You know how your parents did stuff when you were young and you just accepted it?
Like how that you didn't know just how broke you were, because they made everything sound so cool and exciting?
I was grown and married before I found out macaroni and cheese is not usually the main dish. With hot dogs in it. Of course, my mom is the champion homemade-from-scratch macaroni and cheese chef, but still. And my sister and I used to feel so awesome that our straight-A report cards were getting free hamburgers from McDonald's, so we got to take our family out to eat every 9 weeks. And Book-It free pizza from Pizza Hut. YES!
Mom used to be the manager of the Goodwill store in our town, and it was just so much more fun to walk down there after school and read all the books on the old furniture than to go home alone. And then when church camp time came, and we got first pick of the new shipments? Hold.me.back. No wonder I can't stand to pay full price for new clothes. I'm usually more excited about hand-me-downs for Zesty than I am about new clothes, because if he stains it, it's not the end of the world.
What kind of free/frugal/deeply discounted stuff do you do with your kids? How do you disguise your broke-ness?
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
Proverbs 15:17
1 comment:
The other night we let the kids buy their own dinner at Costco (a whopping 1.50) with their own money. They even had enough money left over to share and buy a churro. They were thrilled.
When I was a kid we only got new toys at Christmas, and even then it was pretty simple. We do this with our kids too, unless they save their own money from chores to buy it themselves. They treasure and care for their toys a whole lot more when it isn't like they'll get something new next week when I go to the grocery store. Christmas and Birthday gifts are received with an entirely different heart when toys and gifts aren't something they get every week.
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