Money Matters Part 3

As previously promised... the Job Chart!

Let me preface by saying this is by no means all Leeann does to help around the house. This is simply all she gets paid for. Notice it's not a 'chore chart', but rather a 'job chart'.

She also doesn't have to complete any of these tasks on any given day. But, she must complete them if she wants to get paid for them. As I stated in Money Matters Part 2, it's very important to me that she associates work with money. Too many people expect something for nothing in this world, if you ask me. I'm trying to do my part to refrain from contributing to this backward notion most of society has!

I am confident that we take far more pride and ownership in the things we work for. I know it's certainly true for me, and I can already see that becoming true for her. 

So, here's the breakdown:

 

First we have a picture of the Disney Princesses. Because who wants a boring old black and white job chart without any pictures?

Rob and I came up with our favorite character attribute of each princess, and I placed that attribute next to each one. Beauty comes from within you know?

Jasmine is humble

Snow White is compassionate

Mulan is selfless

Tiana is a saver

Sleeping Beauty is pure

Cinderella is hard working

Pocahontas is a peace-maker

Belle is a learner

Ariel is a dreamer

Truth be told it was a stretch for me to come up with a good character attribute for Ariel. I really wanted to put, "Rebellious, mischief making, selfish, spoiled rotten, disobedient little snot." But "dreamer" seemed to fit better with the theme! Okay, so now you know, she's not my favorite princess...

She uses a dry erase marker to check off each job she's done each day. She has 28 opportunities to do a job throughout each week. We'll only pay her for a maximum of 20 though. I don't ever imagine she'll get more than 20 because there are days that we don't eat here so she can't set the table. There are days I don't do laundry so she can't switch loads. There will also be days where she doesn't empty the dishwasher because, well, I don't run the dishwasher every day. You get the point...

This is the section where she writes down what she's planning to spend her money on. The last thing any 7 year-old needs is a fistful of dollars in her pocket, looking for an opportunity to spend. That's just my humble opinion though. She'd come home with do-hickey's and thing-a-ma-bob's galore, just so she could spend what's in her pocket... all the while wondering why she can't seem to save enough money for the thing she really wants.

This is my attempt at helping to teach her to save toward a goal, and to not give in to the rush of impulse purchasing. Impulse purchasing is what gets most of us into trouble!

And finally, this is the pay chart. She gets $0.25 for each job she does. Across the top you see the numbers 1 through 20. The first week she did 15 jobs, so we looked under the number 15 and she got paid $3.75. $0.38 to tithe, $1.12 to put toward her car (Yes, her car. If we want to teach her never to go into debt, we have to give her the tools and opportunities to save for big purchases.) and $2.22 to spend.

Each week she gets paid and then puts that money into their appropriate envelopes.

The first thing Leeann is choosing to save her spend money for (that sounds funny, to 'save' your 'spend' money doesn't it?) for is a Nintendo DS. She set her sights high for her first purchase!

Does anyone want to hire a 7 year-old to pull weeds, walk your dog, fold your towels, or do any other age appropriate type jobs? She's eager to work and she's actually quite a delightful helper!

And that my friends, is Leeann's job chart, and our current teach-our-kiddos-about-money philosophy. It's subject to change. Everything in my life is subject to change at any given moment without warning. I like it that way!