I'm always looking for ways to instill a generous heart in my girls and a new project we've recently started is the $5 Challenge. When we go grocery shopping, I hand them a $5 bill and challenge them to see how much non-perishable food they can purchase for that amount. Then we decide which local food bank will receive the goods.
These are some of our recent purchases. Not too bad for $5/photo. I love to see what their choices are. This project not only instills in them generosity, but it is also a chance to practice smart shopping, leads to discussions on wants versus needs, and of course teaches them how to interact with the cashiers and store staff. Stretching the grocery budget by finding things on sale is an important life skill. We made these purchases without any coupons or stock up sales. I can't wait to take them to a mega stock up or a B1G2F sale so they can see some real savings in action.
Our Big Y purchase logged in at $5.22. They were excited to find big bags of rice (one of their faves) on sale for B1G1F. And we talked about how salt is an important element to many recipes but is not something that is often donated to food banks.
Our ALDI purchase, also $5.22. Admittedly, the oatmeal was my strong suggestion because I'm crazy about the stuff but the mac & cheese was all Faith.
Stop & Shop totaled $5.16. Eden was excited to find a huge sale on pasta and veggies as she could eat that combo every single day.
Our Geisslers purchase was made for $5.11 and was our fun money as Froot Loops and seltzer water are certainly not needs; however the girls agreed that just because you are getting your groceries at a food bank doesn't mean you wouldn't want a treat once in a while. Well said, my loves, well said.
We had some great discussions as we bagged up all of the purchases for donation and talked about meal planning and how we could combine the different ingredients to make healthy meals. We also talked about how easily we spend $5 on a Happy Meal, which is just one lunch for one person; however $5 can make a much bigger impact to purchase ingredients for a whole meal for an entire family.
Give it a try with your kiddos! It's fun to see what they'll choose and this little project offers practice with so many life skills. And for most of us $5 is an easy amount to donate with each shopping trip. LMK how it goes with your family!
#giveback #payitforward #raisethemup
I love this! I'm currently doing something similar with my boys but for pet supplies. I'm a big couponer and we recently got 56 pounds of dog food for free with a sale and then adding coupons to donate. There's another deal that we'll do this weekend. After we build it up with a few different items we'll all go to the animal shelter as a family to donate it.
Maybe next I'll have them help me with food.
Posted by: Heidi | 03/29/2017 at 06:39 AM
Wowzers! That's a lotta happy pups! LOVE it! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Valerie | 03/29/2017 at 03:32 PM