Here's My Great Green Idea!

In the summer of 2007 we planned a trip to Colorado involving our boys(ages 10 and 7) in the planning from day one. The trip offered many teaching moments about money and the environment.
Kids love to buy things on trips: T-shirts, trinkets, pressed pennies, candy at gas stations are all prized possessions that must be begged for at every opportunity. A two day car trip, a week in a condo and a two day return trip would offer many moments for my children to plead for stuff and so I devised a plan to include the kids in the trip, give them ownership and become more eco-friendly.

About six monthes before the trip each boy made his own chart to track savings. Every time we handed in pop cans, had a lemonade stand or garage sale, their earnings were written down.

But we also tracked if they turned off light switches, kept doors closed to keep airconditioning inside, rode our bikes instead of driving or made lunch at home rather than fast food. We were amazed how much we saved by our choices. We tracked this savings using a guessestimate on how much we saved. Some of the more creative savings were: family car wash to replace the drive up kind (savings $10) watch a video we already own instead of renting a new one (savings $5), email grandma to say hello instead of calling long distance (savings $3). Play a family board game instead of going to playland (savings $40), rent a movie and make popcorn at home instead of going to the movie theater (savings $60).

Come the time for the trip I payed up based on how much each child had earned and saved. Both boys were given their own spending money. The rules were they could spend it however they liked, but once gone it was done. So they could spend it all on the first day, a little each day, or save it all and come home with money. (The only off

limits was no one could spend $100 on candy!) They loved the freedom to make choices and responsibility of tracking their

own money. I loved not being asked at every gas station or sovenier stand "can I have something" and the long term impact this had on how we think about saving economically and environmentally.

They have already started to save for the next trip and are always adding new ideas to the energy savings list-tonight will be five minute showers (savings $2)!