What would you do for $5?
This morning I was running errands with my family and made a quick stop at a store. My son happened to find a couple ball caps that he really wanted. I told him he could have one if he was willing to pay for it. He said he was, and he proceeded to make the effort to check the price tag on each of his favorites. He chose the one that cost $5 less.
When we got to the checkout line, I told him to put his hat with the other things we were getting. He didn’t have his money with him, so the plan was for him to pay us back when we got home. The cashier rang up our items, my husband paid cash for them, and we hurried out to our car.
Once we all got buckled, I scanned over the receipt. I noticed that my son’s hat rang up at a price $5 higher than its price tag. I sat for a minute, unsure of how much effort to spend on this mistake. Knowing we were in a hurry to finish the rest of our to-do list and still make it to our scheduled appointments, my first thought was to do nothing. My inclination was to value my time more than that $5.
But then I looked in the backseat at my son, proudly wearing his new hat, and thought of him sorting through the hats he liked to find the one he liked that cost the least. I thought of how long it would take him to earn $5 doing yard work or other odd jobs. I thought of the example I would set for him by how I responded to this $5 mistake.
I unbuckled and headed back into the store.
The cashier was very understanding, and it didn’t take more than 5 minutes for her to refund me the $5 difference. It didn’t require too much time or effort on my part, but I did have to be intentional about interrupting my schedule to make it right.
I hope that’s the example I set for my kids today. I hope they realize that we all have to be intentional with our time and our money, and it’s worth the effort to make it right.