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April is FINANCIAL LITERACY MONTH!
To help focus attention on ways to live within the budget, here are a couple of websites to give you some ideas…
What resources (websites, blogs, books, etc.) help you with your financial literacy?
If your house is anything like mine, at any given moment, there is a trail from the door throughout the house strewn with shoes, jackets, Star Wars figures, books, art projects, writing utensils, sports equipment, school papers and any number of other items that an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl touch and leave behind during the day. I don’t think they MEAN to leave stuff everywhere but, I don’t think they try very hard NOT to either!
In order to combat the mess and help them remember to take care of (and responsibility for) their stuff, we are implementing a “BUY BACK BOX”. Here’s how it works…
- I make 2 sweeps through the main living areas of the house (kitchen, dining room, living room & family room) each day. The first is in the morning after everyone goes to school and the 2nd is in the evening after kids are in bed.
- Anything I find on those sweeps that belongs to the kids and is NOT WHERE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE (i.e. their rooms or backpacks), goes into the BUY IT BACK BOX.
- Each Saturday (allowance day), the kids will have the opportunity to buy back items from the box that belong to them.
- Each item can be repurchased for $0.25. ONLY CASH IS ACCEPTED.
- At the end of each calendar month, anything left in the BUY BACK BOX (i.e. anything not bought back) will be donated or discarded.
Here’s my thinking…
- If they are old enough to have STUFF, they are old enough to take care of it (know where it is, put it away, etc.).
- They have more than adequate closet and storage space in their rooms. That is where their stuff belongs.
- If it’s not important enough for them to take care of it, doing without it for a couple of days might remind them how much they like it.
- Not having it may help them realize that they don’t really like it and don’t want to have to keep up with it.
- Money is a language that speaks to them in ways I cannot.
- If they are not willing to take care of it OR pay to get it back, they don’t need/want it and we might as well give it to someone who does.
If we’re lucky, we’ll make enough money to buy more stuff to sell back to the kids!
Suze Orman was on Morning Joe yesterday talking about some specific things that we can do for ourselves financially. Certainly, we will all be affected (whether we benefit from it or not) by the stimulus legislation and the housing rescue plan enacted this week. No matter what laws and/or policies are in place, the ultimate responsibility for our personal finances is ours. Do you have a plan? If so, what is it? If not, why not?
Watch this video to get some ideas about great ways to get started… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#29278551
With the current economic situation, it’s very difficult to find good financial news. It’s not impossible, however, to find some goods things in the current circumstances. Thank goodness for people like the family highlighted in these articles from CNN who are turning the difficult economy into a positive experience for their own family!
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