Friday, August 23, 2013

How I went into debt before the age of 10 . . .

Don't you love pay day? It's pretty much one of the best day(s) of the month! But, you definitely have to budget your money so you don't go into debt. Even though pay day is great now, it was always one of my most dreaded days of the month growing up. We were lucky enough to have chores and allowance.

I was always so angry about my chores because I had a whole entire list, and none of my friends had any chores at all, and if they did, it wasn’t consistent or hard. I still remember what our first Job Chart was: say your prayers, bed, get dressed, put your PJ’s away, hair, teeth, extra-job room, practice the piano, put your dishes away, and finally, after all of that, we could mark the chart that we had done it.
 
Ok, so I know that I'm lame to complain about it, cause I could really do that in 30 minutes. But, our chore list got longer and harder as we got older. Our summer chore list consisted of that previous list, plus more piano practicing (a whole entire hour!!!), cleaning our bedrooms every single day, another extra job (i.e. cleaning the gutters, mowing the lawn, organizing the pantry, etc), a service to somebody in the neighborhood, weeding the garden or doing other yard work, reading for at least 30 minutes, writing in our journals every day, doing summer workbooks, reading the scriptures, and exercising. A lot of times we would visit the old ladies in our neighborhood for our act of service, mostly because they gave us treats when we went by.
 
It took us a minimum of 3 hours to complete our summer chores (which is super long when you are a child!). It was so frustrating to be tied to your chores when you just wanted to play, because in our family it was against the rules to play before ALL of your jobs were finished. (maybe that's why I didn't have very many friends....I didn't do my chores.....hmmm.......it is all making sense now)

At the end of the month, my dad would dig out his blue box (no, it isn't Call Box from Doctor Who) and take off the chart from the fridge where we had to prove that we did our jobs. We would get paid according to whether or not we had completed our daily chores. The older we got, the more we got paid. I always dreaded this day because let's just be honest, most of the time I didn't actually do my jobs because I always got stuck on reading for 30 minutes. There was a dark time in life when we actually had to pay Dad one dollar for every day we didn’t do our chores. I’m pretty sure only one out of us seven kids is the only child who didn’t go in debt before the age of 10 and that was definitely not me.
 
So, moral of the story: Do your chores so you can have friends. Don't go into debt. And be grateful for parents who will take your money when you don't deserve it.
 
What shenanigans did your parents pull to help you learn the value of hard work and an honest days' wages?
 
 
 
 
 

6 comments:

  1. Doing your jobs = friends...you crack me up!

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    1. Yes, it took me my whole life to learn, but it is true. When you do your jobs you actually have time to make friends rather than sit on the couch reading books because you have no friends. :D

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  2. Ha ha. Oh, Alaina....hey! My parents did the exact same shenanigans! :) Our parents must have been on the same wave length.

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    1. What a coincidence! Good to know that my parents aren't the only ones who did stuff like that!! Haha.

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  3. Hahahaha ... Dark days ... Hahahahaha :)
    I seem to remember helping with your chores so my mom would let me stay over more :)

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  4. When I was a kid I pretty much had to buy my own birthday presents... I too went into debt.

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