Guest post by Lacey Wilcox at Live Loved
One of the most valuable lessons I gained as a first grade teacher was that every moment is a teachable one. I’ve now traded in my gradebook for a burp rag, but I still want that mentality with my sweet baby girl. Especially when it comes to money.
My husband and I are about to design a website for a small business we’re starting. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t do so until we could pay for it in cash. So, I did what any good mom trying to save money would do: I saved every penny I could get my hands on. Literally.
Since we pay for most things in cash, I would save any leftover change that I had from transactions. At the end of each month, I put it all in my “someday I’m going to have an awesome website” jar.
You probably all have a change jar stashed somewhere, and fill it as much as you can. But, don’t waste this moment as a teachable one. It’s incredibly valuable in showing your children the importance of good stewardship with money:
::Nothing gets wasted: all leftovers can be reused in a way that is valuable.
::Patience: just because you want something now doesn’t mean now is when you get it. And learning to wait for something teaches you to enjoy it that much more (with the sole exception of Mommy’s morning cup of coffee)
::Take time to make a good decision: taking the time to save for something means you also take the time to decide if you really need it. Sometimes, you decide it’s worth it, and sometimes, you realize you really didn’t need it.
::Thankfulness: when you take the time to save for something (especially if you’re saving pennies and dimes), you learn to be thankful for every single cent. That time also teaches you to be extremely proud of what you’ve earned (and makes you more likely to take care of it).
::Buying something is not a right: I don’t even know that I would say it’s a privilege. It’s a discipline. I want to start teaching my baby girl that now, so that she doesn’t have to learn it the hard way later.
So, there you have it. Consider it a double whammy from your change jar: not only do you save up for something great, you also have terrific life lessons for your family.
And I think we can all agree that’s a great deal.
Lacey Wilcox lives in the Panhandle of Texas with her husband, Kade and sweet baby, Selah, where they manage Panfork Baptist Camp. Lacey writes about adventures in marriage, mommy-hood, and camp life at her blog.
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{ 25 comments }
I absolutely love this statement “I don’t even know that I would say it’s a privilege. It’s a discipline.”. This is so true. My husband and I are working to save up money for a few things (one of them also being a new design for my blog) and we know it takes discipline, patience, and time. I love the idea of saving change because so many times change just goes wasted because of not being sure what to do with it other than buy another coffee. But if we started to actually save it…really save it..skys the limit!
I love this as well. However, I must caution to be extremely careful when you do decide to spend as I have watched ,many have saved all those pennies only to have someone create a mock website or do a bad job with the web site. My hubby has to redo many a website for folks who have managed to get into this spot. They paid the first folks and did not get what they wanted then had to pay again to end up with what they wanted. I do love the idea that the sky is the limit and if you work hard enough anything is possible, even with cautions from others who have gone before us we still need to be extremely careful.
Thanks so much for such sweet thoughts! But, we ended up using NewCoast Media, a web-design company owned by a friend of ours who is part of a church plant in the Dallas area. I think it’s going to be great:
http://www.newcoastmedia.com
I love that statement, too! Great article, Lacey! I don’t know if you guys have started building your website yet, but I recommend SBI. Here’s my personal story: http://www.childrens-church-ministry.com/about-sbi.html
We already have a company lined up, but thank you so much for sharing with me! If I ever save enough pennies for another design, I’ll keep them in mind
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This is a great article. I use my saved change to buy my girls’ clothes, shoes, and supplies, as well as a few things I need for our family at yard sales. Not one yard sale host has turned down change yet. Then, once my kids are through with the things I buy, I resell them on ebay. That discarded change can really go a long way!
Absolutely brilliant…taking notes!
Great article! Always enjoy these and love to know their are other families doing it too!
I save coins, then once a year I take them to my bank and get a cashier’s check made out to the American Red Cross.
We’re saving our change for a trip to Disney!
I love our change jar. We just cashed it out actually – $123 – sweet!
Well (sigh) guess it’s time to dig out the change we DO have laying around the house and find a nice jar to put it in.
TY for the inspiration though! We DID have quite the cash envelope system going, but I’m about 7 months into a difficult pregnancy, and while we probably haven’t put ourselves into any kind of debt, (how horrible is that? “probably”) we haven’t been saving what we can where we can b/c almost everything has been sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and on the credit card because we haven’t had the energy to separate out cash into envelopes. Gotta get back on track. We’ll be needing those savings with a family of four!
My dad always used to caution me to wait at least 24 hours before making a large purchase…by thinking about it, you’ll have an easier time separating your needs from your wants.
I enjoyed this, thank you very much for putting these ideas out there.
So glad it was helpful!
I remember growing up we had a giant wooden piggy bank. we would put all our change in it and would cash it whenever we went on a family trip. the total would be split between everyone and that was our special spending money for the vacation, ie any souveniers. not only did this make us think really hard about what it was we wanted to buy but we didnt bug our parents about buying random things in every souveniere shop bc we had our own money and when it was gone it was gone!
Again, I’m taking notes–what a great idea!
Every bit Of change I get or find goes in my girls’ piggy banks. They each have two. Ones that DH and I made for them and others that were gifts. My 3 yo’s are a big pig (she calls the mama) and a little pig that is baby. She puts all her change into the pigs when I empty my purse or when she gets a dime for perfect behavior at daycare (3 stars). All the quarters and nickels go to the mama and the dimes and pennies to the baby! I still fill the baby bc she still loves to put everything in her mouth!!
I just had to empty them all bc they were full and there was about $200 that will go into their college fund!
We also save our change in a plastic coffee can for spending money for our annual beach vacation. Last year, we only did it for a few months before our trip but saved enough to cover the cost of our groceries for the trip. This year we will have been saving for 13 months, so I am very excited to see how much we end up with!
And think about how much more fun that trip will be for you all
This post is so insightful. Thank you! I completely agree.
I keep a lime green piggy bank on my night stand, and anytime I get change, it goes in there. We also use a huge plastic coffee bin to put more change in and take it in when it gets full. This money goes into our savings account.
I did have a nice large piggy bank and i put change in it everytime i had extra including a 20 or 2 that just floated around my purse for a week. i just rolled it all up and had 155.00 from about 2 months! to bad i had to use most of it for groceries and now since my 3 yr old dropped it i have to buy a new one but I love saving change then finding out how much you actually have that you had no idea you had
It sounds great as a hobby for kids, but I’d recommend putting your money in an interest-bearing investment (either bonds, or preferably a well-researched stock/options/mutual fund). I mean sure the money looks great visually, but it’s essentially just sitting in a jar devaluing. With the high rates of inflation that are bound to emerge, I think this is something every cash-saver should consider doing as an alternative.
While I agree that money would technically do better in an interest-bearing investment, there is something to be said for the mental effects of a change jar. Even if that change jar has $150 dollars in it, the simple act of dropping in coins can act as a morale boost that reminds you of your goals. That simple reminder can motivate you to stick to your budget, pay off your debt, or act as a tangible example to your kids of financial responsibility. Sure, your $150 bucks could have gained a few extra dollars, but if it means giving you the emotional boost you need to push yourself towards financial freedom, I’d say it’s worth the sacrifice.