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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Jan 8, 2024 12:12:37 GMT -5
It was a very cohesive story. It just lacked the details that they usually give. I'm used to reading things like "I pulled dandelions on my hands and knees for two house and Daddy gave me 37 cents." Oh ok! This was a discussion on the BSC subreddit, about how little everything costs. All those coins added up I guess!
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Jan 9, 2024 11:45:20 GMT -5
I don't like books that are vague with dollar figures. I know they do it to keep the totals from dating the books, but it's unsatisfying to read several chapters about a fundraiser that ends with "Stacey counted up the money and announced we reached our goal!" or whatever.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Jan 9, 2024 12:27:05 GMT -5
I don't like books that are vague with dollar figures. I know they do it to keep the totals from dating the books, but it's unsatisfying to read several chapters about a fundraiser that ends with "Stacey counted up the money and announced we reached our goal!" or whatever. That pissed me off the most in Dawn and the Big Sleepover. The whole story is about raising money for the kids' penpals and they said at the end they're shocked by the total of how much they raised but they didn't say how much!
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Post by sparklymouse on Jan 13, 2024 17:23:32 GMT -5
Karen’s Puppet Show. The only money thing mentioned was that they sold tickets to the art show for $1 each. Karen sold 20 in one afternoon. The money was going towards supplies for the next summer’s camp. The club had provided each kid who attended the camp (10 in all) with 5 silk screened t shirts. That’s 50 shirts! That doesn't include the actual art supplies. I hope that they sold a buttload of tickets.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 23, 2024 15:53:32 GMT -5
Karen’s Toothache. Karen became Madame Karena Brewena and sold fortunes to her classmates at recess for 25 cents each. This wasn’t a bad gig. She probably spent two minutes talking to each kid, said one vague sentence, and could make a few bucks each day.
This is another non-related TV show thing. I was watching some Boy Meets World last night. The episode was from 1994. Cory’s mom decided that since Cory was “almost 12” he was old enough to be forced to watch his little sister for $2 an hour. (Morgan (6?) locked herself in Cory’s bathroom and refused to come out, so he left her home alone and went to get a pro baseball player’s autograph with Shawn. Morgan then broke a window and ran away to the tree house while Mr. Feeny sat in his backyard watching her. Not every 11-year-old should baby-sit. 🙂)
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Feb 26, 2024 12:38:03 GMT -5
Karen’s Toothache. Karen became Madame Karena Brewena and sold fortunes to her classmates at recess for 25 cents each. This wasn’t a bad gig. She probably spent two minutes talking to each kid, said one vague sentence, and could make a few bucks each day. This is another non-related TV show thing. I was watching some Boy Meets World last night. The episode was from 1994. Cory’s mom decided that since Cory was “almost 12” he was old enough to be forced to watch his little sister for $2 an hour. (Morgan (6?) locked herself in Cory’s bathroom and refused to come out, so he left her home alone and went to get a pro baseball player’s autograph with Shawn. Morgan then broke a window and ran away to the tree house while Mr. Feeny sat in his backyard watching her. Not every 11-year-old should baby-sit. 🙂) 11 years old is way too young to be babysitting! And $2 an hour? That's so cheap.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 27, 2024 11:39:05 GMT -5
$2 in 1994 is $4.16 today. If I had an older child who I could force into babysitting, I'd offer him AT LEAST minimum wage unless he was a jerk that week and this is punishment. Talk about crossing the line twice, forcing them to work and then paying pennies. My kid neighbor sometimes asks to mow or shovel for us to make some money, and he charges at least $20 and I'm glad to pay that much.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 27, 2024 18:26:16 GMT -5
Google tells me that minimum wage was $4.25 in 1994. It was normal to pay people less for cash jobs. If you wanted more you should get a "real" job. Not to sound like an old lady, but things were a lot cheaper, and a few bucks went a lot further. Amy offered Cory 50 cents more than Danny offered DJ in Full House! I'm just finding these references amusing since we always rip on the BSC wages.
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Post by sparklymouse on Mar 15, 2024 20:25:45 GMT -5
Karen’s Spy Mystery was another book about money that was missing money references. Karen got not one but two summer jobs. Lisa paid her to help polish the (real) gold and silver bracelets that she made and package them up in plastic bags tied with ribbons. Some of the bracelets had real gemstones in them also, so they were worth a little something. No mention of what Lisa paid.
Karen’s second job was to be the daytime house sitter for Nancy’s family for two weeks. Basically she had to go over around lunch time and give Nancy’s kitten some eye drops for an infection. Karen discussed her salary with Nancy’s mom. No mention of what Mrs. Dawes paid.
