A Fun Way to Save for Kids
I was having a conversation with my eldest daughter who will soon be turning thirteen. We were talking about saving and how important it is not to spend every dime we receive. She and her siblings always get money in their birthday cards from family members and are so quick to want to spend it.
She mentioned how
Pennies are so boring and don’t add up to anything.
She would most likely be the one to walk right over them and instead look for a silver coin. I have to admit I was the same way.
We’re trying to instill good habits in our kids while we still have them at arm’s reach. Building a savings is one of those habits we deem necessary and essential for living comfortably and not from paycheck to paycheck. We teach them from experience because we both have made poor decisions in the past that led us to debt and bad credit.
I wanted to find a way that our family could have fun saving together and sort of make it a challenge to motivate us even more.
I found this inexpensive coin counter jar that fit the bill.
When the kids were little we started saving up coins in a glass jar. It wasn’t one of those things that stayed on the top of our minds but if we came across enough change we knew where to put it.
I called all of the kids in the room and told them we were going to transfer all of the change we saved into the new counter jar.
Of course they were excited because MONEY right?! What kid doesn’t like to get their hands on a lot of change. 😄
We each placed a small pile in front of us and took turns dropping in the coins. It’s pretty cool because if you accidentally drop two coins at a time (it won’t add both) you can simply push the plus sign to correct the balance. Vice versa if you need to subtract anything you can push the minus.
As we got further into the adding my eldest daughter says
Okay wow, I can’t believe it’s adding up like this especially with all the pennies.
This was our final count…
I explained to my daughter that although a penny by itself is such a small amount the more it multiplies it adds up over time to be worth a pretty nice sum. Of course it’s always nice with the help of some silver to make that total rise a bit faster lol.
Who would have known just by casually adding loose change over the years we’d have a jar worth almost forty bucks? I gotta be honest and say not only were the kids impressed and motivated, my husband and I were too. 😊
Then of course it got me wishing we would have had more jars and added change more often.
Oh and guess what? My daughter will not be overlooking pennies any more. She along with her siblings get so excited when they find coins to add to our family savings jar.
Our older kiddos have asked if they can have their own personal one. Their requests will be granted soon. I love that they are inspired to save their change now.
The other cool thing about this counter is that they are doing math right along with it. I noticed how they were counting ahead before they dropped their coins calculating what the numbers would be. The littles were also counting along as they dropped in those pennies.
Lately it’s been a race to see who can find and put in the most change. It’s something therapeutic about watching that amount rise. 😆🤭
Do you and your family have some type of savings activity that you do together? I’d love to hear about more ideas so that we can add on to our fun!
I’ll be sharing with you soon about the financial setbacks and failures we had this past year and how we are getting back on track.
Save to get saved , a sure thing that has worked and became handy over time. We often get carried away with using all the money we have that we forget to save. Well I have a bank app that help me save money by putting in a particular period of time and once it's set I could see my money but can't take it 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Teaches some patience too . And also it drops little interest that I eventually withdraw alongside my real money . This is also familiar with the @hive savings method .
Yes! I've had my share of "getting carried away with using all the money.” 😬😁
Hmmm that sounds like a good discipline app lol 😅.
It’s always good getting interest. It sure is similar to Hive’s method of saving.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing about the app ~
Keep up the good work with the kids ☺️☺️☺️
Thanks so much ~ 😊
Lovely initiative, we use "kolo" over here, also known as piggy box
Thank you! 😊
I looked it up and it seems similar to this envelope type system we just set up. I'll be sharing about that soon.
Thanks for the info ~
¡Hola! Sí,el ahorro es importante en una familia,me gustó mucho ése contador 👍, actualmente mi familia ha ahorrado muy poco, pero voy destinar la wallet de Hive con ése propósito,ya lo había pensado y al leer su post, más ganas me dan de realizar mi proyecto de ahorro! gracias por compartir 🙌
Hi @griselpattdiaz! Yes it’s so important.
I'm glad you'll be taking advantage of the savings feature we have here. I need to start saving even more there too.
