Teaching Kids About Money: DIY Spend, Save & Share Piggy Banks

Helping your kids to create good money habits while they’re young can pay off huge for their future. Whether children earn their money through chores, birthdays, or by receiving a regular allowance to practice money management skills, teaching them the value of saving and giving will help them become more financially stable and altruistic adults.

Encouraging your children to save a portion of their money teaches them about budgeting, delayed gratification, and the importance of making wise spending decisions. It also helps them to realize the value of money and the items they can purchase with it.

Similarly, regularly putting money aside to share demonstrates to children that your family feels it’s important to help the less fortunate and to give to worthy causes. Letting your child choose where his or her donations end up will get them thinking even more about the act of giving back.

Today’s project, a DIY Spend, Save, and Share Piggy Bank, is a great way to get kids excited about all of these concepts. Read on for complete instructions.

To begin, you will need:

• 3 clear containers – we used some fancy glass water bottles from the grocery store. * *letter stickers* * colorful yarn

Empty each bottle and remove any labels by soaking them in hot, soapy water for 30 minutes and scrubbing. If label residue remains, use a razor blade to remove. Turpentine (to be used by adults only) also works amazingly well at getting rid of text printed directly onto the glass.

Next, remove the backing from your letter stickers and use them to label each bottle “spend,” “save,” and “share.” It is especially important that the containers you choose be clear because it allows kids to see their money grow. You can even draw a line on the containers and help your child to work towards the goal of hitting the line.

This is really all you need to set up a system to start successfully teaching your child good money management habits. Gotta love a simple, three-minute craft that results in life-long benefits.

To make this project a little more fun, we chose to bind the three banks together with some colorful yarn. Simply wrap the yarn around each bottle and knot for a bright pop of color.

That’s it – your banks are ready to use. If you’re wondering how much to encourage your child to save and share versus spend, a good rule of thumb is to save at least 20% and share at least 10% of funds. (Along with teaching financial responsibility, letting your child figure out the amount that goes into each jar is a great opportunity to also sharpen some math skills.)

Finally, don’t forget to share with your children how you spend, save, and share your own money to really drive home the concept.