Money Saving Mom®

Testimonial from Lisa at Warrior Momma:

Hubby and I used to pay top dollar for just about everything. We always bought the best when it came to computers — the best memory, the best processor, the three-year warranty, the works.

Last spring, as my laptop started to fade, I tried to keep it limping along. We had it worked on. We replaced the battery. And I had to manually crash and reboot it multiple times every day just to be able to use it.

Obviously, I needed a new laptop. My brother-in-law is in the IT world, so I asked him what I should get. He told me to buy the $500 Dell deal that was currently available.

What? The thought had never crossed my mind. We always bought a custom Dell (our last computer cost over $1800!).

Then I thought about it: If I could get a computer for $500 and I had to replace it every year, I would still save $300 over the price of the last computer I bought that lasted me three years.

So, guess what? I bought a Dell computer with the exact same upgrades I put on my laptop three years ago. And it only cost $440! I am hopeful this computer will last a long time, but if it doesn’t, I will not have invested our life savings in it!

Lisa is a Cincinnati mom who has struggled the last 10 years to give her kids the best education, food and treatments money can buy. Raising special needs kids is taxing emotionally, relationally, financially and physically. Her dream is to break down the walls isolating special needs families and providing them with information to help them achieve their goals. Lisa blogs at Warrior Mama.

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Guest post by Lacey Wilcox

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.

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