My daughter brought home her interim report today. She made 3 As and 4 Bs. I am very proud of her because she was having a little trouble in math class during the last grading period. She worked really hard to apply herself and it paid off with a whole letter grade increase. In our home, ALL hard work is rewarded (yep, just like money matters). But instead of rewarding her with a purchased gift like I used to do, I tried to think of ways to give her something special without breaking the bank.
I settled on fixing her favorite meal for dinner...Baked Spaghetti. I have no idea why she likes baked spaghetti so much, as opposed to regular spaghetti, but I hadn't fixed it in a while so it was the perfect solution.
1lb of Ground Round - $0 (already in freezer)
1 box of spaghetti noodles - $0.75
1 jar of 7 Herbes Ragu Sauce - $1.89
1 bag of generic brand Sharp shredded cheese - $1.33
Cost of baked Spaghetti Dinner: $3.97 + tax
Cost of daughter's happiness when she smelled it cooking: PRICELESS!!
It was good too! Of course there was a money lesson discussed over dinner. :-)
