More money, more problems.
Your Mom and I established an allowance-for-chores system that lasted a few short weeks before the allowance payments turned a la carte. As I believe I wrote in another letter, your respective colors showed: Eliza is the allowance saver, and you are the instant spender.
Your income streams recently diversified. The Easter Bunny who showed up at Popa’s house loaded up eggs with coins and dollars. Popa also took you and Eliza to Wal-Mart for your first Coinstar experience, dumping an oatmeal barrel of mostly pennies into the machine. You were delighted to see the tally add up, and you two split $28 after fees.
That money must have been burning a hole in your pocket because you went on an instant spending spree, starting right away buying some Pokemon cards before we left Indiana.
You also asked Mom to purchase you a safe (not a piggy bank) that hit our budget and spared yours somehow. We counted out the money down to the many pennies and wound up with $29 deposited from Easter and the Coinstar spree.
You explained as we counted, “If a bad guy comes into our house, he won’t be able to steal my money in this safe.”
You were excited to have your own secret code and talked out loud about the different 4-digit combinations you could use. Broadcasting your safe code isn’t the best way to keep it shut and away from the bad guys.
Soon you “bought” a Beyblades set that we had in the garage for future birthday gifting. I thought you were over those toys, but you were too tempted by the unopened box in plain sight. The next day, we went to Metro Retro in Tacoma to buy a special Pokémon card and a pack that ended up having a couple valuable cards in it. Later, you tried to persuade Mom into buying another Pokémon set online, but I reminded her you hadn’t paid up for the last purchase. You reacted “strongly” (threw a tantrum) to the news that you were out of money – and we weren’t taking on debt for you.
It will take you some time to get $29 back in that safe. Maybe you’ll sell some Pokemon cards to expedite the time. Or maybe you’ll buy another Pokemon pack after you get the next $5 in hand. I’ll help keep you on track to make the wiser choice.
Love,
Dad