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Easy Packing And Moving Tips And Ideas

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Easy Packing And Moving Tips And Ideas

Moving Tips And Ideas

If you’re moving or considering moving, here are few easy ideas from Moving On A Dime to point you in the right direction. These moving tips and ideas will help you decide which things to pack first and how to pack most efficiently so moving costs less!

ORDER IN WHICH TO START PACKING

Start with things you don’t use every day.

  • Memories – Grandma’s dishes, quilts, old books and Bibles, childhood toys and photos
  • Garage items – Christmas and Holiday decorations, camping equipment and things in storage
  • Things stored in closets that aren’t used often and out of season clothes
  • Knick-knacks, pictures, mirrors and wall hangings
  • Seasonal dishes, canning equipment, roasting pans, good china, good silverware, large serving platters
  • Unnecessary CD’s, DVD’s and video tapes.
  • Sewing room and craft items.
  • Home office – Pack as much as possible except bills that need to be paid. Leave office boxes open and tape them closed at the last minute before moving just in case you need something out of them.
  • Children’s toys and games – Pack most of the toys they don’t play with regularly.
  • One week before moving, pack all unnecessary kitchen items, clothes and linens (except what you need for one week).

PAIN FREE PACKING

Don’t leave empty spaces. Here are some examples of how you might use all available space:

    • I fill my china cabinet with light weight soft things like stuffed animals, balls of yarn, quilts, artificial flowers and greenery.
    • If you will be moving your refrigerator or washer or dryer, fill it with pillows, wicker baskets or plastic items from the kitchen.
    • Fill clothes hampers with bathroom items. If you have a lamp that needs special protection, wrap it carefully in towels and place it in a clothes hamper.
    • Fill up even small items like plastic pitchers with kitchen utensils or kitchen knick-knacks.
    • I clean out a large outside trash can and use it to pack my hoses, small pots and gardening tools. If I’m not sure if I should keep something, I allow myself to take it if I can fit it in that one trash can. My son-in-law says it is one step closer to the curb that way. 😉
    • Don’t pack glass, porcelain or ceramic containers with loose items in them that could break them. Canning jars filled with marbles or baby food jars filled with nuts and bolts are recipes for disaster.
    • Pack heavy things such as books in small boxes.
    • Don’t pack things like photos, videotapes, cd’s, candles, plants or pets (especially pets!!!) where heat or cold can get to them. Don’t think any of those things will be safe and protected in a car or truck overnight. If it gets cold, they will freeze. Also plants left in a hot car will not be safe because the heat will kill them. When transporting plants in a car, protect them from direct sunlight with a covering of newspaper because the sun will fry houseplants.
    • Pack kids’ rooms last. They need the security of having their room the same for as long as possible. Be sure to put their favorite items in the car such a blanket, stuffed animal or books.

Jill

For more easy packing and moving tips and ideas, check out our Moving On A Dime e-book here.

 

Photo by: iChris

How to Have a Garage Sale

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How to Have a Garage Sale

When you have a garage sale, your objective is to make money while getting rid of stuff in your house. The spring is the best time to have a garage sale. After a long winter people are ready to get out and find some good deals. Here are some tips to make the most of your garage sale:

  1. Have as many signs as possible.Put one on every major corner, on the corner to house and any needed in between. If it is more than 1/2 mile from the corner to your house put some signs in between. You really can’t make enough signs.
      • Make your signs large!! At least 12 inches but 18-24 is much better.
      • Use contrasting colors. Black and white are best but other colors such as light colored paper with black ink will work well. A black permanent marker works best.
    • Be sure to put your address AND an arrow pointing the direction to your house.
    • Make all your signs out of the same material. For example, make all of them out of cardboard with white painting. That way people will know it’s your garage sale and know which signs to follow.
    • Check with your city or town and find out if they have any particular rules for garage sales. Our city requires a permit that costs $1.50 per day. When we purchase the permit, they give us a list of rules telling us things like not to nail signs on telephone poles.
  2. Check to see if any of your local papers or thrifty papers have free garage sale ads. Put one in if they do.
  3. Clean out everythingyou can so you can have as large as sale as possible.
    • If you don’t have enough stuff to make big enough sale then ask friends, family or neighbors to have one with you.
    • Give all of your neighbors a flyer telling them when you are having a sale and ask if they would like to have one also. The more sales that there are in one area, the more people will come to your sale.
  4. Price you stuff LOW.There is nothing more frustrating than going to a garage sale and finding items for prices equal to or higher than the same items brand new on clearance, even if it is “Baby Gap”. Name brands can let you get by with a little higher prices.

