Working Hard for the (Book) Money

Palmer is one ambitious entrepreneur.  From the time he was a preschooler, he's been asking neighbors and friends for any jobs he can do to earn money.  His first big purchase was Spencer, a Thomas the train engine.

Last week was book fair week at Palmer's school and in his own words, he "just kinda freaked out!"  What do I mean by that?  Well, I gave him $20 to spend on Monday at the fair.  He visited during the day while I was doing a volunteer shift and I watched him pick two books from his wishlist and spend the remaining change on a few erasers and trinkets.

Insert Tuesday and I noticed Palmer was taking his wallet.  The $21 in the wallet was Palmer's to spend as he wished- it's a combination of tooth fairy money, Christmas money, and money earned by odd jobs.  Palmer told me, "I will not spend all this money and I especially won't spend this very special $2 bill that I've had for three years.  I will never spend that!"

You can guess what happened next... Palmer's wallet came home empty.  "Mom, when the book fair gets here, I just kinda freaked out!"  We had a good conversation that night about what's more important- buying the erasers and items for sale or saving some of the money and the special $2 bill.  We discussed the idea of sleeping on an item and waking up to decide if you still want it and we also talked about not spending money just because you have it to spend.

What happened the next day?  Palmer's entrepreneur spirit kicked in.  I'm not sure if he was hoping to replenish his wallet or get more dollars for the book fair, but Palmer starts knocking on neighbor doors.  His first idea was to sell an "invisible tattoo" created from a pen that can only be seen under a UV light.  When that idea wasn't a huge success, he started asking neighbors (and me!) for odd jobs.

Organizing Rick's shoes for $1:

I told Palmer he could only visit the neighbors who didn't have kids currently living at the house!  This yard job took two days to complete...

Five dollars later, he took the money back to school... and bought more items from the book fair.  He also had a conversation with the cashiers about trying to trade out 2 $1 bills for his $2 bill, but alas that bill was long gone.  (The librarian told me that she sees tons of $2 bills every year- the kids empty everything they have including tooth fairy money and grandparent money.)

Sadly, the book fair is over.  But, Palmer is already scheming up ways to raise money so he can shop at the summer camp store in June.

I like his hard work attitude and am now focusing on teaching him that jobs are not always available, so he needs to be gracious for the work opportunities and mindful of how the money is spent.  Rick and I are also brainstorming how we might want to deal with an allowance soon.

-Bethany