by Hope
Princess turned 15 this past weekend. And we managed to have a party with no “extra” money spent! Proud mama moment here!
I used our weekly “allowance” to cover the costs of snacks and decorations…
I also purchased various personal hygiene items over the past couple of months with our regularly budget monies. And wrapped them as presents…razors, shaving gel, lotion, face mask, etc. By doing it a little at a time and purchasing items that I would typically purchase for her anyways, it didn’t come as a big shock and she had something to unwrap.
We invited her 3 ‘bestest’ friends over for the night…and instead of pizza, they chose to hit up McDonalds for dinner…$26.
Saturday we drove an hour to the closest mall, and they spent an hour wandering around and ‘shopping.’ They each had their own money for this portion of the ‘party.’
And then a final stop at my favorite park there, where you can purchase duck food for a quarter and feed the ducks. I think we spent $2-3 there.
Finally, that night, as is our family tradition…Princess and I went out to eat at the local Cracker Barrel, her choice, where she opened the gifts from family. We spent $24 there. (The twins are out of town for their school break or they would have been with us.)
We had a fantastic time. She was thrilled with her ‘party’ and her gifts. And all of it was done for less then our $200 weekly cash allowance that covers food, entertainment, etc. Lesson learned…one child is definitely cheaper than 4!
And in two days…I will have another driver in the house…YIKES! Permit here comes Princess!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
By any chance have you checked how much insurance is going to cost when she passes her test? 15 seems awful young, in our state you must be 16 and there were rules about when you could drive and who was in the car.
She will just have her permit until she turns 16. And until she gets her license, I do not have to pay for insurance, so we have this year…
While she has her permit, she must be accompanied by a licensed driver aged 21+, after she gets her license there are limitations on who can be in the car with her but since we have another year before that happens, I haven’t reviewed them yet.
Thanks, I know ours is expensive.
They’re adorable. And everyone knows a
15 year old can drive with a permit.
Driving laws vary by state. This is not a universal truth. It’s very presumptuous to assume “everyone knows” that in Georgia a person can start driving with a permit at 15.
In my state you can’t get a permit until after 16. In the state directly south of me, you can get a full driver’s license if you take a driver’s ed class by 15 years, 6 months.
Not in PA.
Not in NY either
Different states have different rules. In Virginia Princess would need to wait 6 months after her 15th birthday to get a leader’s permit.
In IA, you can get a permit at 14 and drive yourself to school with no adult in the car with a special addendum to it.