Alex's First Garage Sale

I don't remember when my parents started teaching me financial responsibility, but I do remember being around 9 years old and whining at my mom about some purchase I wanted to make. She told me she didn't have the money for it, but I had seen the money. Dad had just got paid and I saw lots and lots of money. She took it as an opportunity to teach me a thing or two about budgeting. She sat me down with this huge (in the eyes of a 9 year old) stack of cash and then showed me the bills to be paid. Together we took bills off the pile and paid the bills... strikes me now that she probably didn't send cash through the mail to pay the utilities, but I didn't know that. After mortgage, utilities, savings, tithing, dental, medical, and other miscellaneous things, that pile dwindled down pretty good. I will never forget that day. I know that Alex is too young to really understand money, but I don't want him growing up thinking that money is a plastic card you carry in your pocket. So today when we went to the garage sale I gave him a real paper dollar do spend on anything he wanted. He was very excited to find a train and when he gave the kid the dollar, he even got two quarters back. A few houses later Alex and Annie found a toy they both liked so Alex took Annie with her dollar to the lady and showed her how to pay for her new toy. So cute!