New Boots?

When Rachel and I were at the mall running errands last Saturday, we walked by Gymboree and she spotted these super cute faux fur boots. Well, of course she HAD to go in "just to look", and since they were pretty cute I said we okay. Well, I made the mistake of also letting her try them on and she fell in love with them. Since Christmas is coming around the corner I couldn't justify buying them so I decided to make this a learning experience for her as well. I told her that we would go home and talk to Rob about it and see if she could earn the money to buy them herself.

When we got home she immediately asked Rob about the boots and he liked the idea of her earning money to buy them herself. We printed out a bunch of big fake $1 bills and came up with a "Rachel's Savings Jar". For every extra chore or extra helping around the house she does she earns one "dollar" that she can put in her Rachel's Savings Jar and when she's earned $40 (that's about how much they are) we can go buy them. She pretty much always does a good job with her normal responsibilities like make her bed every morning, keep her room clean and her stuff put away etc, so I'm not surprised that she's been working really hard asking to help with cooking meals, doing the dishes, setting the table and clearing it after meals. I'm really glad that she's learning the value of a dollar as well as feeling a little more grown up and independent knowing she can earn money for extra things.

- Samantha