    I recommend pricing really nice kids clothes no higher than $1 each and clothes that have stains or are not name brand at .50 or less. Socks and underwear shouldn’t be higher than .10 each.

    You may think that these prices are too low but please remember than you are getting rid of stuff!! You don’t want to bring it back into the house and store it for a few more years. If you are not selling to get rid of things, you will keep most of what you put out. You will also get a lot more sales if your prices are reasonable which means more in the long run. If you sell 15 $1 items or you sell 200 at .25 each ($50 total) you will make much more if you sell the less expensive items. A good rule of thumb is to price items a maximum of 10% retail price.

    By the way, people who go to yard sales really don’t care if it’s brand new in the box and you paid $80 for it so you “must” get $50 for it. It has been sitting in your house for who knows how long so you aren’t getting your money’s worth anyway. Price it for $5 and get rid of it!

  5. Expect people to ask you to come down on the price. If you feel your prices are very reasonable then don’t come down, but remember you are trying to get rid of stuff so don’t put too high a value on it. If someone asks you to come down on a price and you aren’t ready to come down at that point ask for their name and number and tell them you will call them later if it hasn’t sold and you are ready to sell it to them at that price.

      Tawra and Jill

If you want to find out how to look for great buys at garage sales, read “Ten Garage Sale Shortcuts”.

 

Ask Tawra and Jill – How do I?

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Here are some “Short Answers” to some of the questions readers have submitted to Tawra and Jill:

Jill from Michigan asks:

“Tawra – I read your information of cloth diapering and I’m wondering how much vinegar you wash them with and do you use special laundry soap?”

I put in about 1/2 – 1 cup in and don’t use a special detergent.

 

Janel From New Jersey asks:

“Hi! What can I use to clean wooden kitchen cabinets? Some of them are sticky and greasy (especially over the stove). Thanks, Janel”

I use Murphy’s Oil Soap. You can find it in the cleaning section of the store. Tawra

I use Dow foaming bathroom cleaner. I spray it on the gook literally rolls off. I once had to clean a house in which the cabinets were covered in a thick gummy layer from having a heavy smoker in the house and the Dow just bubbled it right off. I use it more in my kitchen for all grease then I do in my bathroom. Be sure to wipe dry when you are done. Jill

 

Nancy from Ellinwood, Kansas asks:

“Can you use canned pumpkin to make your pumpkin pancakes, sauce, etc?”

You sure can! It works great!

 

Mollie From Florida asks:

“What is the difference in types of powered sugar? Usually the recipes call for powered sugar, but not what type. I bought 4x and someone told me that you should only use 10X.”

If you are just doing baking at home it doesn’t really matter. Where it matters is for professional bakers who do fancy things like wedding cakes. Whatever I find in the store works just fine for me. I have never had any problems with my baking because of it.

 

Denise From New York asks:

“Is it possible to freeze chili con carne? I am the only one in the household who eats it. I only make it a couple times in the crock pot because it can be expensive(because of the meat).”

Yes, you can. I just freeze mine in 2 cup portions in zip top bags or 2 cup plastic containers.

Elizabeth Asks:

“I put self-rising flour and all purpose flour in separate containers for storage, however I never marked them. Is there any way to tell which is which before I go to bake, like adding a little liquid to them? “

You might taste them. The self rising would have a bitter salty, baking powder taste to it.

 

Kathleen writes:

“I see tips frequently about how to re-use vacuum bags. Please remember that the bag is part of the filtration system, and will not work nearly as well after emptying it. You would be doing yourself, and your vacuum a favor by buying the cheap bags and changing them more often, rather than try to re-use them.

Thanks for the tip, Kathleen! We tried this once — ONLY ONCE. The resulting dust cloud quickly made us realize it was a a bad idea!

 

photo by: valeriebb

Children, Wasting Food and Portion Control

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Stop Throwing Away Food!

I have discovered the secret of saving money feeding babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Well, I can’t take the credit for it. My mom taught it to me many years ago but I didn’t put it into practice until the first financial crisis we had when my husband was laid off.

What I have been practicing now for many years has now become one of the new buzz phrases — “portion control”. Usually when we think of portion control it is in connection with dieters and not young children or saving money.

