Financial Lesson Learned by my 12 year old

My two kids have had a family share cell phone plan for about 4 months now. I must admit I was a little apprehensive in saying yes to a 12 & 14 year old having cell phones. The deal was $10 per week out of their commission goes toward paying their monthly bill. The are also responsible for any "Texting" overage.

This past month, I noticed my daughter, the 12 year old was texting a lot. About every other day, I'd ask her if she was getting close to her 1,000 text messages. She kept telling me "no dad". It's ok. Long story short, she is about 1,000 texts over this month. Roughly $150 dollars over.

I stayed calm and cool, asked her to hand over her phone and that she was grounded from the phone until she repaid the overages. Based on her "spendable" weekly commission, it was going to take her about 7 weeks before she would have her phone back or any spendable money.

My daughter is very, very opportunistic. She rounded up her Nintendo DS and 8 games. She told me she doesn't play with it anymore and asked if I'd help her list it on Ebay. I said sure and it was truly a fun father, daughter and son, (he did most of the work) evening.

We put a "buy it now price" of $140 and in less than 5 minutes after it was listed, it was sold and she has her cell phone back.

Lesson Learned. . .

1. She said she won't go over he 1,000 texts anymore. No DS to sell next time.
   
2. She didn't like owing me money.
3. She was depressed she wasn't going to be able to go to the skating this Friday because she wouldn't have money to get in.
4. She sold something she didn't use anymore to get out of debt fast. (Great principle)
5. She's practicing Financial Peace! (Ya Baby!)

I'm off to pack and ship the DS to California.