The Berenstain Bears' Dollars and Sense

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. Oh, dear friends, so today we are finishing this series about money. This story is another Bernstein Bearer's story. It's called Dollars and Sense. And of course these are written by Stan and Jan Bernstein and we absolutely love them and we cannot wait to dive right in. We're going to talk about money today, so buckle up you guys. Today's story is read by Monty. And... Buckle up you guys, Mr. Red by Monty and... Oh, are you an echo? Oh, are you an echo? You are! You are! My name's Philip! My name's Phil! Oh, you're an echo. Oh, you're an echo.

1:02Let's read. Yes, I'm ready to live in. Yes, I'm ready to live in. Shh! You found it. Found it. Okay. Cubs like their own money, their own dollars and cents, but to spend it or save it. What makes the most sense? Doll! Here we go. Money wasn't a big problem in the Bear Family's tree house down the sunny jerk road in deep and bear country, but it was a problem. At least were Cubs, brother and sister were concerned. They knew some things about money. They knew that Papa wasn't made of it. They knew it didn't grow on trees, and they knew that they should save it for a rainy day. Papa had told them those things many times. What they didn't know about money was how to manage it. It needs money, money needs to use it so.

2:05You think so? Yeah, I don't know that. You put it all to nap then. The Cubs liked money. They had liked it even before they knew you could buy things with it. They liked coins better than paper money because you could do things with coins. They liked to roll them. They liked to spin them. They liked to stack them. As they got a little older, they liked to play heads or tails with them. Do you know what that is? So on a coin, sometimes you'll find a head like someone's silhouette or their profile, like a picture of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. If you flip it upside down, the other side of it, they call it tails. Sometimes it has a bird on it or a building or something like that. The opposite side of the head. If it's got a head on it, it's the heads.

3:06If it's got the tails on it, it's the tails. When you flip it up and down, you can call what you think it will be before it hits the ground. You take your coin, you can throw it up in the air and say, I think it's going to be heads. And you have a 50% chance of being right because there's only two sides. Anyways, it is a lot of fun. But by keeping their eyes and ears open at the supermarket and the hardware store and the clothing store, they soon learned that you could do a lot more with money than just play with it. You could buy things with it. And in the picture we see, Mom LeBarr is with the kids at the grocery store and the lady who is doing the cash register says to her, that will be $7.50. And then in the next picture, the Papa Bear is at the hardware store. And he's going to buy a new hammer. That will be $9.19 and 20 cents. Says the guy selling it to him.

4:08And then they're over here buying some clothes. And the lady here says, that will be $11.10. For some sort of shirt or something like that, like they're buying. You could buy all sorts of things. Ice cream from the good humor bear. I'll have peach orange with jimmies. I'll have nutty chocolate cherry. Say the kids is they run out to the ice cream man. You could buy, let's see. Oh, and this picture, we can see what they're buying here, rides on the bucking duck at the mall. It's like a little toy that you can sit on and it moves around. You ever see those? They're saying, oh duck! And the duck is probably going back and forth. And you can also buy balloons from the balloon bear at the park. And there is the balloon bear with all his balloons and the kids are running up to him.

5:09And the cubs are running up to them saying, I'll have red. I'll have blue. They want those balloons. Makes sense to me, I want balloons too. As time went on, the cubs learned more about money. They learned the difference between the dollar sign, which was the S with two lines through it. Papa, may I have five dollars? Baseball Bob is having a big baseball card sale. Papa, may I have ten dollars? My bear be dollar is getting married and she needs a wedding dress. And while they were still fond of coins, they learned that you could buy a lot more with dollars. Baseball card? I'm not sure. But I'm more with dollars. Baseball cards? Wedding dresses? Shouted Papa, you think I'm made of money?

6:11You must think money grows on trees! The cubs backed away. All they wanted was some green money and all they got was Papa red in the face. Mama had been watching. She knew it was time to calm things down and she had an idea how to do it. If you cubs will excuse us, she said, there are some things I'd like to discuss with your Papa, Maria, said Mama. It is not going to do any good to shout at the cubs. It is as much our fault as it is theirs that they don't understand about money. It is up to us to teach them how to manage money. But how? Asked Papa. I suggest that we begin by giving them a regular weekly allowance.

