One thing I’ve always loved and wanted to implement with the kids was the idea of Spend, Save & Give Jars. My kiddos are at the age now where they may not want to do chores but they want money so they can buy more video game downloads for their iPad. And I am OK with that. Listening to the theme song for geometry dash on repeat is getting old. We need new games people but not at the expense of the “bank of mom and dad”.
But here the thing, we haven’t yet played the “allowance game” with our younger three and now that they are getting older this is a great opportunity for us to use own spend, save and give jars to teach them about money.
For starters, my kids need to be given an amount of money that is age- appropriate and that allows them to make real choices- and real mistakes- so they can feel how much it hurts. We want to use their allowance to teach them that when they work hard they are going to be rewarded because this will be true all their life. So how much allowance is enough?
“Average Allowances by Age. The averageAmerican family pays approximately 50 cents per week for each year of a child’s age. For example, a 10-year-old would get $5 per week. Another often-quoted allowance figure is $1 per week for each year of the child’s age, so an 8-year-old would receive $8 per week.” read more here
They will need to work hard so we are going to be referencing an chore chart and “price” out how much each job will earn them. Below is one of the better ones that I have seen. I’m sure you have seen it too!
Age-Appropriate Chores for Children (the chore chart that’s been all over Facebook and Pinterest) from The Flanders Family Website. This free printable is available in English, Spanish, and Italian.
Age Appropriate Chores for Kids (Image from The Happy Housewife)
If they don’t do the work then they won’t get the money!
The most important part is what we are going to do next. It is so important to teach them what to do with their money. We are going to start with very simple guidelines and create their own set of spend, save, give jars and use them as a visual teaching tool.
I whipped up these cute little labels that are big enough to fit nicely on the lid of a pint mason jars. I also added the “fine print” to remind them what they are doing this for.
Make your own spend, save & give jars
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- Spend Jar Label
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- Give Jar Label
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- Save Jar Label
Make sure to download a copy for yourself so you can make your own .Spend Give save jars.
Since we are new at the “allowance game” we are still in the process of mapping out exactly how we are going to do this. I know that this won’t be perfect and I am sure we are going to find out real fast what works and what doesn’t.
Have you made a spend, save, give jar with your kids? Did you find that it helped them learn how to control their money instead of the other way around? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
Besides a spend,save & give jar what techniques have you used?
Those jars are a great idea! I had a piggy bank growing up that had three compartments for the same reason. It’s a great way to teach kids about money!
Great idea! I had to laugh at the idea of my preschooler loading the dishwasher, though. Talk about racking up some damages! It would probably cost at least $10 per day. 🙂
I love this idea!!! My son is 4 and we’ve been teaching him for a while now about money. He saves his money and then every month he gets to buy whatever he wants with it! My daughter is 3 and although we haven’t started talking about money, she does do many of the chores listed!
This is something I want to do with my kids one day – especially the “save” jar. I think it’s so important for kids to see the true value of money – that there’s more than spending you can do with it! I also think saving is important for teaching patience for the things you want. Not everything comes easily in life after all.
I love the idea.. it’s a great way to teach our kids to be responsible about money. I always teach them to work hard and be smart about money
great method of teaching kids good money habits. We use piggy banks for ours instead of jars, but I like the idea of seeing the money in each jar.
I love the idea of the three separate jars. I think it’s a lovely way to teach children about saving money, charity and giving to others.
My kids love to earn money. They aren’t very excited to do chores, but we have implemented checklists and paydays and now they are very excited. They aren’t big spenders, but often want to give all of their money away. I love their generous spirit, but am trying to show moderation in everything. It is difficult to explain it to a child!
We hadn’t even thought yet about giving our song (almost 3 years old) an allowance yet. But, it is an intriguing idea, and seems like a great way to teach him about money!
I have a book that I’ve been saving for this reason called Give, SPend, and save. I will be reading it to my son so he understands! I have him help with chores already and he actually enjoys it so far! 😉
This is a great way to teach kids about money. I love this post.
Thank you for the age appropriate chore chart! now that I have a stepson, I could really use that and this whole post!!
Instead of jars, what we had was a piggy bank. My sister and I used to keep our own piggy banks and we would only break them at the end of the year. Our money are deposited to a savings account and we’re grateful our parents taught us that.
this is such a great method to teach kids about money. I currently have a system in place with my daughter that is similar but we need to work on the SAVING part a little more 😉
We really need to start looking into this for our kids. They are 3 and 5 so we could totally start a chore chart at this point. We have been teaching them about saving and spending money for a while. Such a great thing to teach all kids.
I couldn’t agree with you more that it is important to teach them what to do with their money!! My parents always told me growing up ‘to save my money’, over and over I would hear this but they never really told me why or how, which led to poor decisions on my behalf, I want to make sure that my daughter doesn’t have the same problem!
Gah I wish my parents did this with me! I can’t save for anything now and this defintiely would have helped
I wish I had better money saving skills and learnt this when I was younger. These labels might have come in useful!
I wasn’t taught about money when I little and now that I am older I realize how important it is. My kids are 1 and 3, but I do plan on giving my 3 year old an allowance soon. This way he can only spend what he has earned and learns about money.
I love this! We decided to not give an allowance for chores. We all live here together and have to pitch in. However if they rake the leaves, or help shovel they get paid something for it. We give them an allowance each week for the sake of teaching money skills. I love the idea of teaching them to save and give. Great post!
So smart of you to teach your kids about the money!
We (the hubby and I) found the hard way that we have no idea how to control our money. I was controlling us! The oldest is financially mature so we want to make sure the 3 littles are too. 😉
I love this. I need to work on giving my kids age appropriate chores, sometimes it just seems like it is easier to just do it myself, but it benefits them so much.
I totally agree! And I have to sit on my hands a fair amount of time to make sure that they are doing the work themselves. It doesn’t harm them to have to “re-do” something and it sure saves my sanity!
Even at age three, we are trying to teach our daughter about money. It’s never too early.
How cute is that!!
Such a unique way of explaining difficult concepts with props and making it fun! Love the idea about a jar, reminds me of the happiness jar concept where you can put notes of happy moments and save them!
That’s a really neat idea as well… I’ve seen that one done and they collect the notes all year and then open the jar on new years and read them all.
Very cute, my boys have to earn their allowance by doing their chores (without me nagging them to do them). They haven’t wanted to do them lately so I’ve had to nag and they aren’t getting paid. But my middle son did ask me if we could make jars like this for him, hoping he’ll want to start earning his allowance again soon.
We have started giving Jett “commission” every day for his chores – just a quarter for them right now – but we tell him he can either put i in his pocket or save it to buy something with in his piggy bank! He is too young for the give, save, spend thing but we are trying to start early with money so he learns now! 🙂
Oh this is adorable!!
This is such a great idea! Very smart.
We’ve never done a save/spend jar but I like the idea of it. We probably give in to our kids requests far too frequently. We have just started a weekly cleaning schedule with them (no allowance attached) and if they can stick with it, we will be more likely to say “yes” when things come up. Good luck