A New Evil
Melissa has been talking about a Nintendo DS for months now, and was saving up her money. It was very slow going, because she just can’t manage to get her chores done on time, even though she has the whole week do do them. And, if the chores don’t get done on time, she doesn’t get paid.
On Friday, and nice little bonus tax refund was deposited into our account, and Greg suggested using part of it to get the girls each a Nintendo DS and a game. We kept it a surprise and took them to Best Buy yesterday morning… which Melissa was sooo happy about, because she loves Best Buy about as much as Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Fry’s Electronics. So we get there and I tell her that she could go look at the DS’s and see what kind of games they had, and she was a little happier about being there. After they browsed through the games for a while, Greg asked if they picked one out yet, and told them to pick a game and a DS. Melissa was in total disbelief but didn’t waste any time grabbing what she wanted.
At home, Greg got the Nintendos all set up and plugged in to charge the batteries, and after Melissa got her chores done, they both got to play. Unfortunately Sara’s has to be returned because the touch screen stopped working. Don’t know what happened…. it worked for a while, and then Greg tried to play with the settings, and you couldn’t do anything on it anymore.
The Daily Click 
Oh what a lucky family, to get your tax relief already…….that’s when it’s great to have the letter B for a last name, lol! What does mommy get with the money?????
What a great surprise, something they will always remember. And I HATE having to return stuff…….at least it wasnt’ from santa, lol!
28. April, 2008 at 05:41
No, the last name has nothing to do with it, they go by the last two digits in the SSN. Saw that on Yahoo a few days ago.
What does mommy get with the money? Nothing just yet. Stashing it away so at some point I can upgrade my camera 😉
A big chunk of the money is going towards our vacation in June.
28. April, 2008 at 06:09
so fun…my boys love their ds’s…Andrew saved and bought his and M and M got theirs for Hanukkah this year…. Andrew loves going to best buy (for real) so funny that Melissa hates its. So our deposit is based off of Shawn’s last 2 numbers in his ss? forget, it will be forver…
28. April, 2008 at 07:03
LOL Best Buy is just not a “girly” store. The only time she’ll like going there is if she gets a new game….. although I think we’ll look into getting used games and saving a little money.
As for the refund, it shouldn’t take that long for you to get it.
I found the link again: http://www.savvysugar.com/1576586
All the deposits will be made in May, paper checks will take a bit longer.
28. April, 2008 at 07:15
LOL
Yet another thing we have in common….Kids who HATE going to Lowe’s!! You would think we were marching them to the guillotine whenever we mention we have to make a trip to Lowe’s…we’ve resorted to bribing them. If they behave, we usually wind up finishing the trip at the video store for rentals. It works!
Our girls got their DS’s for Christmas after dreaming about them for over a year, and they LOVE them. They are the most played with things in the house. The novelty hasn’t worn off a bit. Hope your little ones enjoy them as much as mine do!!
(For what it’s worth, they really enjoyed “Cooking Mama.”)
28. April, 2008 at 11:44
P.S.
Check out http://www.gamefly.com
We’ve been renting from them the past few months, and the girls have really had fun getting new games to play every few weeks. You send them back when you’re done with them, and they send out another one from your request list. Very like Netflix. We’ll be dropping it soon because we’re cutting unnecessary expenses from our budget, but it was fun while we could do it!
28. April, 2008 at 11:48
KD, we usually end up at Home Depot because it’s closer, but that doesn’t make a bit of difference to the kids. They won’t whine too much if I promise that they can look at the flowers before we leave. Or paint! They always grab some “samples” to take home. LOL
I agree, I think that’s one thing that won’t get old. They have a game cube and only 2 or 3 games for it, but they still play with it all the time. I’m hoping to get rid of that thing, now that they have the hand helds.
I didn’t see “Cooking Mama”… Melissa picked GoPets Vacation Island, and Sara picked Animal Crossings. She already knows how to play that because that’s one of the games they have for the GameCube.
How old are your girls?
Oh, and thanks for the rental link. I’ll check it out later today. We might stick with buying used games, since I’m sure they won’t want to give them up 😉
28. April, 2008 at 11:56
we buy used games from game stop and you can also rent from blockbuster with the option to buy… they just stared carrying ds games…Andrew rented one last week
28. April, 2008 at 13:15
How nice to share with them. The only one into video games in this house is Matt. I’m sure it won’t be long, though. What will you eventually upgrade to, Michaela?
28. April, 2008 at 13:20
Cheryl, good to know that Blockbuster now has DS games to rent. Haven’t been there in forever because their movies are sooo expensive!! We’re sticking with Netflix 😉 We have Gamestops around here, too, and one other chain that has the used games…. can’t remember the name now, though.
Amy, I want the Nikon D300. Some day!
28. April, 2008 at 14:46
my boys want DSs so badly!!! I was trying to get them to earn it with points but that really went no where. Maybe I should buy them and take them away when the boys do not do what they are told…LOL
28. April, 2008 at 16:54
I say go for it. Worked like a charm for Melissa this afternoon!She was sitting there, playing, when Greg came inside from mowing the lawn and wanted her to help him, aka show her how to go it so she can earn some extra cash. She ignored him until I said “no more Nintendo until you mow”! She still protested, but she got up and did it!
Yep, you can tell your boys “no Nintendo until you brush your teeth” LOL
28. April, 2008 at 17:13
Hey Daily…my girls are 10 and 6.
For what it’s worth, if you rent from the website, there is a “keep this game” option if your girls don’t want to give it up. I *think* the prices are reasonable for a used game, but you’d have to check it out. 🙂
29. April, 2008 at 06:20
They’re close in age to my girls then (11 1/2 and 5).
I looked at the site a bit yesterday, to see what kind of games are available for DS and saw quite a few that my girls might like. I did see the “keep it” option on some of the games, but didn’t check the prices yet, but somewhere on there a saw a “up to 50% of retail” or something like that.
29. April, 2008 at 06:33
M…how much is netflix… we do blockbuster on line for 19.99 (I think) a month and that includes 2 free in-store rentals (movies or games)…we usually let the kids use those coupons for game rentals (wii, or now ds) and you can take your mailer back to the store and trade it in for a movie for free…plus once they receive that mailer they automatically ship the next movie on your list. Seems like a good deal but I wonder if net flix is better…haven’t looked into them for a while
29. April, 2008 at 07:19
Cheryl, we’re paying $13.99 for Netflix (2 out at a time, unlimited). I’m not sure if the Blockbuster thing would work for us. We’ve stopped renting movies there because they never have any of the ones left that we want to see, and go to our local video store instead. That almost never happens either, because we usually have something from Netflix to watch (or TV). Renting games is a different story, I just hate them for movies.
29. April, 2008 at 08:05