wearing: bold golden dangle earrings / lipstick / blue boho tunic / brown train case (see review here) / spring nail polish / jeans / black high heel sandals /

Hello spring! While spring doesn’t officially start until this weekend, these beautiful days with high’s in 70’s, have put some spring in my step!

My kids had a teacher-in-service day on Monday, so I brought them up to Stanford Shopping Center for a yummy lunch at the Neiman Marcus Cafe. In addition to lunch, we made a pit stop at the American Girl store. My youngest daughter loves American Girl. She has a couple of dolls, and every book the company has written. She also enjoys their movies!

In the middle of last year, my daughter set her sights on a new doll from the American Girl store. Since she already had two dolls, I felt like she did not need another one. So, she decided to save up her allowance so she could buy the doll herself. I have to appreciate the financial planning and resourcefulness! She cleaned out a jam jar, and began collecting her cash inside the jar. She kept a sticky note with a tally of how much cash she needed for both the doll and the sales tax. Once she had the cash, I promised her we would visit the store so she could buy the doll.

I had no idea how many coins and pennies she had saved! I would have brought her to the bank to exchange the coins for bills, had I known how many she had. There was roughly $30 in coins in that jar! Oooops! She dumped the jar into her purse before we left the house, and when we arrived at the counter to purchase the doll, she dumped out the purse. I was a little embarrassed at the amount of coins. The sales assistant who helped my daughter was unfazed, and spent time counting out the coins for my daughter. My daughter was so proud of herself for saving up the money! She ended up being $0.21 short, so I threw in a quarter so she could buy the doll. I was so happy she saved up! I was also thankful the American Girl sales assistant was patient with my daughter and her coins!

Although she now has three American Girl dolls, which seems excessive to me, I am happy she learned a lesson about saving money for something she really wanted. Hopefully this lesson will continue throughout her life, so she understands saving money is more important than spending it for instant gratification. Always keep your eyes on the financial prize.

For our shopping excursion, I wore this fun and flowy boho top with my favorite pair of jeans, which my daughter photographed for me. It was perfect with the 75-ish degree weather, and glowing sunshine. What a beautiful day! I love spring!

Shop my boho flow outfit for spring:

Have you ever scrimped and saved for what you really want? What types of financial lessons have you taught your kids?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy