Tuesday, November 15, 2011

$23 in the mason jar

I have grown up having a dog in my home ever since I can really remember.  When Charity and I first got married we waited about a year and got our first dog Rosie.  Rosie was a good little dog but once Sophie became mobile we realized that is wasn't going to work out to keep Rosie around and made the tough choice to give her away.

For the last year I have really wanted to get another dog in our home but it just hasn't been the right timing.  I have looked at many different breeds of dogs and have narrowed my list down to certain breeds I like better than others.  Then once we started taking Financial Peace University (FPU) I realized this was a cool chance to get my daughters in the habit of saving for what we want.  See Sophie and Leah both love dogs and I'm sure they can't wait until we get one in our home but FPU taught me that I can't just use my credit card to buy a dog and think that everything will be ok.

Starting about ten weeks ago Sophie, Leah and I began to save my extra allowance money in a mason jar in our house.  It started out with a few bucks here and there and then I started having to swap out the ones in there for fives and tens.  Right now we have $24 saved up to buy our dog.  The goal is to have enough money  to be able to head to the pound (or Craigslist) and find a dog that really needs a good home.  We have decided that there are enough dogs in the world that need a good home and I think we can provide that home but not until we have enough saved up.  Some of the cool parts of this saving is it provides an opportunity for me to teach my girls the value of saving and allows them to see the growth as we pack dollars into the jar.  Something even better is the other night we saw our friend and shared with her what we are doing.  After Sophie told her our plan she reached into her pocket and pulled out a dollar for Sophie to stuff in the jar.  I'm very excited for the day we get to head to the pound and rescue a dog! 

2 comments:

Kris and Ally Linscott Est. 2004 said...

I love this idea. You can also use the route I did and pray. I really really really wanted a dog and Kris told me "NO!". He didn't want to 1) pay for the dog and 2) didn't think we were ready. I prayed hard and God placed Bailey in our laps, well in a bush by our house. Bailey is beyond perfect and it is apparent she is a gift from God.

Neal Benson said...

Ally, this is going to sound weird but I never thought about praying for God to give us the perfect dog! I am going to start doing that.