It all started with a happy hour spent playing at a friends house. A friend who has three Littlest Pet Shop houses and a menagerie of pets.
My girl wants a Littlest Pet Shop house. She has a bunch of Littlest pets (birthday parties, McD's toys, garage sales, and I think I bought one) but they are homeless. I saw my opportunity to get her to get rid of toys. So, I worked that angle. I would make sure she got a house if she got rid of a bunch of toys. And we filled a box to be freecycled soon.
I started my search online to see the retail price of what we were looking at. Then I went on to Craigslist and ebay. We also spent two hours garage saling yesterday but no luck. I do have a birthday gift card for ToysRUs that I've been hanging onto since her birthday in February. It may be mean but I'm also making her spend her allowance on the toy too. So I think we have about $26 to spend. I'm hoping not to spend that much but new toys in the box can be ridiculously pricey. I'll pay an overages if I have to. To lessen the sting of retail, I printed out this great coupon for a free Thomas the Train too.
Call me stingy if you want but I see no reason to spend our hard earned dollars on a toy that isn't worth working for if it's not a holiday or a birthday. By making her work and pay for it I'm doing two things:
1. Making sure she really wants this toy before we get it.
2. Helping her understand that sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the things you want.
And while I don't want a spoiled kid- I would like her to get some of the stuff she wants.
1 comment:
I don't think you are stingy at all. There is nothing wrong with learning to work for what they want. And that toy will be all the more precious because of it.
We did the same thing when my boys were little, and they are now responsible young men that take care of their possessions and don't waste their money on frivolous things.
Great post. Julie
Post a Comment