For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 24, 2023

She may yet learn to be responsible with her money!

Oh, what a nice 80s sweater

Sometimes a little tough love goes a long way.

Now that’s a good lesson for your daughter!

Maybe Liz could earn a raise—for instance, SHE could (and should) be giving April her bath.

John, I think this ploy of yours is to (A) shut down Liz, and (B) get out of raising her allowance. You are bad enough without being another Elly. Knock it off.

Today’s strip probably dates back to an earlier time when Canada never knew that Black Fridays can exist where stores sell things at 50% off!

Hey dad, when practically everything is half price why on Earth do you need to make a list about expenses? When else do you save half off?

Morning Lynn, great lesson for all, have a great day.

As a kid, I got $0.35/week allowance (it was the largest I ever got). It was enough to buy one $0.15 candy bar and one $0.25 candy bar. Saturday was “candy day”, the only day (other than Halloween, of course) we were allowed to have candy, so that’s where the money invariably went. The catch was that we were “fined” a nickel every time we left a light on upon leaving a room. It didn’t take too many lights to totally blow candy day… This probably explains my pathological aversion to leaving lights on, and my many childhood cavities. Ah, the good old days.

It’s cool to see dad giving April a bath. Good dad.

My youngest daughter is talking about paying for root canals, car payment, and not having enough money. After the Christmas rush her hours will go down. My three other kids are on their own, having learned to budget, not really bothering me for anything.

Family at bottom of chain government at top

The Pattersons’ country has been renamed. The new name is Canadebt.

:P

It’s good to see John taking the time to bathe April. Normally, he would just let Farley lick her clean.

Sometimes good to initiate that review process. One of the kids (adult) ran into some fiscal trouble and when an analyzed the expenses discovered spending over $20k per year on door dash.

Smart move, Darryl. Liz is not dumb, just young.

Hmmm. My weekly allowance amounted to pop bottle returns and change found in the street. On a good week, I could find 35 cents. Enough to go to the movies.

Best hunting for pop bottles, was in hedges.

Best place to find dropped change, was outside corner stores, mom and pops, they were good hunting grounds.

With all the nickel cans tossed away today, I coulda got a bike in no time.

John had to be tough on Mike and Elle… Now Liz ! Dad has a hard job.

This is Canada. Surely there can be a government program to help with school lunches and see that Elizabeth doesn’t go hungry. Single-payer food! How about

Ontario

Food

Unsecure

Contributions

Sometimes a little tough love goes the wrong way.

The bane of every teenagers life at some point…….Responsibility.

Writing down everything works while dieting too. When you write down every morsel that you eat, you become a lot more reluctant to eat everything in sight.

That works great when my son asks for a raise in his allowance. It usually results in that his current allowance is actually too high.

I’m curious about whether Liz’s allowance is given “just because” or if she’s supposed to do chores to earn it. All we ever see is Ellie doing all the cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc.

Did John already know she was blowing her money on movies and jawbreakers? If she really was hard up she probably would not answer with “I dunno; I just need it for stuff”. That was like a red flag for John that she was being the Prodigal Daughter.

Spending money on something you shouldn’t Lizard breath?

No, he wants to know every single thing you spend HIS money on !