Karen figured out that a bank employee was stealing money out of customers’ accounts, and she turned him into the police. The bank gave her a party and a check. “This is a check for you, Karen,” said Mr. Dawes. “It is our way of thanking you for saving the bank.” No mention of how much her reward was.
Nancy’s dad was the bank president at Stoneybrook Savings Bank, so Nancy advised Karen to open a savings account for all of her soon to be acquired moolah. She told Karen that she would need some money to open the account, so Karen grabbed “some” quarters out of her piggy bank and off they went. Most banks have a minimum dollar amount to open an account, and somehow I think it’s more than $2. (I looked up my bank, and for the most basic savings account it said this: Just a $100 minimum daily balance to avoid a $3 monthly fee (waived for minors) )
Karen, Andrew and their nanny Merry went to the same cafe as Bill and his girlfriend for lunch. Bill took a $100 bill from a wad of cash that he had in his pocket and paid his bill. Karen had never seen that much money before and announced out loud that he just paid with a hundred-dollar bill. (She was spying. The other two didn’t know he was there.) Merry was all “some people carry a lot of cash.” [LIKE YOUR DADDY, KAREN.]
Douchey-mustache guy Bill was stealing money from people’s accounts. He took more than $20k. A little bit from a lot of accounts so hopefully people wouldn’t notice. This was in 1999 when people didn’t really access their accounts until they got their monthly statements.
It was an enjoyable book, but like Cuba Gooding Jr. once said, SHOW ME THE MONEY!
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Post by sparklymouse on Mar 22, 2024 15:18:48 GMT -5
Karen’s Snow Princess. Stoneybrook held a one-week winter festival to raise money for the fire department. Karen’s class raised almost $100 from ticket sales to see their play. (Ms. Colman should be in charge of all of their fundraising needs. She knew how to make a profit!) At the end of the week, Natalie and Bill Korman (the Snow Princess and Prince) presented the town mayor with a check from all of the city fundraising. “There is money for a new fire truck and enough left over to help make our town more beautiful,” said Natalie. Google searching tells me that a new fire truck can cost anywhere from $200K to over $2M. That was some winter carnival, wow.
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Post by oldmeanie on Mar 24, 2024 22:21:07 GMT -5
Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger. The club puts together reward money (Jessi $4, Claudia $3.50, Mallory $5.50, Dawn $2, Kristy $5.64, Mary Anne $4.75, and they add $4.61 from the treasury to make an even $30).
The weird kid who met them at Brenner Field and tried to trick them asked for $100, but Mary Anne filled an envelope with fake money.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Mar 25, 2024 8:47:16 GMT -5
$30 is small enough that I wouldn't feel bad spending that much at the store, but big enough that if I found it on the street I'd be really excited. That's a good middle ground for a reward. Adjusted for inflation it's $75! And the ransom demand would be $250, so that kid was extremely bold, haha.
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Post by sparklymouse on Mar 25, 2024 12:45:03 GMT -5
Two bucks, Dawn? You know the scene in Stand By Me where they pooled their money for some food, and Vern only had seven cents? Dawn is Vern.
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Post by sparklymouse on Mar 28, 2024 19:14:53 GMT -5
Karen’s Cartwheel. The Three Musketeers wanted to buy their “Doll Sisters” at the new toy store at the mall. This was another book where they did odd jobs to scrape together money. Forgive me, but I wrote it all down.
The dolls (which sounded like American Girl Dolls) were $13.95 each.
First the girls emptied their piggy banks (Karen 85 cents, Hannie 48 cents, Nancy ?) Then they searched their homes/furniture for change. (Karen 54 cents, Hannie 68 cents, Nancy $1.20)
This was the infamous book where Watson paid 10 cents per dandelion with root pulled. Karen pulled 31 roots/$3.10.
Hannie was paid $2 to “babysit”/entertain Sari.
Nancy was paid $2 to wash the Dawes’ patio furniture.
The girls worked 9 to “lunchtime” cleaning out the huge Brewer garage and got $3 each/$9 total. (A dollar an hour?)
They then cleaned out Morbidda’s smaller/cleaner garage for $6 total. (Two dollars an hour?)
They continued to do little jobs and wound up with $44.90 total. ($41.85 + tax for the dolls)
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Mar 29, 2024 10:34:36 GMT -5
Dang, I never got an American Girl doll because they were so expensive. $13.95 (which is still less than $30 with inflation) is such a good deal. For those prices I wouldn't even feel bad for making my kid clean the garage for an dollar an hour.
I love how Watson specified that dandelions only count with roots. Weeding is exhausting. I'd pay so much more money than that to get a clear lawn. He's getting a steal.
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