Financial Peace Jr

Last fall, our boys started asking for toys constantly. This is back when Cason was obsessed with Imaginext (wow, kids go through obsessions so quickly!) and he would want to look at Imaginext toys on my computer every day. He would look for all of the things he didn't have and ask us to buy him any he didn't have. So Kelly and I decided that it would be a good time to start him on an allowance. We figured Bryce was probably a little young but we didn't want him to feel left out so we wanted to include him too. Kelly and I follow a lot of the Dave Ramsey ways so we thought Financial Peace Jr would be a good way to go with the boys.

The first week of January, we sat down with the boys and explained everything. We gave them each three chores to do each day. At the end of each day, we pay them for the chores they did that day and they divide up the money between "Give", "Save", and "Spend" envelopes. They caught on quickly and it has gone very well the past three months. The boys are good at putting money in their Give envelopes and then taking the money to church on Sundays. The money they give at church goes to help Josue and Isaac, two little boys in Honduras that have Cerebral Palsy. Our boys always talk about taking their money to give to Isaac and Josue, it's so sweet.

When their other envelopes start to fill up, we will take them to the store with us and they can pick out a new toy. We have done this 3-4 times since we started this system and the boys love picking out something new. They have mostly stopped asking us for toys, they know they just need to save up their money. And they are also learning that they need to work to get paid. They now have a better understanding of why Kelly goes to work, so he can make money to pay for all of our things.

This is one of the times they got to spend their money at Target. Cason picked out a small Lego set.



Bryce picked out an ambulance (complete with lights and siren of course!)