Most American parents serve themselves and their children huge portions of food. Their families eat only part of it, and then they discard the rest. Next time you scrape those half eaten plates of food into the trash, think about this: 30% to 50% of the food and drinks we buy, whether we eat at home or out, get thrown away. That means if you are paying $500 per month on groceries, you are throwing $250 in the trash each month. If you don’t believe it’s true, observe your own family this week. How many half full bowls of soggy cereal do you throw away? How many pieces of toast get tossed only half eaten? What about half empty glasses of juice, milk or pop? With young children this is usually worse, but adults often do it too.

It is easy to forget that children under the age of four have only about a quarter of an adult’s body weight. Often, we feed them adult portions and when we do give them smaller portions, each portion is usually only reduced to about half an adult portion. Do you use that large serving spoon and dump a full spoon of food on your child’s plate? Say you give yourself two spoons of green beans and your child one– That means that you have given yourself about 24 green beans and your child 12 when in reality, that child needs only about six.

Many parents wonder why small children resist eating everything on their plates. What if you were given double portions at every meal? When parents press kids to keep eating when they are full, they inadvertently encourage obesity. It is no wonder that we then end up throwing away half of the food left on their plates. When deciding how much food to give your kids, start small and work your way up. Remember, if they eat what is on their plates you can always give them more. If they consistently ask for seconds, then increase their portions.

Use the same method for drinks. Even a small sippy cup should only be filled half full. This not only reduces the amount that you throw away, but also reduces the losses from spills. I once heard a mom say she always bought two gallons of milk instead of just one. One gallon was for the kids to drink and the other was for them to spill.

Another great way to save a lot of money is to give children more water. In addition to serving children overly large portions, failing to give them enough water leads to obesity. At this point, many parents point out that young children need lots of milk and juice. That is true to a degree, but consider this: The USDA recommends 12 oz of milk per day for children under 4. That is equal to two sippy cups. Before you fill those two sippy cups, remember that kids get milk from other sources too, including milk with their cereal and cheese on their sandwiches. Ask any doctor and he will tell you most people are not getting enough water.

It is easy to think that if something is good for us then even more is better. That isn’t always true. Fertilizer helps our lawns grow, but too much fertilizer can kill the same grass we are feeding. The same rule applies to feeding our children. We think the more juice and milk they get the better, but once kids have had as much as they need nutritionally, the rest just adds calories. Just as with adults, feeding kids too much leads to all kinds of health problems including obesity and diabetes. It also encourages them to develop bad eating habits that get more severe as they get older.

If you are ready to cut the waste from your food budget, here are a few more tips to save money and make your life easier:

  1. Cut the crust off your child’s sandwich before you give it to him. I have tried for years to get my children and grandchildren to eat the crust and have discovered that it is like trying to climb Mount Everest. It can be done, but I’m not sure if it is worth all the work and headache. So give in and cut off the crust. Throw it in a bag and use it for bread crumbs or croutons. Then the kids will eat their entire sandwiches instead of just that hole in the middle and you won’t waste the sandwich filling that would have been tossed with the crust.
  2. Cut kids’ sandwiches into small squares or triangles. Their hands are smaller then ours. Imagine always manhandling sandwiches that are two to three times normal size and you can relate to kids with full adult-sized sandwiches. This goes for all their food. Cut anything they have to hold in their hands into manageable sized pieces.
  3. Spills always happen, but they can be minimized. Try placing a paper doily at the top of your child’s plate or someplace where you know a cup won’t be likely to spill. Then teach the child that the cup belongs on the doily. Even the youngest child will learn quickly to always place his cup back on the doily and out of harm’s way.
  4. Start giving your little ones only half of items like candy bars, gum, and popsicles. When you go out to eat, split a hamburger or order of fries between two younger children. You can even ask for an extra cup and split milk shakes and drinks. Better yet, just order water. Save the milkshakes and drinks for a special treat and the kids will appreciate them more.
  5. Control snacks. Don’t just let the kids graze all day on candy and chips. Give children healthier things to fill them up, like like popcorn or a piece of fruit at specific time intervals.
  6. Feed toddlers and preschoolers your leftovers. They usually don’t balk at them like older children do. All those two tablespoon leftovers that are hardly worth saving are usually just the right amount for younger children.

 

      -Jill

For more tips to help you save money on kids’ expenses, check out our Saving With Kids e-books.

