Camryn's First Big Girl Purchase

One of the lessons we took away from Financial Peace University earlier this year was the importance of teaching your children about money. We want to instill solid financial principles in Camryn (and Ella, one day) at an early age so she will hopefully make good choices about money when she is older. We decided right after her 4th birthday that she would be old enough to start earning a commission - not an allowance, as Dave says, because how many of us in life get money for free?!? She earns a commission each week for the chores she completes, just like adults earn money for the jobs we do.

Camryn has three opportunities each week to earn $1 - one for folding towels over the weekend, one for being my kitchen helper on Tuesday nights, and one for making her bed on Thursday mornings. When we started this process, we bought three small containers for Camryn to keep her money in. She divides her $3 evenly between the boxes - the first dollar of the week always goes to God, the second goes to Savings, and the third is her money to spend however she chooses.



Not long after she started earning her commission, Camryn asked us to buy her some Silly Bandz, because a lot of her friends at school had them and shared them with her during the day. We decided this would be the perfect teachable moment about how to save and spend your money on things that you want. We explained to her we would not buy them for her, but she would have to save her "Camryn money" to buy them on her own. We found out Silly Bandz were $4.50 a package, so she saved for 4 weeks, then earned a few extra dollars from things she sold at our yard sale this past Saturday. I took her yesterday, with her Camryn box, to pick out the Silly Bandz, and she was just giddy with excitement. She paid the lady at the store, and walked out doing a half hopping, skipping, dancing kind of move. I was very proud of her, and she was one happy little girl.