Daddy, what can you buy with $0.20?

My two older girls had never heard of $0.20 recess money. So I told them about the grasshoppers.

By Willis Wee

8 October 2026

It was a challenging morning with my two older girls. On the way to school, we ended up talking about hardship.

The conversation below is between my girls and me. It’s paraphrased from a short car ride.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: What do you mean hardship? What is that?

Daddy 🧔🏻: You each get $2.50¹ for recess every day. That’s more than enough for canteen food. When I was your age, 大伯 (my older brother) and I each got $0.20.

👧🏻👧🏻: 20 cents?! What can you buy with $0.20

Daddy 🧔🏻: A soya bean drink. Maybe. It’s not enough for a bowl of noodles, which was at least $0.50. So we had to save for two or three days before we could eat a proper recess.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: What did you do with the money then?

Daddy 🧔🏻: There was nothing to spend on. We didn’t have enough to buy food. Instead of thinking about what to spend, we started thinking about how to make more money.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: How did you make more money?

Daddy 🧔🏻: Catch and sell grasshoppers.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: Grasshoppers?!

Daddy 🧔🏻: We had nothing to do during recess. We’d be out in the grass fields, playing football or catching grasshoppers, because there were so many of them. We’d put them in a container and watch them. Then we noticed the other kids were curious. They wanted the grasshoppers as pets.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: So you sold them?

Daddy 🧔🏻: Catching grasshoppers takes work. If other kids wanted them but didn’t want to do the catching, we could do it and sell them. We charged $0.50 up to $2, depending on the size and the type.²

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: That’s a lot! What happened?

Daddy 🧔🏻: We felt rich, haha. We actually earned it with our own hands. But the school discipline master eventually shut us down.³ The business was getting pretty big. More kids wanted them as pets.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: And then?

Daddy 🧔🏻: With the grasshopper money, we could eat well and pay off our debts.

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: Debts?!

Daddy 🧔🏻: I used to borrow money from a friend whenever I was hungry. Thankfully, he was kind. His mother even found out and came to school once during recess to eat together with us, to make sure I actually had food. I’m still grateful for it.⁴

Girls 👧🏻👧🏻: How do you keep a grasshopper? How do you feed it? How do you clean it? How did you sell the grasshopper?

Daddy 🧔🏻: (laughs, hahaha) Go go, close the door properly. Bye bye, I love you. Have fun at school.

I don’t know how much of this they’ll remember.⁵

But if anything stays, I hope it’s this: you can use your own hands and your own thinking to work your way out of a challenging spot. There is always a way, as long as you stay aware, remain calm, and are willing to do the work.