A Lesson in Spending Money

Elley loves Build-A-Bear. Although, we've only actually built a bear once, she loves going into the store and looking at all the outfits, looking at all the bears, and dreaming a little. She asks every time if we could build a bear, but do you know how poor we would be if we built a bear and dressed it every time we went to the mall? A few months ago, after we had made a visit to this store, she once again asked if she could make a bear. Me, thinking I could teach her a little bit about money, told her she could save up her money and when she had enough we would come back. We talked about helping mommy around the house to earn some money. She was so excited!!!

She made it to $3.55.

We had to make a trip to Target (we love that store) and she asked if she could buy some lip gloss. I explained that she would have to use her own money and that would take away from her Build-A-Bear fund. She was okay with this and ran to get her wallet.

When we got to Target, we went right for the makeup. Elley took her sweet little time picking out the perfect color. When she finally found what she wanted I told her that it would take all her money to get this lip gloss. She agreed and we finished our shopping.

When it was time to pay luckily there was no line behind us. I wanted Elley to do this on her own. When the cashier told her the total, I was mortified when Elley whips out her play credit card and tried to hand it to the lady. She put it back after I told her that wouldn't work and I started to help her count out her money. When we counted it all out the cashier started to put it in her drawer. Realizing that the lip gloss required all her money except for a few pennies she replied, "hey, that's all my money." Oh sweet, sweet Elley.....I feel your pain!

It's a hard lesson but one I hope will teach her that we can't have everything we see....even a small tube of lip gloss.

Now that I think of it, saving up for a Build-A-Bear was probably a goal that was unreachable for a 4 year old. We'll just stick to the lip glosses from now on.

Look how much she enjoyed the lip gloss. We finally had to take it away after she spent the majority of the day applying. At least she was sharing with her sister!

What a girl!!! As I've said before, I have no idea where she gets it from!