On Equity + Budgeting (Another Life Lesson My Kid Didn't Know They Were Receiving)

You guys know I love teaching my kids practical skills while we’re doing real life and today, I got a two for one special and I’m pretty sure she didn’t even realize we were having a math lesson in the car, so triple win.

We love Halloween. Like, a lot. We all dress up just about every year and even on the years we don’t, the kids always do.

I made all their costumes for years (and, if you know me, I don’t do anything like this halfway) until they started to veto that in recent years.

For anything we love, the rule is to make room for it in our budget so it doesn’t sneak up on us and we don’t have to make the decision to either a) blow our budget or b) sacrifice joy.

I’m always going to choose joy.

This year, our budget is $100 per person for costumes (with $100 built in for activities and buying stuff to give out to trick-or-treaters).

Catch is: G picked a super niche costume this year where we would need to buy individual pieces because it’s not a ready made costume - we’re literally copying a concept - and the least we’ve been able to get it down to is $147.89 all in, shipping and taxes included, which is way over her $100 budget.

But we’re resourceful and again, we choose joy, so we brainstormed solutions.

In the past, if G has gone over budget, we’ve done a handful of things:

1. Shopped around for discounts

2. Looked for alternative options

3. If there was still an excess, we’ve given her the option to pay the difference (Last year, I think she paid us $15 because she was hellbent on a specific pair of wingtip shoes for her Joker costume and honestly, the payoff was worth it in my opinion because her costume was)

Jack’s costume was significantly less expensive this year and we’ve already paid for all of it and it’s all here and he’s tried it on and it fits, so we’re good there - All in, he only spent $58.18.

Now, what we could have done was stick to the “$100 per person” budget, but why?

We were planning to spend $400 on costumes anyway, so anything below that is still saving money.

So I pitched the idea that as long as our TOTAL for all four of our costumes stays under $400, whoever needs the extra money can pull from the pot.

(Equity > equality)

The catch?

Neither DK nor I had started shopping for our stuff yet

So I spent the afternoon in the pickup line piecing together my look and my total came out to $104.50

If we were going by the original rule, I would have made cuts (and been sad because I have

a very specific vision) and figured out another way to make it work.

But by the new rule, we’ve only spent $162.68 of $400, so we’re still good so far.

But remember- G’s costume is sitting pretty at $147.89 and DK hasn’t picked out his costume yet.

Combined, we’re currently at $310.57 of $400, so if DK decides to spent $100 on his costume, that puts us over by $10.57.

The second part of the deal with G?

If we go over budget and hers is the most expensive (which it will be, by far), she agrees to revert back to our original rules of shop around, make adjustments or pay for the excess out of pocket.

But guess what? G got hella lucky this year because DK has decided to go the easier route this and wants to purchase a goofy ass inflatable Which, to my surprise are apparently only like $50, so assuming he spends the max, that adds an extra $50 back to the family pool.

So, to recap, we’re set to spend a total of around $360.57, everyone gets the costume they really want and we’re still saving nearly $40 (which I will probably use as an excuse to do more fun stuff for the neighborhood kids )

And I got to slyly teach our teenager about two values that are crucial to my foundation that I hope to pass down to our kids:

1. Financial stewardship

2. Equity > equality

Please enjoy this glorious gallery of some of our favorite costumes from past years!