 

photo by: carbonnyc

 

Daughters’ Financial Emergencies Cause Financial Strain

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Susan from Texas asks:

“As a single mother of two grown daughters, scratching and clawing my way out of substantial credit card and other debt, please give me some ideas about dealing with daughters’ emergencies, specifically health issues, not life-threatening but urgent never the less.”

 

Tawra Wrote: I was going to work on your question but I was wondering why you are paying for your grown daughters’ medical expenses? Are they in college?

Susan: Thank you for your response, I forgot that I sent that question. But now that you mentioned it…my daughters work full time and dabble in college. Both have health insurance but the one who needed assistance (I volunteered) did not think that it was in effect at the time of the incident. I was going to have the cost of the dental problem put on a credit card but her Dad intervened and paid for it so I was off the hook.

I think the bigger question here is one that I have dealt with for many years and that is, living very sparingly, never having enough to cover unexpected expenses and then putting those unexpected and sometimes living above my means expenses on credit. Now that I live alone I am trying to remedy that as quickly as possible. Guilt as a single parent ends up being very expensive.

Tawra: “Guilt as a single parent ends up being very expensive.” — I would say that sounds like it right there to me.

You don’t need to worry about your daughter’s expenses. I understand being a parent you want to help out but if they are working adults it’s not your responsibility. They need to be responsible with their money and save back money each month to cover what their insurance won’t . If that means cutting the cell phone, eating out or whatever then that’s their responsibility to do it. If you are paying for your own stuff then start living below your means ASAP and try and get that debt paid off. It’s not always easy or fun but it sounds like you need to worry about your expenses and not theirs right now.

I’m not telling you to be unreasonable. If they get $50,000 in medical expenses and need to live with you or whatever to pay it off, of course help them out if you can. But if it’s minor stuff then let them take care of it.

Susan: Thanks so much for your response. Sometimes we answer our own problems when we put pen to paper and it jumps right back at us! I will always be there for my kids; however, I want them to grow up and become accountable and learn from their mistakes and life, etc.

 

photo by: quazie

Teens Don’t Have to Cost More Than Babies!

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Whenever my daughter Tawra talks about how to live frugally, she can always count on one type of feedback — from people who say, “You don’t understand what it’s like. You have young children and not teenagers. Teenagers cost more!” Most of the advice and tips that Tawra shares come from me. I have raised two teenagers on a very minimal income. My main goal in raising my children was to teach them to become responsible and productive adults. By the time they hit their teen years, they were contributing to the household income, not depleting it.

I have never understood why people always say “wait until you have teenagers”. I waited and the huge cost that I had heard about never materialized.

My house payment was the same when I had babies as it was when I had teenagers. If the house payment changes, it’s not because of the age of the children but because we want a house that we think is better than the one we already have.

My utilities didn’t increase because I had teenagers. If anything they went down, because instead of having to fill a big tub full of water to give my little ones a bath, I taught my teens to take a quick shower, which used less water. I didn’t do as much laundry because I no longer had to wash diapers. Even when I used disposables, I still had to change my babies and toddlers clothes several times a day because they spit up on them, spilled things on them or had potty training accidents. If you have had a teenage boy, you know that until he got his first girlfriend, he would have worn the same clothes day and night if you’d let him!

I admit that I spent a little more on food, but even in that case it wasn’t so much more that it led me to financial ruin the way some people make it seem. When my granddaughter was born, my daughter spent more for her special formula then I spent on food for my teenage son!

As far as clothes go, I didn’t find teenagers much more expensive than young children. The cost for disposable diapers really adds up and since babies and young children grow quickly, you have to buy them an entire new wardrobe every 3-6 months. Once teenagers reach high school, they have pretty much stopped growing so quickly and many teenagers don’t wear their clothes out as quickly as young children.

I can hear someone protesting, “…but teens need to have special clothes so they can be like their peers!” I could write a whole book on this point alone, but let me just give you a few hints and ideas. First, you don’t have to spend a lot to dress nicely. There are garage sales, second hand stores and hand me downs. If you aren’t a snob about wearing second hand clothes, your kids won’t be either.

Make your teens feel loved and secure at home. You’ll find that even though the way they dress and look is still important, it won’t become the be-all and end-all of everything! Not only that, if they feel loved at home, it will go a long way toward keeping them out of the trouble so many parents dread.

