Thursday, March 24, 2011

saving {for kids}

My oldest daughter is almost 4. Can you guess what she is saving her money for?

What else, but an American Girl doll. 


{She's pretty sure she wants Kit}

Why is she saving and I'm not buying? Because {besides being crazy expensive} I want to teach her about money and being thankful. Here's how I'm doing it...

No. 1: Earning 

I'm not going to have her earn money just by doing chores {because that's her duty around this house}, but by going above and beyond her normal chores. So everyday once her chores are done, she has the option to do extra chores to earn money. Every day she has the opportunity to earn $1. 

{Thanks to my friend Stephanie for this tip}

There are a few other ways we use for her to earn money, along with her saving her monetary gifts.

No. 2: Saving 

It's a little hard to explain to a 3 year-old about how expensive this doll is and how she needs to save over $100 {she can't count there just yet}... so instead, I made a chart:


This has 120 squares on it so she can make X's every time she gets a dollar, and she can see how much she's saved. {And hopefully see that, "wow, this doll I want costs a lot"}

No. 3: Giving

I'm going to give her opportunities to give some of her money away, or use some of it to buy someone a gift. Such an important thing to teach children. 

No. 4: Spending

When she has all her money saved up we will go to the American Girl store {too cute by the way} and buy her doll together. She will get to pay herself! How rewarding for her to go and buy what she's been saving and working for!


I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference in how she treats this doll compared to any other toy given to her. There's always so much satisfaction in, "I bought this myself." 

3 comments:

  1. Those are some great tips! And I love the idea of doing beyond her chores to earn a dollar instead of just doing what she is told! Thanks for the tips!!!

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  2. the year we moved here to Davenport (1995)...Shay and Amanda were 10 and 13 at the time (or something like that) and on April 16th of 1994 I started giving them their allowance but teaching them about getting a "Paycheck"...the got, let's say, $5.00 a week in allowance/paycheck! They had for envelopes...one marked taxes, one marked charity, one marked savings and one for right now....they had to take 10% of their money and divide that in half paying 5% to Charity and 5% to taxes! the rest they could save, for something big, or they could take it and spend it! So the Charity money went into their church envelopes and into the collection plate on Sunday and at the end of one year we they had to "pay" their taxes....we counted the money and they got half back in a refund and the other half went to the "government"/family and we did something as a family with it! Just a thought and a very long post! it gave them a look at gross and net profit!

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  3. My Mom and Dad did the same thing with me. Granted American Girl was brand new at the time and I saved all my allowance and 50% of all my money I received for gifts (other 50% went into a college fund) for about 2 years, but I got to buy my doll. I think it taught me more about money and responsibility. I still have the doll and she's in mint condition because I valued her more. What a fabulous way to teach your daughter the value of money and respect for her belongings!

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