Lesson in Money Management

Wes gave Lucy a $20 gift card to Target for Christmas (among other things). At first I thought this was silly- a three year old is not going to understand a gift card, and maybe a bit lazy on his part. But, after he explained his intentions it turns out it was a well thought out gift. He wanted to demonstrate that items have a value and if you don't have that much money you can't buy the item. We went to Target and this is how it all went down.

Before we got there Wes explained that Lucy has $20 on the card so she could buy whatever she wanted that was not more than $20. As we went up and down the toy aisle she would point out things she wanted. The first item she pointed out was a Handy Manny something or other. I pointed out that it was $30 and that was more than $20 but then showed her another Handy Manny item that was less than $20. She decided to pass. On the second or third aisle she picked out this Horse- it was $19. After the horse was in the buggy we kept looking and when she saw something else we'd say- "ok you can have the kitty, but you have to put the horse back because you don't have enough money for both." Surprisingly, she always went back to the horse and there were no temper tantrums. Wes threw in the ram for good behavior. Lucy named the horse Rudolph.