Cash On The Barrel

You would have to be born in at least the 70's or a big fan of "The Little House on the Prairie" to know what the title of this post means. For those of you who are neither, here goes... Laura refused to accept credit at the local store for some badly needed school supplies. The owner told her it would be alright, her pa could pay him later. She politely declined and said that they could not accept anything they could not afford to pay for on the spot. We had a little lesson in this concept in the Beam family lately. The boys found a restaurant they all wanted to try. The entree they were interested in would cost about $17 each. For a family of 6, that can get quite expensive. We spend $30 for a quick trip to McDonalds! Matt told the boys that we were willing to take them on one condition, they had to save the money in the family budget for the trip. This meant that we would not go out to eat for at least 2 weeks while we saved the cash it would take to eat there. The boys asked if we could go and then save, but we stuck to it. They did such a good job! They offered to help me in the kitchen, they didn't ask to go early or anything. To top it off, we stopped at a local grocery where steaks were on sale and told the boys that we would have steak that night. Josh immediately asked us to remember "the deal" and said he would make something at home if we would just get back in the car! In a "buy now pay later" society I think we are affecting a change in at least 4 men of tomorrow. On a side note, we went to the longed-for restaurant and the boys ate their fill.