My youngest daughter wanted to pay for her lunch with Mexican money this week. In hindsight, I wish I would have let her try:). It would have been amusing to see the look on the cashiers face, when she handed it over……though, I would have looked like a stange mother, hiding in the corner, waiting, and giggling for the response!
I only let my kids buy their lunch one day a week at school, because frankly, the school serves mostly processed foods in oil. Last year, I would fill their lunch money accounts up, so that if they bought lunch, once a week, it would last them nine weeks. It's easier that way with four kids. However, my children would just try and steal from me!!!
They would buy two full lunches, or ice cream, or yogurt…which would cost them up to six dollars for one lunch. This would infuriate me. Especially since they were buying high ticket item foods, such as yogurt or salad, which I buy for them to put in their sack lunches anyway.
So this year, I got smart! I didn't put money in their accounts. I only give them exact change to purchase their lunch…no more cheating the system. The only problem is, I NEVER have cash on me! Every week, they say “Did you get money out mama”?
I admit that my usual retort is “I will tomorrow”.
Obviously, they have caught on to the fact that I am never going to have cash, so they have taken to raiding our big change bin instead. They don't seem to care, but I do feel a little guilty. I'm sure the lunch ladies love counting out their pennies, dimes, and nickels, with a long line of starving, prepaid children behind them…..At least it's only once a week right?
Anyway, the whole paying with pesos thing got me thinking….
We all went to Mexico this summer, and the kids used their American money to pay for things. Sometimes we paid in pesos, but sometimes not. My daughter could see no reason why she shouldn't be able to do that here as well! I would have loved to see her pay the lady 50 pesos, and then tell her that it equals about $5.00….two lunches!!! 🙂
Really, it would be nice to be able to use pesos here too. Each time we come back from Mexico, we have extra Mexican money, that just goes in a jar. We never remember to take it on our next trip, and it just rots away! We have already made the country bilingual….Why can't we start excepting their cash???
Next time she wants to pay in pesos, I'm going to let her give it a try…AND I'm going to volunteer in the cafeteria that very same day. I'm sure she will provide a compelling argument……she's a feisty little thing!!
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We don’t have a cafeteria (or lunch ladies) at the kids’ school. If we did, I’d never have money ready either!
So they HAVE to take their lunch every day? That would be my dream 🙂
Maybe I could interest your daughter in some Canadian coins? I went over the border for a couple hours and it cost me $7 to park, but all I had was a ten dollar bill & the parking attendant gave me change in Canadian coins. What am I supposed to do with 3 Canadian coins? They’re huge and weighing down my wallet. Annoying.
Try and buy something with them….put it towards your child’s college tuition…. Surely, someone, somewhere is destitute enough to actually exchange the money 🙂
You could keep things interesting by sending her off with a different form of payment every week – Monopoly money, a personal check, a money order or a credit card so she could stand there with her little hands on her hips, looking exasperated and asking, “What do you mean you don’t take American Express?”
You may not have to wait much longer. I understand that your government is printing money at the rate of $85 billion a month. At that rate, most US shops would soon be glad to take pesos! 🙂
The value of the dollar really does keep going down. I guess I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed 🙂
You could keep things interesting by sending her off with a different form of payment every week – Monopoly money, a personal check, a money order or a credit card so she could stand there with here little hands on her hip, looking exasperated and asking, “What do you mean you don’t take American Express?”
LOL. The funny thing is, she would do it….and argue her point… Great idea! I’ll try it…it should save me ALOT of money!
When we lived in Australia my husband took lots of different currencies with us. ( I think he brought them from home!) Anyway we went off on the bus one day to buy a fridge. We were very strapped for cash so my husband keeps badgering the fella selling us the second hand fridge to take our foreign currency. and in the end whether he was demented listening to us or believed my husband when he said the seller would actually be making money, we got a fridge paid for by Thai baht, australian dollar, american dollar, sterling and Irish pounds!
So….it can work in certain circumstances!!! 🙂 There are people out there desperate enough to take it!
Oh, your daughter is adorable! She looks like such an angel…:)
And this really made me laugh…My mother employs similar tactics because I keep eating sandwiches at the local coffee shop, and then I skip dinner…:P
So does she give you exact change?? 🙂
Haha, yes 😛