$$$ Lessons

Two lessons in money:

1) Porter and Isaac both came out of the dentist with no cavities and $50 richer. That is the reward for a year with no cavities in our house, I just as soon pay our kids, instead of paying the dentist more. Isaac didn't even see the cash, but paid off his accordion repair and bought a clarinet ligature. The freedom of being out of debt is happiness. We came out saving hundreds of dollars.

2) Usually, I do my monthly shopping trip by myself. All of the calculating and decisions are better made without interruptions of 7 kids. Keith always suggests we go together. I always groan. But, for his birthday we went shopping as a family and to a movie. As I do every month I wrote a grocery list and gave an approximate price for each item and an idea what everything would cost. I split up the list into sections. But by the time I did that I realized that we wouldn't be within our budget if we got everything that was on the list, so instead of me deciding, I let them figure out how to cut $20 out of their own grocery list. In the end I paid for each list separately, so we could see how we did. Here are the results of the life lesson of staying within a budget and still getting the things we need:
Budget/Reduced budget/Actual
Isaac $125 /$100/$99.52
Porter $85/$65/$66.38
Pace $70/$50/$49.18

No calculators. Busy Saturday shopping at WINCO.

WOOHOO!!!!!