Money Tip: Save, spend and give jars

From Lifehacker:

Flickr user Stephanie Barnes is teaching her son Miles financial responsibility using 3 glass jars, which he labeled "Spend," "Give" and "Save."

One dollar of his allowance goes into each jar once a week. Spending money buys what he wants, saved money stays in the jar, and give money goes to charity, for a fabulously simple way to teach a child how to manage income. —Gina Trapani

I've always paid my bills this way. When I was 11 or 12 years old, I got my first job selling consessions at church bingo on Friday and Sunday nights. $3 + tips. I had (actually still have) a green index card box. On the index cards I would write the name of the bill and each weekend I would seperate my money amongst the cards. At first it was just books, Cedar Point, Christmas gifts. After I got older, and got a job at McDonald's my bills of course were different such as car insurance, clothes and make-up.

I still pay out money this way but just with direct deposit to my two different checking accounts and credit cards. I blogged about it here. This is about as close to a budget as I get but since I've been doing it for so many years it's natural and works well for me.


$3.00 Beaner's
4.20 Post Office