I provided my children with the basics in their wardrobe. A pair of tennis shoes, dress shoes, three or four pairs of jeans, two pairs of dress pants, pajamas and some shirts. For anything else they wanted to have, or if they wanted to “upgrade”, they paid for those items themselves. They had to work for the extras by babysitting, doing yard work and finding other ways to get a little spending money. By age fifteen, my daughter was working part time at a hospital flower shop two evenings a week.

People often fear that working will negatively affect their kids’ grades. It won’t. Teenagers have more time and energy then they know what to do with. Why do you think drugs, drinking and the lazy party attitude is so rampant among teens? I’m not saying that they should work 40 hours a week, but a part-time job doesn’t hurt anything and it teaches responsibility! Generations past understood this, and expected their teens to work. They knew that it would prepare them for responsible adulthood. Recent generations haven’t taught this, which is why so many adult children mooch off of their parents.

When a child is born, we give him everything he needs or wants every time he cries. When he’s a toddler, we wouldn’t dream of giving him chocolate for every meal, even though he cries for it. Yet when teenagers whine and complain for something that they want, many people just buy it for them, instead of letting them work for it.

What an injustice we do our children when we give up the opportunity to teach them because we are tired of hearing their complaints and challenges. Instead of using their last years living with us to teach them to be responsible, productive, hard workers, we often teach them to be dependent. I know a good education can help a person get a good job, but that education is of no use in a job if the person isn’t a responsible, productive, hard worker with some kind of experience.

In the same way we teach a baby to go from milk to soft food to solid food we need to help our children to build up their “life’s muscles” concerning finances gradually. By the time the kids are teenagers, that will require some “heavy lifting” on your part. How wrong parents are to give their children everything they ask for. If you do, you will be wondering why your grown child won’t move out, why he can’t hold down a job and why he is such a poor money manager.

Incidentally, my teenagers graduated with As, my daughter received a scholarship to a university in Sweden and my son went to school to learn drafting. They are now very responsible, independent, productive adults and parents. Teenagers don’t have to cost more than small children if you are wise in the way you raise and teach them.

-Jill

 

Update: This was written when I had little kids. I now have 2 teens. Do they cost more? No. My son has a job and is paying for his gas to go to work. They pay for their own cell phones, computers and any other “fun” gadgets they want. (no a cell phone is NOT a necessity for a teen. 🙂 ) We pay for the gas for them to go to school because it’s 30 miles a way. We do give them money now and then to do something fun with their friends but as a general rule really they aren’t costing any more. So in case you were wondering if I had changed my views on this now that I have teens, nope they really don’t cost more.

 

Teaching Kids about Money

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So many people ask how to teach their kids about money, hoping we can give them a 1-2-3 formula to use that will help their child become a wise caretaker of his money and maybe even a future Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey. Many parents ask this question because they are terrified that their children will turn out just like themselves when it comes to spending money. They hope that the “Do as I say, not as I do” method might actually work in this case.

The bad news is it won’t. Children usually become “chips off of the old block”. It really is a monkey see, monkey do world. They almost always learn by example – your example, dad and mom.

The good news is that you (parents) can change. That is the first step in the formula. Put into practice the things that you want your children to learn. I know a lot of you don’t want to hear that but I’m afraid that is the way it is. The good news is that it really isn’t as hard as you think. If you expect a 5, 6, or 7 year old to learn to handle money wisely, surely you as a grown adult will be capable of doing it too.

I read a lot of novels. You can learn quite a bit about human nature from novels. In almost every novel I read, the hero works as hard as his men and expects no more out of them than what he expects of himself and the men love and admire him for it. Now I know I’m talking about a novel but think about it with regard to these everyday life examples. How do you feel at your job if your boss places strict demands on you to do certain things that he is not willing to do himself? Resentful, angry and frustrated? Your children feel the same way if you expect them to be wise in money matters when you are not.

The second step in the formula is to teach children how to earn money before they learn how to handle it. This should seem logical and you may say “Well of course everyone knows that!” but do they? The people we deal with on a daily basis don’t seem to know that. How many people do you know (maybe even you are guilty of this yourself), who spend money they haven’t even earned. Do you instantly say not me! Hmmm… How many dollars worth of credit card debt do you have? Isn’t that spending money you haven’t earned yet? We need to keep our eyes open to how we handle money, before and after we earn it.

