by Silva Payne

Created on: December 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2010

Cartoons and children’s stories often feature tales of someone raiding their piggy bank when they need some spending money. A piggy bank is something that many young children are given by the parents or other family members to encourage them to save money. A lot of the time, the piggy bank becomes just another ornament on the shelf as the child has little money of their own from which to save.

As an adult, you may still have a childhood piggy bank, gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. It may not actually be shaped like a pig of course. Many different animals and other things like trains and cars are common themes for a piggy bank. It may also not necessarily be a china or porcelain piggy bank. Silver piggy banks are very popular in the UK as Christening gifts. Whatever shape it is, your piggy bank has a simple use: to put your savings in.

When we talk about savings, we often mean large sums of money buried in stocks, shares or high-interest bank accounts. When you save money using a piggy bank, the motto is “little and often”. Saving using a piggy bank will not make you rich, but it will help to fund occasional nights out, day trips, or perhaps a new outfit or pair of shoes.

Even if you do not own a traditional piggy bank, you can make your own from an old plastic container, a jar with a lid, or even an empty bottle. Simply make a slot in the lid or stopper, and secure the lid to the jar or container with lots of sticky tape to discourage you from opening it prematurely.

To save money with a piggy bank, the essential ingredient is of course, money. You may be thinking, “it is my money anyway, how is putting it in another place going to help?”. The key is to put your money out of sight, and make it less conventient to get at.

We are used to having our money out of sight, as on-line banking and credit and debit cards have all but removed the daily handling of cash for many people. But we are also used to having access to “money” wherever we are, at any time of day. Using a piggy bank removes some of the immediacy of being able to spend every penny you possess, while keeping your money within reach.

At the end of each day, when you get home from work, do you have some small change in your purse or pocket? Does it accumulate during the week as you continue to take notes from the ATM? This is the cash you could be saving in your piggy bank.

You do not need to put all of your cash into your piggy bank every day. Simply pick out a few coins and save those. You can resolve to save just one type of coin if you prefer, which certainly makes it easier when you come to empty your piggy bank and need to get the coins changed into notes.

Saving a few pennies every couple of days soon builds a tidy sum in your piggy bank. You should continue until your piggy bank is full, or until a specific date that you have set by which you need to extra cash. It is possible to save a considerable amount this way, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find how much you have accumulated over the weeks.

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