I have been a big fan of Dave Ramsey's for a long time. If you are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey, he is an author, speaker and radio host that helps people get out of debt and manage their money in smart ways. Ramsey thinks that kids should be taught about money at a young age and I agree. One of the ways he recommends to do this is to have Spend, Save, Give banks which kids can use to intentionally manage their money. Spend, Save, Give Jars are easy to make and will teach your kids important lessons about money. Don't forget kids can also learn about money with this Counting Coins activity.
Dave Ramsey outlines the details of money lessons for kids in his Financial Peace Junior program, which we own. The program comes with zipped spend, save, give pouches where kids can put their money, but since I have three kids I needed more than the one set that came with the program. I decided to make my own banks using mason jars. You can really use any kind of container to make these banks, but I love mason jars because they are see through and can be easily opened to remove the money. They are made of glass, so you need to be careful with the age child you give these to.
You will need:
- 3 pint sized mason jars
- Permanent marker
- Mason jar slotted lid inserts
- Puffy paint
At first, I cut my own slots in the mason jars, but it was time consuming and a bit of a pain. On a shopping trip to Target I stumbled upon these slotted mason jar lids which are just perfect for this project. I have included a link to them on Amazon in case you can't find these at Target but they were cheaper at Target, so check there first.
With puffy paint, write the words, spend, save and give on three separate mason jars. Make sure to shake the puffy paint well before using. Should you make a mistake, you can just wipe off the puffy paint with a napkin and start again. The puffy paint will take 3-4 hours to dry.
Once the paint dries, your kids are ready to start using their Spend, Save and Give jars. Whenever your kids get money - birthdays, allowances, or commission as Ramsey suggests - they put some of their money into their 3 jars. We encourage our kids to put 10% of their money in their Give jar. When the jar is full, we donate that money to church and various charities. We then split up the remaining money into the Spend and Save jars. If a child is saving for something big, then they are encouraged to place more money in the Save jar.
The program is simple to tailor to your needs and really goes a long way towards getting young children thinking about money and learning to treat it responsibly. We use this program with our 5 and 6 year old daughters, so it's never too early to start!
Now that the kids are earning and saving money, you may be thinking about how you can earn more money. I have found this post, Easy Ways Moms Can Make Money from Home to be a great resource.
For more frugal ideas check out:
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