CASH DIET

At the beginning of the month I told my six year old and my husband that we were on a “cash diet”. With the economy the way it is, I think that we need to tighten the spending belt and eliminate our frivolous spending. No more daily trips to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee™, no more eating dinner out five times a week, and no more “prizes” when we go grocery shopping. It is amazing how much money you can save just by cutting those things or reducing them. I am embarrassed to even say how much money we spend on non-essential items each month.

I didn’t realize that my daughter translated this as “we are poor” until a couple of weekends ago when she went to a friend’s birthday party. Upon picking her up, the mom told me that she was still laughing because my daughter told her that she was going to have to sell some of her colorings to earn money for us because we have a house that costs $25,000 (whole other story!) and we were poor. She continued to tell her how we were on some kind of diet! I could have died, but I laughed instead.

Last night I was looking through old pictures I had scanned on my computer when my daughter saw my high school senior picture and asked me to print a copy out for her. I did, thinking she just wanted it to look at. Later that evening she came to me and said, “Mom, I think you need to print me out a bunch of these so I can sell them to the neighbors.” I just started laughing! I told her that she did not need to go door to door selling my picture. Could you imagine that? I mean, I know I looked good, but really, how much money would my picture bring in?

It does warm my heart that my daughter wants to contribute to the family budget. Kids need to learn that money does not grow on trees and that you don’t get everything you want when you want it. I told my husband we need to help her set up a Lemon-Aide stand so she can feel like she is contributing. At the same time I don’t want her to worry about our finances. It is a difficult lesson to teach a child especially when she is used to getting everything she wants.

The funny thing is that this morning when I got up I saw that she had hung my picture on the outside of her bedroom door for all to see. What can I say? My daughter loves me! Am I lucky or what?

HALLOWEEN

This past weekend my sister took my daughter and my nieces to Boo at the Zoo. The girls were so cute. They got all dressed in their costumes and posed for me before they left.

Halloween is coming soon and I am so ready! I remember being young and all excited about Halloween and trying to decide what costume I was going to wear. This will date me, but we used to get those cheap store bought costumes that had the plastic masks and my mom would modify them. I always wished that my mom sewed because I wanted a nice homemade costume like my friends. What is funny now is that my daughter would rather have a cheap looking costume from that store than a good homemade costume! I dont' get it.

This will be our first Halloween in our new neighborhood so I hope I have enough candy. I always worry about that. One year I made the mistake of handing out whole candy bars. Apparently the word got out around the neighborhood because the previous year I had maybe thirty trick-or-treaters but that year we ran out of candy. My mom started raiding my pantry and was handing out packages of popcorn. When I asked her why she didn't just turn off the lights and not answer the door, she said that she did but the kids just kept coming! So, I made a promise to myself that I would never hand out whole size candy bars again!

My sister-in-law's birthday is on Halloween, so every year we head over to their house with the apple crisp I have made to celebrate. Before we have hot apple crisp and cinnamon ice cream we take the kids trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

By the time we return home I am so ready for bed and I am always glad that Halloween is over!