Econ Lessons for My Kids
My oldest daughter is 13 years old. Walking into the bathroom after her is like walking into a data center as they’re pulling cable. Wires everywhere. Terminating in flat irons, curling irons, curlers, and myriad other energy sucking devices. Only 5 more years to go. Hopefully. But then two other sisters wait to follow in her footsteps.
I used to get frustrated with all the lights on all the time and the television droning in the background. Even when no one was home. I would pull into my neighborhood and it seemed like my home glowed on the horizon like a distant city. No wonder my energy bills were higher than most of my neighbors.
So I showed my kids this graph. It’s tangible and real. It’s not dad huffing about the lights being on for the 1,382nd time. And it can be measured.
I proposed a plan to my kids. Given the $34 difference in what our home uses as compared to the average home our size, I proposed rewarding them with the difference between $34 and the October difference between our home and the average home. In other words, if our October electric bill is $100 and the average bill is $90 I’ll split the difference of September $34 – October $10 between the three kids. They’d split $24. Then over time as the right behavior develops I can modify the reward systems as they remain diligent the oversight of their own behavior.
An idea is useless without execution. Well, my wife calls me this morning to let me know that she had the light on in our bathroom when my 8 year old walks in, looks around, sees it’s sunny outside, and asks, “Mom, it’s sunny outside. Do you need the light on?” She didn’t, and they turned the lights off.
And I don’t need to be frustrated about this any more.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
[...] My kids saved nearly $60 in our electric bill in one month. If you remember, I told ‘em I’d split a percentage with them of the $34 difference between the September Average Home and our bill if our bill in October was [...]