Cashing In

Today Emily wanted to spend her birthday money, so we bundled up and headed to Walmart. Even though she only had $4 to spend, we had to get a cart to hold all of our coats, hats, and gloves while we shopped.

Emily learned lots of great financial lessons today. Here are a few of them:

1. The amount of money that we have to spend is finite, not infinite.

2. No matter how much money you have, there are still going to be things that you can't afford.

3. Sometimes you have to make hard choices between two things that you really want (i.e., you can't have it all!).

We started out in the markdown aisle, because Mom thought Em could get more for her money there. She found lots of things she wanted.

Then Mom suggested that we look around some more, in the toys and sports aisles, just in case she found something she wanted more.After lots of tough decisions, Emily ended up with a "Bob the Builder" ball and a blinky Nemo light.

There is another lesson that Emily already knows well, and that is that if she wants to enjoy her new toys, she needs to keep her sister happy too. With that in mind (and maybe some generous gene showing itself) she also bought her sister a pink bouncy ball!She was very proud to hand over her money to the cashier.When we got home it looked like Em had made a great choice...she really likes playing with her ball.Meanwhile, Kate somehow ended up with the blinky light too.Which was actually okay with Emily, because if Kate's happy, Emily's happy. (Yes, Kate is kind of a tyrant about toys--we're hoping it's because she's two and not actually her personality).Our 4-year-old did pretty well today!