Money Jars

It is important to teach kids about money.  Not just to recognize the coins, although that is great, but also how to use the money they have as they get older.  That way we can equip them to remember that money is not just for spending, but for saving and giving as well.  To do this we got our kids money jars.  One labeled spending, one labeled giving, and the last one labeled for saving.  Our kids now get a little bit of money, not for chores, but just for being part of the family!  Each Sunday they take their money and divide them into their jars.  The spending one is easy, although Isaiah is really into counting out how much money he has each day to see if he has enough to buy a toy.  The saving one we tell our kids is for something in the future, like college or a car someday.  Their giving jars now are for the organization called Feed My Starving Children.  A friend of ours in Illinois worked at one of the packing plants and we got to volunteer while we were there.  While volunteering we got M&M jars that we filled (after we ate the M&M’s of course!) with quarters and then send in to the organization to use to feed more people.  For more information on that organization go to www.fmsc.org .  The giving jars could be used for church, Haiti, the environment, or any other need that you see.  It is important for us to model the other areas for our kids as well, my kids see me spend, but I really would like them to see me give and save too.  One way we do this in our family is by the ten-dollar project.  Basically each week (or once a month, whatever your budget allows), we put a ten-dollar bill in our pocket and look for a way to give it away.  When we started it was hard, guess I wasn’t used to look at what other’s needed, but once we got started it is a fun way to bless others and model giving for our kids.  For more information on this you can go to www.thetendollarproject.com .  I am working on a way to show my kids about saving, I tell them but I would love ideas on how to actually show them we are saving too.  Hopefully someday our kids will be able to be good stewards with the money God has given them.