Little Shopper

Last Monday we had a family night lesson on money. We used play money to show how we earn money by working and that the money gets used on bills and things. We showed how we only have a little left and talked about saving and spending. Kendi seemed quite interested. We helped her count her money and talked to her about how 10% goes to tithing and some goes to savings and some goes to spending. She had about $11 in her spending piggy bank when we were done. She put some of it in her purse and wanted to go to the store. We were planning on going anyway so we let her bring her money. She started looking at everything in the store when we got there. At first I thought we were teaching her completely wrong. It felt awful to walk around the store just trying to find something to spend money on. I explained to her how she could save her spending money until she had enough to buy something she would really like, but at first she just wanted to keep looking. She was kind of funny about how she would pick something up, look it over, and then put it back on the shelf. At one point she had settled on a doll. I once again tried to explain to her that she has lots of dolls and didn't really need another one and that once her money was gone she couldn't buy anything else. It didn't feel like she was listening, but I knew that I had to let her decide. I thought that she would have to learn this lesson the hard way. BUT THEN. . .She remembered that she really wanted to buy a scooter. She has been talking about them for months. We took her to look at the scooters and told her that she didn't have enough money for one, but she could save what she had and wait til she got more to pay for it. She decided that that was what she wanted to do. I was soooo proud of her. We walked straight out of the store after that.

We went in to Deseret Book today to get an idea of the current prices of artwork. We've been a little out of the loop lately. While we were there she kept seeing things that she wanted. Remembering the lesson we had had she kept asking Jared if he a certain amount of money to pay for certain things. People in the store would laugh and think she was being cute. I finally reminded her how much money she had to spend if she really wanted something. She found something that she really wanted. I told her that if she bought it she wouldn't have any money left to put toward her scooter. She immediately put it back.

I know that a scooter is just another toy, but I'm glad that Kendi can understand that we can't have everything and that's okay. I think she will really appreciate her scooter when she can finally buy one.