Budgets and snowballs

Earlier in the week, I got a text message from my wife letting me know that she and the baby had just spent two hours in Wal-Mart price matching all of the sales and saving $50 on the grocery bill. She worked hard to save those $50 too...she came home with a story about having to argue with the checker over a few of the items in order to maximize the price-matching effort (does 10 cents off of red leaf lettuce at Kroger equal 10 cents off of Romaine lettuce at Wal-Mart if Wal-Mart doesn't have any red leaf lettuce?).

Later in the week, one of my children had some friends over for a barbecue. Spontaneously, my wife called a local shaved ice shop and ordered three cartons of "snow balls" (we live in Arizona and are easy to impress when it comes to snow-like things. Also, it is still 104 degrees for highs in Phoenix even though it is mid-September).

Our youngest boy and I went to pick up the snowballs. They came in three small Styrofoam ice chests, with perhaps 40 ball of ice per chest. The young man at the shaved ice store let us know he personally prepared the snowballs, and he seemed pretty proud of his work. I asked how long it took, and he said about 15 minutes per chest. $50 later, we headed home with our three chests of melting snowballs, and I was doing the math in my head...

Water -- $1?
Wages of a 16-year-old for 45 minutes -- about $6
Overhead on 45 mins of work -- $3

I figured maybe the snowballs were worth about $10 and we had paid $50, so the shaved ice store had a good night on our behalf.

Maybe he could read my mind, but about three minutes into the drive home, my seven-year-old companion asked, "Dad, did we have to pay for these snow balls?"

"Yes," I reflected. "Someone had to do a lot of work to get them ready."

"But, it's just WATER."

"I know, but it sure will be a lot of fun, won't it?"

"Yeah, but that is like just taking your money, putting it in a pile and lighting it on fire."

I guess we are raising an economist. We arrived home with the cartons of snow, and after five minutes of a frenzied snowball battle, they were scattered throughout the back yard, melting away.

My wife, satisfied smile on her face, said "they will remember this night forever."

In the end, I do not know which was it...A waste of $50 or the memory of a lifetime. We may never know, but it was an interesting reminder of the different ways we all perceive the value of money.