It's either genius -- or way too much effort

I haven't fully decided yet - of course I haven't tried it yet except on paper and in my mind - both of which can be rather messed up. Here's the deal....

Every day I am asked countless times, "Can I get a snack out of the snack basket?" Countless times I answer no. But that doesn't stop the asking. Once I've answered that sufficiently, the question moves to "Can I have some cookies?" or "Can I have pudding?" or "Can I have one piece of candy or five?" Really - it's like they know no number between one and five. One that drives me buggy but that I hear every day of my life is, "I'm hungry, but not for a banana."

I read an article in Family Fun magazine the other day and I have taken their original idea, added a great kicker to it and hope to implement it next Monday.

This week is somewhat tied up already, what with traveling and Peso removal, trips to museums and such. Then the kids are all going to be gone to various places over the weekend, so next Monday just seems like a good day to start this project or what in my mind I refer to as "anwol."

Anwol - any guesses? Yes? No? Then scroll down for it.......













Anwol = A New Way Of Life. Really, I should be in advertising :)

Anyhoo - back to Anwol. Based on the F.F. idea, Andi and I today made a menu of sorts of all of the kids favorite snacks and some of their not so favorite, but much healthier snacks.

Then we priced them. Here's the list:

Free:
Fresh Fruit
Fresh Veggies
Raisins
Fruit Cocktail
Sliced Peaches

50 cents
1 Piece of Toast with Jelly
1 Slice of Cheese
Granola bar- not fudge dipped
Tortilla Peanut Butter Roll Up

75 cents
Cold Hot Dog
Rice Krispy Treat
Whales- 1 small Dixie Cup full
Fudge dipped granola bar
Peanut Butter or Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

$1.00
5 Cookies
Pudding
Package of Crackers
1 Airhead

$1.50
Mini Fruit Pie
Little Debbie Cake
2 Cups Puffed Popcorn
1 Bowl of Chips
Ice Cream Cone with Sherbet
1 Snack Size candy bar

$2.00
Big Fruit/Pudding Pies
Pop Tarts
Slim Jim

Now - here's where the genius part comes into play. Each week, each child will be given $10.00 in play money and coins.

They have to purchase their snacks with the maximum they are allowed to spend per day being $2.00. Snacks will vary.

They will have to learn to budget, practice their money handling, hopefully eat better and for the final part of this plan which I added.........

At the end of each week, whatever money they have left - they can trade it in to the banker (me) for real money -- which can not be spent on snacks.

If a person was willing to eat really good food, they could earn a lot of money. Feel free to make other snack suggestions. I'm always open to new ideas.

And yes, I KNOW I could just take all the junk food out of the house, but I like to have the occasional pudding or Swiss Roll myself - and I never was one to hide food from my kids. Also, Bill wants this stuff in his lunch box every day, so it is in our house.

This week I will prepare myself for Anwol - perhaps I should give myself a limit to spend also............Nah. Never mind, that's just crazy talk.