The best way to help children learn positive work ethics and give them a chance to earn money is through chores. There is nothing wrong with age appropriate chores and jobs. Chores help to teach children the weights and balances of earning and spending – Earn $10 and you can spend $10. A lot of parents live with the idea that one can spend $10 and then frantically try to work to get $10 to pay for it. Another alternative that seems to be gaining popularity is to mooch off of someone like their parents or to become indebted to a credit card company.

Is it surprising why children are getting confused? It is because they are receiving mixed messages from dad and mom. This is why it is so important for parents to get their acts together first.

I believe in giving allowances for chores that are done. This is a great way to teach our children the earning – spending concept. It teaches them another life skill to prepare them for when they enter into the work world. It’s simple. Do your job, do it well, do it on time and you will get paid.

Whatever you do, don’t give your children allowances when they haven’t earned them. You are doing your children a great injustice when you do this. They learn early on that they don’t have to do a thing because mom and dad will pay for it. Twenty years later, parents find themselves with a 28 year old man sitting on their couch, watching their TV and munching on pizza and chips that their hard earned money paid for. They can’t figure out how to get rid of him or what went wrong. By giving kids money and “stuff” without having to earn it, they learn to be takers and not givers. Then we wonder why, as adults, they have the attitude that the world owes them something for nothing. They have learned that they have no reason to bother to lift a finger to contribute to society.

Some people refuse to give allowances because they say that children should do things because they are members of the family. They need to learn to do things without expecting a reward. I agree with this to a certain extent so what I did was divide the jobs up into certain categories. For example, feeding the cat, walking the dog or raking grandma’s yard could be done just to teach the care and responsibility for someone else because we love them. This teaches responsibility towards those we love, expecting no reward.

Things like keeping their rooms clean and beds made could be included under the allowance category. There were also times when we would have extra large projects like painting a fence or cleaning a very messy garage. In these cases, I would give the kids a little extra because they were such big jobs and the kids had worked so hard doing them.

Like everything else there is a happy medium. Everyone likes a reward for a job well done. Even God rewards us for jobs well done. If we never give our children an allowance, they could become resentful.

You may ask, “What do I do if I really don’t have any extra to give my children at this time in my life?” First, you don’t need to give children a lot. Even a small amount can seem huge to them. You can also pay them in other ways. For example, if you do this job, I will let you watch TV or play video games for an extra hour. Sometimes these things are more important to a child than money. My grandson mows my yard for me. He would do it for nothing, but I like to pay him a little for it. One day when he was done mowing we walked to a convenience store by my house and I bought him a slushy. He was more excited about that than about all the money I had paid him before.

If you really have nothing to pay them at this time, that’s OK too. Children have a very keen sense of justice. They usually know when mom and dad are not paying them because things are in “crisis” mode. If you have been fair with them in the past, they know you will be fair with them in the future when things aren’t so tight.

Step three is to be sure and teach your child about savings and tithing. I will never forget the first allowance I ever received. I was about 7 years old and my allowance was a quarter. I remember two things about that day. The first was that my mom said that out of any money we earned, we were to give 10% to God. I didn’t know about percents at the time and had to ask how much 10% of 25 cents was. She said it was 2 1/2 cents. I remember being confused and asking how I was to give half a cent. Then she said the second thing I will always remember from that day. I couldn’t give half a cent, so I should give 3 cents because that extra half cent would show our thankfulness for all of the many other things that God had given us as gifts that weren’t in the form of money.

To this day I have always given my tithe without hesitation and I round it up to an even number. Because there are so many extras that God has blessed me with other than money; the sack of tomatoes from the neighbors garden, the used car someone sold me at a discount, the meal that was brought to me by a friend when I was sick and so on. Do you see what a big influence my mom’s words and actions had on me? She was my best example as you are the example for your child.

As far as savings goes, I always tried to teach my kids to tithe, save a little and spend a little. I have found though that the best way for a child to learn about saving is through the “hard knocks” of life. Maybe for a child, I should change that to the “soft knocks” of life. 😉 There is no better way for a child to learn to save than for that child to quickly spend all of his money at a bubble gum machine and on candy bars and then see a sibling, who has carefully saved, be able to buy a really cool toy the next time they go shopping.

Another way for kids to learn about saving is, when they desire something very much, to have mom or dad tell them to save their money for it. You can’t break down and buy it for them because you will defeat the purpose. It’s hard I know. It’s even worse being a grandmother and not breaking down and buying them everything they want, but after a while you will come to realize how exciting it is for a child to save and save and then finally reach their goal’s end.

