...if I can't be honest with my anonymous readers, I can't very well expect to be honest with myself.
My weekend of backsliding wasn't limited to Sunday. Saturday started it. I woke up late and started with a MediFast shake, and an Atkins Buffalo Chicken Salad from Fridays for lunch. I was okay through most of the rest of the day, until I went out to Wal-Mart. I re-stocked on pickles, and talked myself into the TV stand for the bedroom (rationalizing that it would cost me way more than $70 in materials alone to build the one I was thinking of). At the checkout, they were selling trial-size packs of flavored jerky, so I picked up four: 2 prime rib, 1 fajita chicken, and 1 barbecued pork. As you might guess, the whole collection lasted about an hour. Plus side: 70 cals per package, so I only had 280 cals, and also pretty low carb. Minus side: gateway drug. I ended up having the last of the Chef Boyardee bowls (+210 cals), and several of the jalapeno cheese cracker packs Daughter takes for snack to school (+200 cal each, +400 cal total). And, at a about 4:15 AM, 1/4 of a 9x13 pan of lasagna (see previous post for today). I REALLY need to throw the rest out, to avoid temptation. I guess it's my Dad's depression-era sensibilities (he was born in '29) and my mom's CPA father talking, but I just hate to throw out perfectly good food.
I also organized Daughter's change collection, by which I mean I totally took it over and did it Dad's way. Before I even really got started, I realized she had almost $140 in just paper bills. She also had a bag of coins from her aunt and uncle in Florida, some of which were pretty old U.S. coins, but most were foreign currency (pre-Euro). I also pulled out one each of the state quarters in her change jar, and one each of the new nickels, and put them in with the coin collection in a ziploc bag. The rest of the change, except for $4.60 (12 quarters, 10 dimes, 10 nickels and 10 pennies) I took to a CoinStar machine, intending to make up the "counting fee" from my own money (no reason she should suffer for my impatience).
So what brought this counting spree on? Daughter got a little electronic bank for Xmas from my mother. It has an ATM card and a PIN and everything. It's not big enough to hold all the change she had, and there was no sense in maintaining two banks. The first grocery store I went to had a full CoinStar (this was at like 10:30 Saturday night), so I went up the road. The second store's CoinStar was in the vestibule for the locked entrance, so I had to get the clerk to unlock it. By the time I was done, I had a voucher for $83.01, and about $8.11 to make up from my pocket (8.9% just to count and store coins, ugh!), for a total of $91.12 in coins.
Now, let me state this clearly. My 9-year-old daughter now has access to over $235 in CASH. When I was 9 (yeah, uphill in the snow both ways), I don't think $235 passed through my hands in a year. I was probably 18 before I ever had $200 all in one place at the same time. And keep in mind, this is just at MY house. God knows what kind of cash Daughter has squirreled away at her mom's house.
But, the money is all bank-faced, sorted by condition of bill and clipped together with like denominations. And will remain so until at least next Monday. I harbor no illusions that my attention to detail and OCD-like habits will carry over. If I can keep her from going out and buying 14 Tamagotchis with it, it'll be a victory. Perhaps it's time for a visit to Daughter's passbook savings account with about $200. She'll probably be bummed that she didn't get to do the coin-dumping (oddly enough, there was a dude behind me with a sack of coins waiting, so I was kinda rushed), but I think the overall size of her empire will impress her. It might also be time for a series of chats about money.
I'm toying with the idea of rewarding her for saving by offering her (Dad-financed) interest. It might be a more effective lesson than a passbook, because she'll see the amount grow in cash, and her money won't be some abstract idea that she has to con Mom and Dad into taking her to the bank to get, it's something nearby.
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