Tag: money

Road Money Part Two

justjenLeave a comment

Day one, 5 minutes in, I was already worried.

If you haven’t read the set-up for today’s post, you can read Part One.  I pick up where I left off…

Just a few blocks from our house, I was filling up on gas, and the boy decided to hit the convenience store.  Blew nearly half his daily allowance on junk food. I reminded him this was a full travel day, and he still needed to cover his lunch and dinner.

In the past, he and I were collaborating on our spends because our budget was shared. This morning, I’d given each kiddo $20 for the day. I didn’t plan to hand them cash each morning of the trip, but I wanted them to have to handle the transactions at the register and watch the money disappear over the day. Plus I knew we’d probably split up for lunch. We’d planned to stop somewhere in the southern suburbs of Salt Lake City for this meal, and I knew we’d be able to find a mall area with a concentration of different chain restaurants.  

Shit! I could already see the plan falling apart with me having to cover his dinner and then having to dictate how he spent his food allowance for the remainder of the trip. This was supposed to be helpful not painful. Maybe it was a bad idea after all.

We did indeed find one of those restaurant concentrations, and each of us chose a different place to eat. The boy was down to just a few dollars and we still had to figure out dinner. Once we got to our day’s destination, after over 9 hours on the road, my mind was racing to find a way he could get enough to eat on just a couple bucks. I Googled nearby pizza places and suggested we each pitch in $5 which took him barely negative for the day. Whew! He was alright with that, and so was I.

I also modeled generosity by buying a big cookie from the hotel food counter and splitting it three ways for dessert.

The next day there was some definite collaborating with the kids pooling money for lunch and even sharing with me who chose not to spend anything at that stop. The girl has mostly eaten here at our friends’ house and grabbed some snacks when we stopped at the grocery store. The boy has had the option to get a take-out burger on those days he doesn’t like what’s available and it’s been so low stress!

We’re nearing the end of our visit, and after several fun outings including a train ride into Olvera Street in Los Angeles one day and a decadent adventure to Porto’s Cuban Bakery where we indulged in delightfully beautiful sweet treats (where I used some of my surplus to contribute a pastry to each of their collections of self-chosen goodies,) both kids are pretty happy with the surplus they’ve been able to amass—even as they shared their precious purchases. Mind you, generous friends shared meals, additional pastries from Porto’s, and even additional cash for the kids’ purses.

Talk about abundance!  

Road Money, Part One

justjenLeave a comment

It was risky. The budget.

I had used this approach with the boy before. Over the last year, he and I have done several road trips. I would give us a daily budget that was intended for food and any activities—these trips usually involved visiting family or friends so were pretty budget friendly to begin with, but it’s still easy to over indulge when you’re on the road and not being careful about monitoring your spending, am I right? Especially the boy who has a limited palate and takes every opportunity to eat out…

So I would give us a daily trip allowance that we always shared. If we had a less expensive day, that money could roll over into the next day. We could even go over, but that would subtract from the overall budget. The incentive to stay within set spending limit was that I would give any remaining balance from the total budget to the boy at the end of the trip. The daily was really just a way to keep us on track.

I would collect the receipts throughout the day and each night, we’d go over what we’d spent and calculate whether we’d gone over or would carry a surplus into the next day, planning the next day’s meals/activities accordingly. Our most successful trip was when I gave us $20/day combined allowance for a two week trip and we managed to visit the aquarium in Lincoln City, OR, spend time in the Redwoods in N. California, eat out at several fun restaurants, and the boy still got $7 in cash at the end.

I decided to use this approach on this current trip with both kids (15yo girl; 12yo boy.) I was going to give us a combined total of $30/day, but when I told hubby this, he thought that was ridiculously low. (Mind you, the boy and I have survived on $15/day combined.) So I made sure we could afford it, then upped it to $60/day; $20 each. When I explained it to the girl, she had difficulty wrapping her head around how it worked and kind of scoffed at the amount.

When I told the boy the budget, he was elated! Already scheming ways we could pool our money some days to save overall. He had more experience with doing this whole roadtrip budget thing with me and assured his sister that $20/day each was a very generous allowance!  

Why was it risky? I’ve noticed that we have created a lack mindset in our family, and I’m working hard to overcome that and help my children shift to a lens of abundance. It’s not easy—especially since we do struggle some financially. I can contrast us to people who have so much less or seemingly nothing and know we have way more than enough, but shifting these kids who’ve heard, “we can’t afford it” their whole lives is super challenging.

As siblings, they struggle to get along anyway, and I feared that throwing in an individual rather than a shared budget might contribute to an ego-centric attitude when choosing how to spend, and it could get ugly. I really wasn’t sure which would work better, but thought it might get even uglier if they had to collaborate on every purchase.  

How did it turn out? You’ll have to return for Part Two on Thursday…