From my inbox...

The Emergency Owl
by Amy Burns
An unusual legacy

In a constant effort to stay on top of our finances, I have
never kept much cash on hand. Cash always seems to get
frittered away on the little things, and often we didn't
remember just what those little things were.

But what about those times when you just want to buy a Sunday
paper for $1.79? Or take the kids for a simple ice cream cone?
We found ourselves using the debit card for those same little
things. Lo and behold, the receipts would get lost or the
small purchase went unrecorded.

I finally wised up. Wising up came in the form of a ceramic
owl bank from the 1970s. It belonged to my father-in-law, who
passed away last summer. He was an inveterate saver of his
change and had giant buckets of quarters in his closet. He
never used a debit card; he'd simply count out whatever change
he needed for his purchase, go to the corner store, and come
back.

My father-in-law was a deeply frugal man. He grew up on a
small farm in the Upper Midwest during the Depression. Money
was always hard to come by in those days. One of the ways he
hedged his financial bets was to keep cash on hand at all
times. Even though he was using cash, he wasn't frivolous or
foolish with it.

My mother-in-law passed on the owl bank to us. It was full of
quarters. We loved that it came from Grandpa and placed it on
our kitchen table among our ever-rotating collection of
treasures. Soon, we started raiding it when we needed $2 for a
Sunday paper or a few bucks to rent a video, something we
don't do very often. One week I counted out enough to get us
the eggs and orange juice we needed. I always had a quarter
for the Aldi shopping carts. We started calling it the
Emergency Owl. And the Owl was good.

Soon the Emergency Owl began to feel a little light. We
started adding our change back to it, including dollar bills
here and there. The Owl got moved to our bookshelf. The more I
looked at it, the more I realized how wise the Emergency Owl
really was, and how it had freed us from continually relying
on a debit card. I thought to myself, "We are very frugal
people. If we want to take a few bucks occasionally and buy a
paper or even...gasp...a coffee, that's okay, as long as it
comes from the Emergency Owl."

My husband, who has never been as comfortable as I am with
total frugality, now feels he has a little stash when he wants
a video after a long week at work. He really enjoys being able
to raid the Owl. Maybe we take ten or fifteen dollars a month
from the Emergency Owl. It's a way of affording a few of
life's little luxuries, and that's all we really want. We more
than replace it with our change.

Perhaps more importantly, the Emergency Owl's prominent place
on our bookshelf is a constant reminder of my father-in-law
and his wisdom. He lived a hard life, but he never hesitated
to spend on a little present for someone else or for himself.
The Emergency Owl has taught us the lesson that living on a
strict budget all the time can be draining. We all need a
little mad money once in a while or it's difficult to maintain
our overall commitment to frugality. By saving our change in
the Emergency Owl, we've learned that we trust ourselves
enough to fritter away a little bit, and that it won't hurt
the total financial picture. Spending a little bit on some
small luxuries has made us smarter and firmer about the big
costs.

Our Emergency Owl has been a great addition to the household.
We'd forgotten the simple pleasure of putting coins in a bank.
Our children enjoy helping with this task and it's a great
teaching moment. Every day I silently thank my father-in-law
for his wisdom and contribution to our happy and frugal home.
I think he would have been proud to see his grandchildren
placing quarters in the Owl.
_________________

Amy Burns is a stay-at-home mother of two young children.
Having recently survived a move from the Southwest to the much
more expensive Windy City, she is enjoying applying frugal
living techniques in a new environment.