7:16She said. That's an interesting idea and perhaps they'll learn to be more responsible about money. An allowance? Said Sister. What's an allowance? Asked Brother. An allowance? Said Papa. There's a sum of money that you will get at the beginning of every weekend. It will be up to you to manage it or to spend it or to save it as you see fit. The cubs looked at each other as if they didn't believe him. It seemed too good to be true. And here is your first week's allowance. Said Papa. Brother and Sister looked at the small pile of money Papa had placed in front of each of them. Then they grabbed the money and they were out the front door down the steps and on the road to town faster than you can say weekly allowance.

8:21That's how they were gone. Boom, just like that. Said Papa. Double. Said Mama. What do you think they were going with all that money? Baseball cards. When the cubs returned they each had a pile of candy bars, bubble gum and trading cards. Uh oh. They had spent their whole allowance on the first day of the week. And they did the same thing the next week. And the next. And the next. It was clear to Mama and Papa that the allowance idea wasn't working as planned and it certainly wasn't teaching the cubs how to manage money. The cubs would quickly eat the candy bars and get tired of the other things they bought. Then they would mope and groan because they didn't have any money left for the rest of the week.

9:26Mama said brother. I don't think this allowance idea is working out. I quite agree. Said Mama. But what do you suggest? A bigger allowance. Said the cubs as one. Oh, they've agreed how they talked about it. Possibly. Said Mama. But that is something we'll have to discuss with your Papa. Let's discuss it with him right now. Said sister. Oh, no. Said Mama. Papa is balancing the checkbook. I never interrupt your Papa while he's balancing the checkbook. What does I mean? I'm so glad that you asked. Let's see what they say. Checkbook. Thought Mama. Our checkbook helps Papa and me manage our money.

10:30It gives us a chance to think about how we should spend it. It gives us a record of how much money we have spent and how much we have left. Mama went into the kitchen. She rummaged her out in the cupboard drawer. It was filled with things that she wasn't quite ready to throw away. Like this. Among the things were some extra checkbooks that were left over from when she had changed banks. But how to explain the idea of checks and checkbooks to the cubs? She wondered. Mama told Papa what she had in mind. And then she explained the idea of checks to the cub. Do you mean you're taking away our allowances? Protested brother. Not at all. Said Papa. As a matter of fact, we're increasing your allowances.

11:30But instead of giving them to you at the beginning of each week, so that you can go out and spend them before they burn a hole in your pockets, we're going to hold them for you. And then when you want a little pocket money or want to buy something, you write out a check. Here also your heart's done. First you'll make it out to cash like so. And then you put how much it's for in words as well as in numbers so there can't be any mistake. Then you're right what that's for on this line and sign it at the bottom and on the back. And then you give it to Mama and she'll give you the money and to keep records. That's simple. And in the pictures we can see the checkbook. And we can see exactly how they have organized it. So for example, we can see here that

12:32they want to pay cash in the sum of $3 for a book and brother bears going to buy that. So he would write this out in a check and he would say, here's my check mom and she would say, oh, you want $3 to go buy a book? Well, here's your $3 and she would go into his money and pull out $3 and give it to him. And then she would take this note and keep records. He took out $3 to go buy a book on this day and I gave him $3. And then that way she knows what he spent and he knows what he spent and there's a record of it. Does that make sense? Brother got the idea right away and gave Mama a check for $3 and she gave him the cash. He changed his mind about spending $5 half of his allowance on baseball cards. And bought a baseball book instead.

13:32Sister changed her mind too. She decided to save her first week's allowance and buy the bearby wedding dress with her next week's allowance. So then she would still have $10 left. Now they're starting to move their money around a little bit more. Now that's what I call money managing said Mama to Papa. And based on the face, the debt that Papa bear was making when he was trying to balance his checkbook, I'm going to say it's probably a very good thing that Mama is helping those cubs who look like Papa. Maybe he still has a watch learn. And I'm sure we all do. So no matter what my friends who are listening, if you have Mommy and Daddy who give you an allowance or if you don't, right now is a great time to think my mom and dad take really good care of me. And I should say thank you to them for whatever good fun things I have in my life because somebody, my friends,

14:38somebody had to buy it. And I'm going to guess it probably wasn't you. It was probably Mama and Dad. And that is worth thanking them for. And it is also... They earned. So be sure to join us again for another story tomorrow. You