Here’s a little trick that offers a big reward. When my children were about 8 and 12, I started stashing a bill every week — mostly ten’s — in a beautiful little box to the back of my underwear drawer. After a year or so, I called everyone into the kitchen and splayed all the bills across the table in a fan shape, explaining what I’d secretly done for the past year. We got pencil and paper out and listed everyone’s desires and ideas, then honed it down to something we all agreed on. (Sorry, can’t remember what that was.) It felt like free money by now and was a gift to us all! The glee on my children’s faces, and the astonishment on my husband’s, is vivid even today. I remember so well the satisfaction of putting yet another bill in that envelop and watching the pile grow.
Looking through old photo albums recently brought it all back and drove me to poke around the house for the perfect box to start a secret stash once again. Now every Monday, whenever I’m alone in the house, I add a bill. This time I won’t even count it until the unveiling. Then it’ll be a surprise to even me.
This is a fun and painless, squirrelly, idea on lightening up your life and your load. Any amount works the same magic. Even $1’s mount up enough for a birthday dinner out. No matter what the amount, the feeling that matters the most is that you have a special secret all your own and that it’s turns into a gift instead of a drain on your bank account. Piggy box for grownups.