Life is expensive.

Kids are expensive.

Lets face it everything is expensive.

The question is how do we teach our children the value of money and the importance of saving money. If your kids are like mine they don’t really understand the concept of money. When they were real little and I would tell them I didn’t have money for something they wanted they would tell me to go the bank and get more. The idea being the bank just gives you money when ever you need it. This would be a nice idea considering how expensive life and children are with sports, dance, clothing, toys, electronics, etc.

Unfortunately that is not the case. Thankfully as they have grown they have developed a better understanding of money. Especially my middle daughter who has become very proactive with her savings. She desperately wants to go to sleep away summer camp this year. The price is pretty steep for the week. In order to defray the cost she decided to start saving for camp herself.

Her idea was to create a savings jar. She was so pumped up about saving for camp she broke out the modge podge and personalized it with pictures of the camp and inspirational quotes to help motivate her. Every time she gets money for her birthday, report card, or from one of her generous aunts she puts it right into her savings jar. 

I am so impressed with her initiative. It really gave her ownership over her savings and I know she will love the feeling of accomplishment she gets when she reaches her goal. An added bonus is that her enthusiasm has spread to the other kids. Amelia, too young for sleep away camp was so annoyed she didn’t have a savings jar. We had to help her come up with something to save for so she could make a savings jar too.

After much debate we settled on saving up for a visit to the Bippity Boppity Boutique for our summer trip to Disney World.

The savings jar is really a great idea and teaches the kids the importance of saving up for something and the fact that money doesn’t grow on trees.