special family fun fund

Rolled coins, ebay sales, garage sale profits...where should the money go? This question came up over the weekend when we put a few things in my neighbor's garage sale and also listed some items on ebay. My boys asked if they could have some of the money from what sold. I told them I'd think about it.

My thought is to give them a couple of dollars once them items sell. I think this will give them some immediate gratification and some positive reinforcement to look around their rooms and see what they have that they don't use anymore. Things that we could get out of the house and sell.

But, I think that it also would be very rewarding to SAVE some or most of the money that we get and put it towards doing something fun as a family. Something extra fun!

In our family budget, we have a line item for Recreation/Entertainment. If we wanted to go to the movies, to a museum, or another special outing, this is where we'd get the money. But, what if we want to go on a weekend trip? Then we'd have to save a few months from the Entertainment/Rec area. I've decided to start a new fund - the SPECIAL FAMILY FUN fund and will deposit money into it that we get from our ebay and garage sale profits. We also have a jar where we deposit loose change at the end of the day. I'll put the loose change we collect towards the fund as well.

I'm starting out the fund with $52. We rolled a bunch of coins several weeks ago and this is the amount that we rolled. I'm going to take it to the bank this week to exchange it for real cash and get the new envelope/fund officially started!

It'll be fun to see how much the fund grows and to decide as a family how we want to spend it!