Pay Day vs Pay Day

I love Pay Day.  It's the day I look at my bank account on my phone and money magically appears. Then the adrenaline rush comes to see how fast I can pay the bills.  When I was working, Pay Day was more frequent.  I was paid on different days than Joe so money with the "plus" sign next to it was there more often.  Now pay day consists of two days a month, unless I do the odd jobs to bring in extra income.  Today my odd job was selling some things on our Eagle Mountain 24/7 Yard Sale site.  Yeah, I am pretty awesome.  I made $10. 

The nice thing about Pay Day is it is a reward for being employed and working hard.  It is a simple equation really: employment=money. 

When I was working, my girls had no structure.  I would have my sister-in-law, Becca come every two weeks to clean my house.  (That was her pay day.)  On my days off,  I had two options.  I tried to cram as much as I could in or I would rest from being so exhausted.  Emilee and Hannah were spoiled.  They were given what they wanted, when they wanted and if "No" was told to them, they would have a melt down. Chores consisted of getting ready for the day and going to bed at night.  If cleaning was to get done, it was by Becca or myself.  It was easier this way.  I didn't have the energy to put into arguing with them.

I knew this was not right as a parent but as a working individual, the thought of teaching my children these principles overwhelmed me.  When I quit my job, I knew they needed structure and to be taught the simple principles of hard work and earning their rewards.  My first day home, I thought about what I could do to teach my girls to work hard, earn money and save.

Thus, Pay Day started in our family.  I made these $100 bills with Hannah and Emilee's faces on them.  We call them "Hannah" dollars and "Emmy" dollars.


They each have a list of things they must do to earn these dollars.  The list consists of things such as obeying, doing homework without a fuss(for Hannah), going on the potty(for Emmy), putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket, cleaning up their toys, etc.  They then can save their dollars to earn prizes.

$10- a treat out of the treat bucket
$20- ice cream at the ice cream shop
$30- toy at the $1 store
$60- Mommy or Daddy daughter date
$100- Big toy at Walmart

Each night we have Pay Day. We gather at the "bank," which is our bed and I open the "cash register" which is a Tupperware container that contains their dollars.  I read off the list and they tell me if they earned a dollar for that category.  At first Hannah had a hard time saving her money.  Every $10 she earned, went straight back to the banker to buy her treat.  Emmy, on the other hand, loves ice cream.  She would save her money to earn an ice cream.  Once Emmy received her ice cream, Hannah realized she wanted an ice cream too and started saving her money.  One day, Hannah worked all morning just so she could have an ice cream along with Emmy.

We have been doing this for exactly one month now.  Emmy currently has 56 "Emmy" dollars in her piggy bank and Hannah has 32 "Hannah" dollars.  Hannah is trying to catch up to Emmy.  They are both working to get $100 so they can go to Walmart.  Emmy has her eye on a new Barbie. 

I am really pleased with the outcome of this.  I love Pay Day now for different reasons.  I love seeing the excitement every night when the girls hop on our bed before family prayer and we have to count their dollars to see what they are at.  I love seeing how they have learned the importance of working hard, earning money and saving.  It is fun! 

Being a good mom to my girls is my Pay Day.  And, well, that is priceless.