31 Days off Your Duff {Day 22} - An Alternative to Letting Your Child Gorge on Candy

Where has time gone? I've been doing this blog challenge for three weeks now, and Halloween is just about here.

Oh boy. Tons of children running around on sugar highs. Doesn't that sound exciting?

Well, my parents never thought so. Thus, they devised a plan that would limit our candy intake, but still make Halloween an incredibly exciting event for us!

But Ashley, what was that plan?

Well readers, each year we would all sit down and come up with a list. This list would encompass all possible candies that we would gather, from M&M's to obscure items we would never see again. Then, we would assign each candy a value - nickel, 2 nickels, a whole dollar, etc. - and that would be the amount of money our candy would earn!

I don't have any of our original lists, but here is a mock-up for you to see:

• Candy Bar, small - 10¢
• Candy Bar, large - 20¢
• M&M's, small - 5¢
• Almond Joy - 25¢
• Sweet Tarts - 50¢
• Unique, Strange, Amazing Candy - $1

You get the idea. Candies that were my parents' favourite were worth more, and crazy unique candies were worth a lot just for the novelty (one time I think I had sweet tarts in the shape of an airplane somehow... that earned me extra!).

So armed with the knowledge from our list, my sister and I would set out into the night. If someone offered us a big bowl of assorted candies, we knew exactly which one to grab. We knew to be excited when a package of sweet tarts or skittles were deposited into our bag. We also knew which candies we could afford to eat in between houses to keep up our energy.

Then, at the end of the night came the most exciting part; dumping our candy all over the floor and totaling it up. Once we were ready, we turned it all in and our parents gave us the money - one year I made over $30! I still have the steel dragon statue I bought with those earnings.

So whether you want to take away your kids' candy for their health, for their safety, for your sanity, or just for the sake of making some new memories, go grab some paper and start making a list!