Didn't ask for a dime. Two dollars.

I got the crafting bug and I got it bad!  It all started with those Hershey Kiss Roses.  I am so damn proud of them that I keep upping my ante.  Consequently, I have been spending a lot of time on crafting websites.  First off, there are a lot of really talented and creative people out there.  I am not one of them, but I can steal an idea like nobody’s business.  I don’t really steal it, though.  I’ll give credit where credit is due.  Another reason I’m not actually stealing ideas is because I could never replicate the original so I have to improvise in accordance with my skill level.

Here is the latest in my creations:

There isn’t anything difficult about this.  If you have Excel and know how to copy and paste, you can do it.  And actually, the whole issue of crafting has nothing to do with this post other than finding printable money on Tip Junkie today and it giving me the idea to do it.

Yesterday Ryan and I were discussing buying Kamryn a new bike.  I don’t like to just go out and buy toys for the kids.  I think every kid should have a bike, but I feel that it’s too big of an item to go out and buy on a whim so I’m making Kamryn buy it herself with the above chart.

I printed out the money and made up some things that I would like Kamryn to work on.  Those are listed in the “Rewards” column.  The “Consequences” column contains all the things that annoy me on a daily basis. 

I sat her down and we reviewed both columns and how much she could earn or lose if she did them.  Before I was even half way through the Rewards column, I could see the gears starting to turn.  Kamryn, my darling daughter, has been a manipulator since she was about 18 months.  She would stand at the top of the stairs and yell “Me, hug!”  She used to call me, “Me” as in Mommy.  Anyway, that meant she wanted me to go back up to the top of the stairs and give her a hug so she could latch on to my neck like a spider monkey and I would inevitably carry her down the steps so she wouldn’t have to walk.  Of course I wasn’t going to deny my only child a hug and she knew that. 

Kamryn thought that cleaning her room was going to be “really hard”, that “being sassy was in her brain” and she “really was tired a lot”.  I told her that is why we were doing the chart so we could work on them together.  She more or less agreed to my plan and actually earned $2.00 by picking up her puzzle.  Within the hour, she not only lost her $2.00, but now owes me an additional $2.00 for excessive whining about the turkey burgers I made for dinner.

The challenge is on to see who will break first.  Will it be Kamryn who gets so far in the red that she doesn’t see the point of even trying to dig herself out?  Or will it be me who gets sick of trying to keep track of what she actually owes me?  The actual cost of the bike is about $70, but I was going to make her earn $100 to make it a little more challenging.  I thought if she worked for something for a month, it would give her enough appreciation.  However, at this rate, she'll be asking for a car instead of a bike.