Bottle Returns for Craft Supplies

My oldest daughter Skylar decided yesterday that her 4 million pieces of crafting supplies just wasn't enough. As she begged for me to take her to Michael's I realized I could make this work for me as well. I am pretty bad about returning the empties when we grocery shop and my garage is pretty well taken over at this point with plastic, glass and aluminium. (Here in Michigan we pay a 10 cent deposit on every soda can, beer bottle or 2 liter we purchase and then get the deposit back when we return our "empties" at the grocery store.)
We made a deal.
She helps me load up the car with the empties and return them all and her and Lily, (my youngest daughter who is 4), can split the cash and use it for whatever they want. They get new craft supplies and I get a little piece of my garage back. So off to the grocery store we go. She excitedly helps and very excitedly passes the receipts to the cashier who gives us $18.40. That's $9.20 each! She was rich! She stuffed her $9 in her wallet made of duct tape and sang the entire way to Michael's. Once there she was a little discouraged at first, the pottery wheel was triple her money. After a little looking around her spirits lifted and she stretched that $9 further than I knew it could go! She ended up with quite a few things and so did Lily. They each were rung up separately and they each payed with their hard earned bottle return money.
It was cute. I was proud.
And with that I made a promise. I will no longer be the card swiping Mom that just gets them whatever they want. I will put them to work and let them spend their money. It was fun for everyone and they were so careful in their decisions. They really made sure that they got the most out of their 9 bucks!

This is the Foam Beach House Kit that Lily bought for $3.99. They had a blast making this together. That's Skylar on the left and Lily on the right.