Spending: Day 4

So I am going to take a blog to brag on my amazing, always seems to humble me, children (since I can tie it into spending month :)). 

First of all let me explain a little about our philosophy with money with our kids. I am not saying there is a right way or a wrong way, I’m just saying this is how we do it.  About 3 years back, Eric and I took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class offered at out church (highly recommend it, changed our lives). About a year after that, we started doing it with our children.  Each child has 3 jars; give, save, spend, and allowance is distributed monthly and it must be divided into these three categories… in that order. Give is a required 10%, Save is a required 20%, and the last 70% can be divided how they would like it to be. Depending on the child and what the current mission they have will depend where they put their final 70%. This being said, our kids are required to buy any toys/special treats they want with their own money (we do give them gifts for Christmas and Birthday, and they are sometimes earning things for behavior or grades… but on the whole… if you want it, save up your spend money and buy it.) Our boys have perfected the art of “combining” their money to buy something (99% of the time a Lego set) that they can enjoy together. I love this! It has given us so many opportunities to teach them things about money, and what and where it should go. 

All the jars!

Last year we (Eric and I) decided our gift to our children for Christmas was going to be $50 each that they had to spend on someone else. The ultimate lesson was to be that they can understand the joy of giving rather than receiving. They decided to shop in the Samaritan’s Purse catalog. This is a place where your money can go to a variety of different things (that you get to choose) to help people in need (mostly third world countries). It was awesome to watch them pick things out… with their little personalities shining through. Brayden was the funniest to watch, really stressing about if his money should go to mosquito nets to save people from malaria or toward the building of a well for fresh water. It was a real dilemma for him. He ended up using his $50, all the money in his give jar, and convinced Landen to give some of his give jar money so he could get exactly what he wanted to give. We ended up purchasing several chickens, a goat, blankets, mosquito nets, and school supplies for 250 kids. It was a great feeling for them and for us. 

This year when the Samaritan’s purse catalog came, we told them once again their gift from us was $50 to spend on whatever they wanted. After thoroughly reading through the catalog many times, Brayden said he wants to provide fresh water… for a whole village. That is $10,000. When I tried to explain to him we don’t have $10,000 to give… if everyone combines their money, it’s only $200, he said, “then we will sell stuff and raise it.” So he convinced all the kids to combine their money and he and Landen started bagging up Legos to sell and asked to have a bake sale or if they can do extra jobs for more money.  I told them $10,000 is a lot of money… and the likelihood of raising that much money before Christmas wasn’t great, but we could send them all that they raised. So when you see my children pedaling brownies or Rice Krispy treats, or asking to rake leaves or do odd jobs for cash…just know that they are trying to save the world… and I’m not going to try to stop them! They have such huge hearts and the passion to help others… I wish that was always my first instinct, and pray that stays with them forever!

Speaking of first instincts… our family won $50 at the costume contest! My first instinct- I was so pumped that we had an extra $50 to go do something fun as a family!!! I was brainstorming ideas to suggest to the kids, though was going to ultimately let them decide. I had my ideas: movies, Swing-around Fun town, science center, ice skating… all kinds of fun things for our family to do! When I sat down with the kids and told them we had $50 to spend however we wanted… what do we want to do with it? Without hesitation, Brayden said, “we should send it to Desmund.” And everyone else with a resounding, “yeah!”. Desmund is our newly sponsored Compassion International kid. Two days earlier, we had a big discussion about Desmund and how he lived and the struggles he faced. I also told them they had the option of spending their give money to Desmund.

Kids excited about sending him the money!!!

I am going to admit something I am not proud of… I tried to talk my kids out of it. After all… we earned that money, it was for us, our family… to do something fun!(Insert selfish adult with an agenda here) But once again, my children (and all the wonderful little passions God has placed in their hearts) showed me that Desmund and his family was the right choice for the $50. 

This is Desmund!

Brayden and Landen have been trying to earn a trip to McDonalds through their grades on spelling tests. They both had to get 5 tests with 100% in a row to earn this trip. And wouldn’t you know… that happen to fall in the first week of the spending fast, where McDonalds is not an option. At first, Landen was very, VERY upset! He had earned it, and he wanted to go! When I explained that the fast I was doing this month was spending, he wanted all the details of what that meant, where we could spend money, and why I was doing it. I said, “I made a promise to God, and I don’t want to break that promise. You have earned it, and we will go the day the fast is over.” His response was, “I didn’t know you promised God? It’s ok… I can wait.” Be still my heart. I did not expect my hot tempered, strong willed child to respond like that!

Please don’t get me wrong… my kids are…well… kids. They can be selfish, and fight, and argue with the best of them. But I love, love, LOVE how God is showing me insane love for others through them. I love that God is using my children to teach me valuable lessons that I probably knew as a child and have been lost along the way! I am learning lessons that weren’t even on my radar to learn this month! I thought I was going to learn to be a better manager of the money that God has provided… maybe save a few bucks. I didn’t realize that my children would be opening my eyes to the passion of helping those in need. God is good!!!

Thanks for joining me on the journey!