Arlene Park Arnold/Money Mindset

Mother kept track of the family money and income.  She kept the bills in the kitchen cupboard above the radio or tucked neatly by the radio. She was a list maker.  She carefully kept track of money that went out and came in.  I am sure this was a daunting task of tracking the farm expenses.  I cannot recall Dad having anything to do with paying of the bills, tracking the income, or budget.  Perhaps he did, but I just never did see it.  Sometimes we heard about it, however.  It was not uncommon for my parents to have some very heated discussions about how money was being spent.  Mother was careful with her budget projections and Dad was not.  One Christmas Mother calculated carefully how much could be spent for Christmas and with that proceeded to make careful gift purchases for the children.  Dad went to town on Christmas Eve afternoon and bought gifts for all of us without talking to Mom.  I can still see him carrying in a huge card board box full of the gifts.  He was so proud of himself, because he hardly ever did the gift buying.  None of them were wrapped and he handed them out that evening.  Mother was furious.   She kept it contained pretty well around the younger ones, but she did not hide it from me or Dad much later that night.    I look back and think it rather comical now.  Mother always said she could hardly add two plus two.  She really struggled with math.  Dad, however, could add columns of numbers in his head without using paper.  I recall vividly Mother sitting at the kitchen table with paper and pencil using her fingers to tally.  This was long before calculators were invented.  Dad was a calculator.  Mother used to shrug it off.  She said he could do math better than her but she was a perfect speller.  When ever I needed money, especially in the teen years, it was usually Dad that I went to.  Mother would carefully write the amount down in a tablet she kept in the kitchen cupboard.  Often when the amount was written, it was with the assumption that it would be earned or paid back.  I think by today's standards our mother serves as an example of one who taught her children excellent financial accountability.  All of her children were taught financial responsibility by example and this  has served us well in our own lives.