Money Saving Mom®

Guest post by Kathleen of Yankee Homestead

The irony is not lost on me.

While my real-food adult self wouldn’t touch Velveeta cheese with a ten-foot pole, I’m thankful for what I learned about money from the Velveeta cheese box as a child.

My Velveeta Cheese Bank

Velveeta cheese was a normal part of my family’s diet. So it was natural for my mother to turn an empty Velveeta box into a simple bank for me.

She taped two dividers to the inside of the box to create three separate spaces. On the outside, she painted the cardboard with bright colors and added the words: Church, Saving, Spending.

Voilá! A bank!

I was about five years old then, and my parents trained me to divide my weekly allowance (and other amounts of money I received) into three portions: Give, Save, Spend.

My First Budget

When I turned 13, my dad took my financial training a step further. He instructed me to make a list of all the clothing I would need in one year. Next, I listed the estimated price of each item. This gave us the approximate amount of money required to clothe me for one year.

Then my dad divided that amount by 12 to arrive at a monthly clothing allowance. My first budget was born! It was my job to manage that monthly allowance in order to fund a year’s worth of wardrobe purchases.

I’m pretty sure this is what started my love affair with thrifting and bargain-hunting! It was completely unfathomable to buy a piece of clothing at brand-new retail prices, when I could find perfectly suitable items on clearance racks or at thrift stores!

All Grown Up

This financial training followed me into life as a young adult. I didn’t make a ton of money as a public school teacher, but I knew what to do with the money I earned: give, save, spend.

When I got married three years after graduating from college, the only debt I carried was about $9K from an interest-free tuition loan from my dad. I didn’t live in a posh apartment and my car wasn’t very fancy, but I paid for everything with cash.

In contrast, my husband-to-be owed over $70K in credit card bills, student loans, and a car payment on a brand new truck. It’s interesting to note that while he had received somewhat similar budget training as a child, that training had been less intentional and was not modeled consistently.

Together we worked out a plan to pay off all the debt, and with God’s provision, we did so in three years — just in time to welcome our first son to the world!

Training the Next Generation

Today our family includes three sons ages 9, 6, and 2. Recently, we started the two older boys on a weekly allowance. Each boy has a box-bank with three sections: God, Save, Spend.

• Our six-year-old received his box as a gift — it bears our last name and matches the colors of the boys’ shared bedroom.
• Our nine-year-old picked out his box on a mommy-and-me date — he’s a proud Texan (like his daddy) and was excited to find a box with the Lonestar flag.

The boys’ boxes are a bit of an upgrade from my old Velveeta cheese box, but the cardboard dividers do remind me of my first “bank”.

My husband and I are not perfect money-managers by any means, but we pray our boys will learn the habits of giving, saving and spending from the training they receive in our home.

We pray they will carry those habits into adulthood and then pass them on to their own children… just like my parents did for me decades ago, with a humble Velveeta cheese box.

Are you training your children to give, save, and spend?  Which methods work best at your house?

Kathleen Henderson lives on a few acres in Northern Virginia, where she keeps up with Mr. Native Texan, three busy boys, an assortment of chickens and an organic garden. She blogs about healthy living at Yankee Homestead, providing time-saving resources for naturally-minded mamas.

Guest post from Amanda of Crunchy Hippie Life

It started with a scratch-off card — we had won something!

We called the number on the card and schedule an appointment for someone to come out and look at it. “In return,” the lady said, “we would ask that you watch a one-hour presentation about an air filter system and give your opinion. You can even just say you wish it came in a different color.”

Sound familiar?

Well, we actually really liked the product. It had great features and seemed to work really well.

Then he pulled out the big seller: a vacuum with all the bells and whistles. It worked really, really well — even the carpet looked happier. The materials were even a hippie’s dream: hemp and cellulose filter, charcoal overlay filter, made in the USA. It had it all.

But it was $3,000!!!

We are still paying a couple thousand in student loans and we have some big purchases coming up.

My husband and I went back and forth for over an hour about this decision. We pay cash for everything, and this was a lot of money. But this product worked much better than our vacuum and was built to last. So we decided to delay our financial goals in favor of this system.

The next morning, we questioned our decision. For the first few hours we kept reminding each other that the vacuum picked up a bunch of dirt even right after we used our vacuum thoroughly. It was an investment, and it even came with free annual servicing.

However, my husband called me later that day in a bit of a panic — he had a nagging suspicion that couldn’t be ignored. He did some thorough internet searches and found many of the same vacuums for sale at drastically reduced prices. It seems many others had given in to the very convincing presentation and wanted to make part of their money back.

Thankfully, we were still within the 3-day waiting period, so we were able to return the vacuum and the air filters!

During our reflection on what decisions led to spend $3,000 on a vacuum, we learned 3 important things:

1. We implemented a 24-hour hold rule.

We got way too excited in the moment and made a very hasty decision. Thanks to this vacuum incident, we now have a 24-hour hold rule for all purchases over $100 — meaning we will wait at least 24 hours before making any purchase that costs more than $100.

2. We recommitted to a budget.

When we had a significantly smaller income, we would have considered this sort of amount of money to be an outrageous amount to spend on something like a vacuum. We wanted to be true to our core beliefs and continue to be frugal.

3. We learned to express gratitude for what we have.

Our little vacuum may not be the top of the line or have lots of cool features, but it’s ours and we will appreciate and take care of it like it is the best vacuum around.

If nothing else, I’m thankful that this experience taught us some perspective and gave us something to work through together as a couple.

We are firm believers in being on the same page when it comes to financial decisions, and I am thankful for the opportunity we had to recommit to that principle. I’m also thankful for the opportunity to stop and be grateful for what we have.

Contentment is a powerful tool when it comes to living on a budget!

Amanda is the RN hippie mama behind Crunchy Hippie Life, where she blogs about natural living, frugal ideas, and her family’s new move to Iowa. When not working or blogging she enjoys sipping a latte at the coffee shop, listening to audiobooks, or taking a walk with her husband and son.

photo source