Rudy Teaches His Daughter the Value of Money Through Aluminum Can Recycling

I have (count them) eight wonderful children, five daughters and three sons. In an effort to try and teach this last child the value of money I decided I would prove to her that there is money in trash. So instead of throwing away our aluminum soda cans, we would save them and turn trash into cash. I went by Harbor Freight and purchased a can crusher for my 10 year old little princess, who began her can crushing journey six months ago. Just last week during Spring Break we took seven large trash bags full of cans to Pine Street Salvage.

My 10 year little princess Angie didn't have a clue what she was in for when we started this in September of 2012. At first she loved sitting on the back patio crushing cans, then it got old and I would have to practically use a Hot Shot cattle-prod to get her motivated into crushing those cans again. Fast forward to this past Friday, Spring Break of 2013, Miss Angie gathered her cans, put them in my truck and we went to "get cash for trash."

The going rate for aluminum is around .50 cents a pound multiply that to her 58 pounds of aluminum trash. My little girl was so proud of the fact that she made $28.80 out of things we used to throw away. She weighed the cans in all by herself, she took her weight ticket to the office, then she took the paper-work to the cash office to get paid. I am so proud of her, she surprised me when she asked "dad can we just take this money and put it in my bank account, I don't want to spend it because it's too hard making money like that and I don't want to waste it." Thank you Heavenly Father for giving me this highly intelligent little girl.

Recycling aluminum cans is a great way to teach a child the value of a dollar. Here are the pictures our can crushing adventure.