Living with in your means

Have I mentioned that JJ HATES having his hair cut short and styled up off his forehead or really styled at all?  Well I won't say it is the bane of my existence but I do find it irritating that he won't let me style his hair. He has REALLY thick hair and tons of it - so different from the rest of us. So today I put my foot down metaphorically and insisted that he get his hair cut.  I threw out the notion that I would take him to Walmart after so he could spend some of his money IF he got his hair cut in a style we could do off his forehead.  He jumped at it so I think he must have been thinking about doing that anyway but didn't want to just give in easily. That's my boy, the bargainer.  So off we went with Asher and Hannah in tow to the local Great Clips.  Asher wanted to get his hair cut and really likes for me to style it so he was excited and wanted to go first.  We knew we wanted a faux hawk 'do for him because he has had that in the past and it looks really cute on him.  JJ and I spent some time looking at haircut style books and finally settled on a hair style that we both thought would work.  I think JJ was a bit shocked when he saw how short it was but I think it looks awesome. Now we will just have to see if he will let me style it. Hannah helped out a lot by commenting over and over how awesome he looks.  She is my cheerleader. If anybody needs to be cheered on- she is the one to do it, without ever being asked.

Now back to the BRIBE! Next we headed over to the good ol Walmart. All three kids had brought their own money to spend.  As is typical, JJ picked out something about 5 bucks over the amount of money he had.  Now comes the hard part.  I really do want him to have the toy he wants but I decided long ago that now is the time for the kids to start learning about living within their means.  So when he whines and bargains with me that he will do extra work to make up for the extra money I would have to pay, I say no.  I remind him that he can only spend what he has right now, in hand. So in the end he picked something that he liked equally well but cost less.  Next we moved on to Hannah.  As is typical of her, she has a WAD of money - nearly 50 dollars! She found something that cost way less than what she had and was happy.  Asher only had 5 dollars and it is tough to find much in the Lego section that is only 5 bucks.  He found something that was just a dollar more and JJ tried to bargain on behalf of Asher but I stuck to my guns and said no. So in the end he too found something that fit within his means.  I am hoping that if we keep being consistent that this lesson will stick because it will make a huge difference in their lives if they learn to live with in their means.

Speaking of means, Lance decided to donate his old red Honda to the National Kidney Foundation.  Lance used to work there so he knows how much the kidney kars program helps people with kidney disease. My dad passed away due to kidney disease caused by diabetes. So I am also grateful of the great work the NKF does in educating and assisting those with kidney disease.  Since we inherited my mother's car a load of worry was taken off our shoulders because the red Honda had some mechanical problems that would cost more than it was worth to fix.  Hopefully our donation will help us next spring when tax season comes around and the money that the NKF gets will help someone who is suffering from kidney disease.