Glad you read my post and it got you motivated ~ 😃😉
🙌☺️
It's such a simple concept to teach kids about one of the most important facts of life and it's something they can do themselves with pretty much no effort.
The only trouble is that we're gradually become a cashless society. I don't know what the situation is in America, but in UK, I've barely used coins in the past few years. I think COVID certainly had a role to play in going contactless, plus nit just seems to be the trend to use plastic for everything here. What's not like in America?
It really is simple. I think seeing that they can do this on their own was another motivating factor.
I agree. I felt this way even before covid that eventually the dollar will be irrelevant. As for now it’s still kind of good to have cash in a sense that it’s still used pretty often here. The other part I like about it is it’s something you can see and watch grow physically before your eyes and it seems to be a better motivator of saving when you can an actually “touch” your money.
We just started another money system where we put cash in certain compartments like for car maintenance, personal items, birthdays etc. It’s pretty cool to actually get to move the money around ourselves and then use it as we need.
We always reach for glass over plastic. I was actually looking for a glass jar with a counter like this but could only find this plastic one (I’m sure I could have found one online but I was already right there in the store lol). Our first jar was glass. I have noticed more people switching over and choosing it over the plastics.
Mmm, candidates for the Saturday Savers Club! 😍
Really important lesson about the pennies. There's that saying in England - "take care of the pennies and the pounds will take of themselves".
Hahaha I was thinking of you when writing this post. I had a friend just tell me about a penny saver challenge. 😄
I like that saying ~
💕
Teaching children about saving and good money management is important, when you give money to a child the first thing he wants to buy is candy, it is not wrong to eat a candy when he receives money for his birthday or a family gift, but explaining to him what is really a priority and how he should spend the money is essential for him to save and in the future have a fund that will support him for certain situations, I like the savings plan he has with your children it is fun and satisfying to see how the pennies add up; in my country there is a very appropriate saying for this important topic "from drop to drop a river is formed".
Blessings!
Yes this teaching is so important!
Thank you so much for this comment and adding your valuable input. I really like that saying as it is so true!! ☺️
A simple way of making your child more responsible in the finances, soon.
I will also apply this to my child. Thanks for sharing.
It truly is a simple and productive way! I hope you and your child both enjoy!! 😉
Yes, surely it will. ☺️
It is a great way to teach kids the value and importance of even the little and seemingly mundane or unimportant! I've done this (for myself) for years. Once that jar is filled I'm always blown away at just how much it adds up to! So lovely seeing you again
I couldn't agree more! That’s so good you’ve already been doing this. We plan to keep at and watch the build up of our spare change.
It’s always good hearing from you ~ 💓
Congratulations your publication has been chosen among the best of the day.
KEEP CREATING GOOD CONTENT.
Thank you so much!
I loved that money counter jar! One of the things that as parents we must instill or sow as a good habit for life to our children is to know how to manage, save, avoid the expenses "ants" those who no matter how small they are or seem to be eat finances. Applying this will make them more aware and responsible for their economy. I liked reading your lines.
Greetings and blessings
Thank you so much for this comment @leomarylm. We are hoping these teachings help set our kids up for financial success and not to go in debt. Money management should be taught in every home.
I was actually disappointed when we arrived in Australia and they no longer used pennies. 5c is the smallest denomination now, so all the coins are silver or gold for dollars. They round up or down at the shops if you use cash.
Whoa I did not realize this. Looks like cash may become irrelevant sooner than I thought. That is so sad though as a penny really adds up.
Oh yes, money is like a language, and this jar speaks volumes! Very nice to use such a gadged. Just the other day I saw an enormously large version of it in a small supermarket. A vending machine big as for drinks, into which you can pour coins to pay with a receipt at the cash register or have the amount given to you in banknotes.
!invest_vote
Thanks so much for your comment. This jar has been really fun to fill.
Oh yes! I see those in our grocery stores quite often. Thankfully our bank institution allows you to do this for free. It is where we will be taking our jars once they are full.
Thanks for the vote ~
@anli denkt du hast ein Vote durch @investinthefutur verdient!
@anli thinks you have earned a vote of @investinthefutur !