Originally, I saw this idea on Pinterest. I immediately loved it and couldn't believe I hadn't thot of it myself. The idea has become even MORE appropriate for our household since we've been buying "scrip" gift cards through Henry's school (it's a year-round fundraiser where the school sells gift cards at face value, but gets a percentage of the value for themselves...) Each time I use a card for grocery shopping or to pick up something we need, the boys want the spent card to play with. I do hate throwing away the little bits of plastic all the time, and so far I haven't found any of the cards that I buy "re-fillable." (Plus if I refilled the card at the store Henry's school wouldn't get its percentage...)
So anyway what I did since I didn't have an old wallet lying around was to pick up a cheap one ($4.00) at Ross Dress for Less, where I happened to have a scrip card I wanted to use and once I did it went in the wallet! When we got home, I filled the wallet with a bunch of other scrip cards the boys had been playing with, along with some business cards for child-friendly products we've purchased (Lunchbots, Snack Taxi, Earth Monkeys) AND one of Daddy's biz cards and even one of Mommy's old biz cards. I also cut up a few "dollars" from a piece of green craft foam I had handy, but felt would have also been nice. I think I will cut some coins out of foam or felt eventually, too. My kids are too young to be left to their own devices around the house with an ink pen, so I didn't bother buying a longer check-book style wallet, but if you had older kids and did this, you could include some blank scraps of paper in the money or checkbook section for random doodling.
Fun and easy idea, right? This would be a fun "toy" for road or airplane trips (you could fill it with new & special items like stickers or tiny homemade "books" or pictures of where you're traveling to or whom who you are going to see or ... ?) and would be especially handy for keeping kiddos in the cart entertained while grocery shopping. I think Henry might like if I made up a grocery list for him with drawings of various items that I could ask him to help me find. (Can of soup, bananas, box of cereal, loaf of bread, etc.)
Enjoy!
