2024 Essay Contest Winners

“The Best Money I Ever Spent”

First Prize ($300)

It was an uncomfortably warm day as I sat on near-empty bleachers watching my son race bicycles. A few rows behind me, a young family was also trying to watch their son through the dust. With them was another son who looked to be about 7. Bored. It was easy to overhear the escalating frustrations on both sides. Then I heard, “What are you going to do with that rock?” “I’m going to sell it.” “Nobody’s going to buy a rock that you just picked up under the bleachers!”

A few moments later, I heard a little voice ask, “Ma’am, would you like to buy a rock?” “How much?,” I said. “A dollar,” he replied. I reached into my purse and got a dollar for him. Then, behind me, I heard, “Where did you get that money?” “I sold the rock.” “For a dollar?” Then I heard laughing, encouragement, praise. No more frustration. He had become their budding entrepreneur. That was the best money I ever spent.

–Ruth Davis, Mogadore, Ohio

Second Prize ($200)

I was hauling a shipment of Rocky Mountain oysters to Laramie, Wyoming, on a Friday afternoon, and the last stop was at a small grocery store. As the lumpers were getting the truck unloaded, I wandered over to the Kum & Go to get a snack. A lady in the parking lot had a laundry basket full of puppies in the bed of an old Dodge truck. I hesitated momentarily but decided that my newborn son might enjoy some company when I was on the road, and $25 wasn’t a bad deal for a good-looking retriever pup. 

Fast-forward 6 years or so: My son and his beloved pup, whom we had named Rusty, were playing out in the pasture when I heard a scuffle with a lot of barking and screaming. I ran out to find my son scared and in tears and Rusty scratched up and limping—but seemingly in good spirits. After a short investigation, I came to find out that a bobcat or small mountain lion had been stalking my boy and Rusty as they were playing. If I hadn’t spent $25 so many years before on a great dog, my son might not be alive today.

–Brenton Chinn, Fort Collins, Colorado

Third Prize ($100)

The best money I ever spent was the 35 cents that I plunked down in the Christmas season of 1963 to buy a gift that my family would consult throughout the year. I thereafter discovered, in perusing that 1964 Old Farmer’s Almanac, that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur the evening of June 24. The problem was that when it was nearly at the end of its totality at 8:57 p.m., the eclipse would be half-lost in the glow of twilight. There would be only a thin sliver of time when the Moon would be high enough in the east and the sky dark enough in the west to enjoy the full event.

I invited a special young lady to view it with me from a vantage point in a field with broad eastward exposure. Alas, as sunset approached, clouds gathered, and it started raining. I was, of course, extremely disappointed. But she smiled brightly and said, “It really means a lot that you wanted to share this with me. And I bet you’re the only boy around who even knew that it was going to happen!” It made me really glad that I’d bought that 35-cent Almanac!

 –Rand Peabody, Peabody, Massachusetts

Honorable Mention

The best money I ever spent was on hogs. For the past 10 years, I’ve invested in market hogs. In July of each year, I would show them at my local fair and sell them at the end of the fair week. Because I made this investment over and over again, I was able to accomplish many things. I was able to buy my first vehicle by myself, and I was able to pay for my college education without a loan. Not only did I earn money from raising market hogs, but also, from being part of a 4-H club, I learned valuable life lessons about responsibility, leader- ship (from my 4-H officer role), and money management. Therefore, the best money I’ve ever spent was on pigs—as funny as that may sound!

–Kylee Williams, Lebanon, Pennsylvania