How do you say NO?

I am good at saying no, when it is something that I don't see as healthy or valuable. For instance, my 3 year old always says he is hungry and wants a snack. I offer him an apple or carrots or cheese and crackers. He tells me he wants candy. Well that is easy... I tell him no, and give him an apple, to which he usually doesn't want, because he isn't really hungry, he just wants to go on a sugar high so he can torment me and the rest of the family. My 6 year old will see a toy on the Cartoon Network (I HATE that channel and we hardly ever watch it) and then he immediately says he wants it and can't live without it. Another easy No answer from me. But when it comes to a book or puzzle or anything to do with learning... I just can't say no.

Well, I hate to say it but my goal of saving $200 this month didn't happen. Thanks to my inability to always tell my boys "no" when they ask for something. We went to the book store a couple of times this month. And both times the boys came out with books and my 6 year old got this really cool book mark that has a timer built in so he can track how much time he reads (for every 2 hours he reads he gets a prize out of our prize bucket). It wasn't like anything I bought was expensive, in fact it was all on clearance, but the little things add up. I can't blame it all on them, you see it was also my birthday month, so I justified a doughnut maker I found on clearance at Target for $15 as a present for me. And I went out to eat WAY TOO MUCH! I have to stop that now.

At any rate, while I didn't do bad, I did pay off my credit card (although I put my son's karate back on it, so I will need to pay that off with my tax refund), I wasn't able to save the $200 I was hoping to do.

I will do better next month. I PROMISE!