How much should you pay a child for allowance? My first quarter was enough for me to buy four Hershey’s bars with almonds, to tithe and to save a couple of cents. I thought I had died and gone to heaven — four whole candy bars! For this reason, I have always regulated my children’s allowance to make sure that they have enough money to buy four or five candy bars. I wouldn’t want to say, since some think I’m an expert in finances, that my whole belief system revolves around the price of candy bars but hey, if the shoe fits, I must proudly wear it. Of course, as the children grow and take on more responsibilities they should get gradual “pay raises” in their allowances.

Just a couple of closing thoughts: With more money comes more responsibility. Keep the amount of money you give your children in proportion to how responsible they are. This will help them to learn to use their money wisely rather than to waste it because they have more than they know what to do with. In the same way that you wouldn’t give a ten year old a new car to drive because he isn’t responsible enough yet and doesn’t know how to use it properly, don’t give your children more money and things than they can responsibly handle.

Teach your children to use their own money to buy those things that they want so badly, rather than buying lots of things that you can’t afford. This will this teach them how to save, how to be more discerning when presented with an opportunity to buy something and how to care for things better and appreciate the things they have more.

Lastly, but possibly the most important: teach your children to use a small part of their money to buy gifts and to give to others. This could include anything from buying a family member something little at a garage sale to giving 50 cents to the humane society or to that special offering for missions at church. Remember, the whole object is to learn to be wise stewards of their money and to be givers not takers.

Jill

Do you wish that raising kids was easier? In the “Saving With Kids” e-books, Jill and Tawra share techniques to teach kids responsibility, to help them get organized and to help them have more fun. Check it out now!

Photo by: theritters

Wouldn’t Tithing Less Leave More Room In Your Budget?

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Wouldn’t Tithing Less Leave More Room In Your Budget?

Abdeli asks:

I noticed that you give a sizeable amount in tithes. I am a Christian myself and give regularly but I can’t help but worry that perhaps giving less to the church might make your budget more lenient, say for emergencies and the such. I firmly believe that we should all live within our means and that the Lord will provide the rest. However, I also believe that we play an active role in helping ourselves, saving for our children’s education, etc. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning through your articles."

Many blessings,
Abdeli

 

Tawra: Dear Abdeli,

I need to update the budget to reflect the fact that we do keep $500 in savings for emergencies. We won’t set aside more for emergencies until all our debt is gone. We have some debt from Mike’s video equipment that we need to pay off first. (note: we paid that off in 2006)

No, I don’t think we should ever stop tithing or lower our tithes to save some money. Here’s why:

First, just because we made some poor financial decisions doesn’t mean that it’s God’s responsibility to fix it for us. He can fix it if he wants, but our debt is the consequence of us trusting in the credit cards and not Him.

Second, reducing our tithe is telling God, "I don’t think you can take care of me." God gives us everything we have and as recognition for that, he tells us to give 10% back to Him. It’s the least we can do to give him back the 10% to help others.

Interestingly enough, the people I know who reduced their tithes to fund other things found that their finances were no better off when they weren’t tithing.

It’s contradictory to say say "I can’t help but worry" but then turn around and say but we "if we live within our means the Lord will provide the rest". If you worry, then you aren’t trusting God. The Bible is full of commands for us not to worry. Taking money from God to pay for your kids education (an expense that I don’t believe parents should pay anyway for the most part) or to "help yourself" is not letting him take care of you.

It’s all about trust. We either trust Him or we don’t. In a few weeks, we are going to be coming out with the story of how mom survived on $500 a month. She has a lot of examples of trusting in there and how God did the "impossible". That doesn’t mean that you go out and eat, put your kids in a bunch of activities, and spend what you want and then expect Him to come through if these things cause a crisis. Most people are more than able to have at least $500-$1000 savings if they really wanted to. Even my mom who lives on about $500 a month has that much saved.

Anyway the point is, God asks that we depend on him and not ourselves.

I’m glad that you enjoy our articles! Thanks for letting us know!

-Tawra

Update 2010: We have $3,000 in savings and are debt free except for our house. We are putting everything on it to get it paid off quickly. We hope in 3 years or less. We do have money in our business that we can use for an emergency that is set aside to reprint books.

 

photo by: PhillipC