Clare has been begging to get a pet for sometime time now. On several occasions we've had fish but Clare doesn't count that as a pet. A weekend in January, Clare asked to get a hamster but told her she had to pay for it herself. I thought this would teach her a little responsibility. I mentioned to her she may want to check a book out from the library on hamsters so she could read up on it and see if this is something she wanted. Immediately the next day, she came home from school with a book. She read me all of the ins and outs of this pet. Later, we went to the pet store and priced everything she'd need to have one as a pet. With everything added up, the total was around $70. Clare had some money, probably half already saved. Clare is a very determined child. When she has a goal to reach, she usually reaches it without losing sight of the goal whether it be academics, sports or the crazy school fundraisers. A lot of the money was earned by doing various chores around the house. Anyway, this past week we had a bunch of snow, and she asked our neighbor if he'd like her to shovel the drive. He asked her how much she was charging and she said, "$8.00." And with that, Clare earned $70. Of course, she was dying to know when we'd go to the pet store to get one. I told her the weekend. She even had a plan of when would be the best time to go...during Ruth's nap around 1:00, too cute.
