Allowances

There are two types of parents regarding allowances: There are the ones that pay, and there are the ones that don't. I refuse to pay my children for doing things that they are already expected to do. Rio and Amaya do not receive an allowance. They view this as a huge injustice.

"Amaya go clean your room!" I demanded.

"How much will you pay me?" she asked.

"Excuse me? No one pays me to clean my room," I reminded her.

"All of my friends get allowances for doing their chores," she complained.

"And what chores do you have that you think you should be paid for?" I asked.

"Ummm...I clean my room...I rinse my dish...I make my bed...I take my showers..."

I laughed, "I'm not going to pay you to take a shower! If you don't want to take showers, you can stink! Let me know how that works out for you."

"I didn't mean showers," she corrected, "I couldn't think of anything else."

"You can't think of anything, because you don't do anything, Amaya," I stated the facts slowly. "If anyone should get paid in this house, it's me. Where's my allowance?"

"Dad says he gives you all of his money," Rio answered.

Heavy sarcasm, "Oh...is that what he tells you..."

SCORE:
Kids 1/ Mom 0

Gift Cards

Gift cards....what's not to love? They're little credit cards with positive balances. I love them?

The drawback is, I hold onto them forever.  I save them for when I really want something.  The thing is, I never really want anything. So I set them aside for in case.  In case what?  The heck if I know.

"You need to spend these!" My husband ordered pointing to my rubber banded card assortment in the closet.

"Why?" I asked. "They won't expire."

"Target! You were just there, you should of used this," he said as he thumbed through my gift card collection.

"Oh..I forgot I had that one..." I played dumb.

"Put these in your purse so you have them on you." He handed the stack to me.  "You can't spend them if they're locked up."

I kind of thought that was the point.
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Frugal

Frugal
adj. 1. Practicing or marked by economy. 2. Costing little; inexpensive.

My husband prefers to call me cheap. But cheap has a negative connotation, I like to think I'm economical, reasonable, careful, smart, or conservative.

It's easy to spend money, it's saving money that's tricky. I like to pretend the savings account is a black hole. Once money is deposited, I pretend it's gone forever. 

My husband views our savings account differently. It's a money tree planted in the backyard that's attached conveniently to is ATM card.

The fact is...I'm the saver, he's the spender. It's proof that opposites attract. While he's content to squander away every last dime in his pocket, it's my job to minimize the number of dimes he has left to spend.
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