Make Penny Pinching A Competitive Sport

I loved her attitude. Wells knew her husband wouldn't put her or the baby in danger. She appreciated -- although not at the time -- his penny pinching.

"I had to laugh," Wells said. "I'm so grateful for him because he saves us a lot of money."

You have to have a good sense of humor if you're married to, related to or friends with a penny pincher. I know I drive my family nuts with my constant preaching about penny pinching.

In fact, my oldest child, Olivia, had a money meltdown recently because I was grilling her about a particular purchase. Her school had an arts and crafts fair in which the children could purchase one another's creations.

Olivia decided to buy a dream catcher, a work of art inspired by a Native American tradition in which a web is hung over your bed to catch bad dreams while allowing good dreams to get through.

Olivia was proud that she had bought the dream catcher for $6.

"Are you sure that was the best price you could get?" I innocently asked.

"Mommy, please," she said with exasperation. "It was a good deal. Why are you always talking to me about money? I know more about personal finance [seriously, she actually used that phrase] than any 10-year-old in the world."

"Good," I said, trying to muffle a snicker.

My friends tease that one day Olivia is going to write a "Mommy Dearest" book about my frugal follies. I don't care. At least she'll make some money.

As I tell my children often, I sweat the small stuff because when you do you have big money for the things that really matter -- like a college education.

In my house, every time one of my children asks for something and it's not in the budget, I have two words for them -- "college fund."