she is to get that DS!
This Kid Won’t Give Up! September 3, 2008
Posted by Tracy Gullett in Goals, Responsibility, Saving, Spending.add a comment
G just won’t give up on her Nintendo DS goal. We haven’t tried to talk her out of it much lately. We have mentioned to her that we don’t think it’s necessary, that we don’t believe it’s worth the money, and that we think she could spend her money more wisely. But, as I’ve said before, it’s her money. She’s worked for it, she’s earned it, and she can spend it however she wants (with our oversight, of course. No machetes or penny stocks.).
Today, G brought home two Scholastic book order forms in her school folder. In the past, she has always managed to find several things she wanted to buy through the book order. She has bought a door alarm for her bedroom door, a pair of spy glasses, and has actually picked out some books as well. I don’t have any problem with these book orders. I think they’re a neat deal. I do, however, prefer the books over the toys that are offered.
As I opened her folder today and pulled out the book orders, though, she immediately told me, “I don’t want to buy anything out of those because I want to get a Nintendo DS.” She just won’t let go of that goal! She has been saving her “spending” money for what seems like a very long time with this goal in mind. After working, saving, and waiting this long, she doesn’t want to do anything to slow down her progress.
Something tells me that once she finally buys that game system – and I’m sure now that she will – that we’ll never find it in the bottom of the toy box with those other, cheaper things that she “really wanted” from her book orders in the past.
