How many plates of chicken rice?

Ipanema Gisele Bunchen  RM74.90

In a sportswear shop, I overheard a teenager arguing with her mother, demanding for the latest fashion in sandals.  The teenager's demand?  It  was for a pair of plastic flip-flop costing more than RM50 with the brand name "Ipanema Gisele Bunchen".  Her mother, bless her, remained steadfast and refused to give in.

This pair of plastic RM89.90

 The teenager continued to plead, "..... but for every pair sold RM3 goes to MNS (Malaysia Nature Society), for charity to conserve the forest reserve!" Her mother replied "Fine, charity then it shall be.  I'll get a similar pair of plastic sandals for you, without the brand name for less than RM20 and the rest of the amount will go to charity."  Bless her heart!


I related the above to my teenagers and their immediate replies were - "How many plates of chicken rice can you get?"  This made me smile - remembering my method of teaching them the value of money.  I would use this analogy whenever they ask me to buy, in my opinion, overpriced and futile items.
My teenagers love chicken rice.  When they were young, all their friends had collection of Barbie dolls.  The price of a Barbie doll then was about RM50. They would nagged me for Barbie dolls which I absolutely refused to buy.    I would ask them how many plates of chicken rice can you get if a plate is RM3.50?  I would then give them the scenario of a poor family of four and with RM50, each of them could have a plate of chicken rice for dinner for three days with left over of 2 plates for the fourth day.  This made them understood the value of money and to this day, whenever they spend the "chicken rice equation" comes to mind.   Well, they did get their Barbie dolls - not from me but from friends who gave it to them as presents.

I am not against branded items especially if you can afford it, by all means go ahead splurge on yourself and pamper yourself.  My personal rationale is this - why should I pay such exorbitant price for a branded item when I can get similar ones without brand name, of course, for a fraction of the price?

As far as I am concerned, my children must know money does not grow on trees.  I also have this notion that before my children earn their own monies, they'd better know the value of money and how to earn it before spending it!

By the way, my teenagers opine that not only are the plastic sandals ugly, they are ridiculously priced!  I am very happy to know they have good heads on their shoulders!