Mom's Store

We had our first official "Mom's Store" grand opening today.  Joseph was gone the first two weeks of summer so he didn't earn any money then, but he did all his chores and music everyday before noon this week and so he had as much money as all the other kids had earned during their first week - they all slacked off the 2nd week and hardly did anything this week either.  So today, Friday at noon, Mom's store opened.  The crowd was ready to break down the door.

I had different bins priced at 10 cents (stickers and hair bows), 25 cents (small toys), $1 (a few toys from kid to kid and garage sales), $3 for the fun sized candy bars and $10 for the big box of candy (supply and demand made the price of all treats rise dramatically, the kids were offended at the $10 price, but it worked for my plan of it deterring them from buying them, hahaha.  $5 would have been a more appropriate price, but then they would have been gone.)

The sword was $2, coloring books $1 (I went easy on prices for Wes and the little girls, especially since this was the first time the store was open).  The kids all had enough money to buy something, and I smiled as I heard Ethan say "I'm totally earning all my money next week..."  That's what I wanted to hear, my master plan is working.

Abi said "Mom!  Thanks for all the stuff, you're store is WONDERFUL!!"  :)

---- Update ----

To answer Kristen's questions: This is all fake money.  I printed up the bills from the image on this post here, and the coins are ones I got years ago from Oriental Trading Company (I'm guessing they're still for sale from this link here?  Not sure if they still have the six colors they had when I bought them... I wrote on the coins with permanent marker the following corresponding currency - Gold $1, Silver .50, Copper/Red .25, Purple .10, Blue .05, violet .01)

The biggest amount of money they can earn at once is the $1 buck they earn by doing all their basic chores before lunch, which includes:

• Bedroom (make bed, bedroom clean, closet clean, clothes put away neatly)
• Their assigned Room is cleaned (kids each have an assigned area of the house)
• Music practice (1 hour)
• Read for 30 minutes.

The kids have to do these chores before they can play with friends, and these things are expected from them, so they don't get paid for doing these chores in and of themselves, but if they do them right away each day, they get $1 buck for being prompt and putting it first.  If they aren't done until 2:00 for example they don't get paid anything.  But after basic chores are done, even if it takes them until 5pm, the kids can earn money by doing extra chores and things from things from the "I'm Bored" List, an idea a friend gave me that she got from this post.  Here is my list right now:

Earn money by:

Reading a book for 10 minutes (10)

Exercising 20 minutes (jump rope, jogging, basketball, dancing etc) (10)

Memorize a poem (15)

Try a new food (5)

Write a story, poem, or report (15)

Serve a friend, neighbor, or family member (5)

Spend 15 minutes playing with or reading to a younger sibling (10)

Work on a project (sewing etc) for 15 minutes (10)

Practice a skill (crochet, cooking, sewing)

Work on “The Plan” (points depend on skill passed off)

Memorize a scripture or Article of Faith (10)

Choosing to respond in a kind way to a sibling (15)

Working on Faith in God/Personal Progress/ Scouting/Duty to God (15)

Write in journal (10)

Other ideas?  Ask mom and we’ll decide the points it would be worth

Of course those are smaller amounts of money, so it takes longer to save up, thus again encouraging the get up and get started with your chores idea.  :)

This is only play money that they can spend at my store, but they can order things from me and have them shipped.  For example there was only one sword at the grand opening and Ethan bought it, and Wesley has requested for a sword to be there the next week.  Ethan has asked for lego sets, and I might buy some of those, but I told him that lego sets will definitely be more expensive (like little $5 lego sets from Walmart would cost $20 in kid cash, a $30 lego set would be $100 kid cash).  And I also told the kids it's okay for them to buy and trade things between each other or try to sell their services with their kid money in an effort to save more if they want.  If Joe's got a lot of money and wants to pay a kid to make his bed or something, he's welcome to see if there are any takers and what the price ends up being, kinda a fun way for them to learn how to barter and trade.  :)