Spend, Save, Share

by Karen Brown

One of the things we hope to instill in our children from a young age is fiscal responsibility. We want to model the value of money for them, how and what it is used for, and what a spirit of generosity looks like. 

Something we are currently trying, to help them be responsible for their money, is creating separate banks for them for different categories: Spend, Save and Share. The idea is that when they receive money, they immediately divide it up into each bank based on agreed upon percentages. This makes it very easy for our children to know what they can spend on treats or gifts, what they need to save, and what they should, at a minimum, share with others through their tithe and other generosity opportunities at school, etc.

We started with simple recycled pasta sauce jars. I labeled each jar and painted the lids with primer and then chalkboard paint. By using chalkboard paint, the kids can keep a tally on the jar lid of how much money they have. 

the Brown's jars

Here are a couple others I found online. I love how this one gives visual clues for the child as to what each jar is for. 

(source unknown)

Here’s another variation on the same thing. I love these for boys! And Rachel of Smile and Wave has a great tutorial for how to make these.

from Rachel at Smile and Wave

And if DIY is not your style, you can purchase one from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Jr.