by Pamela S Thibodeaux

Created on: February 17, 2010

Living a debt free life is NOT impossible - neither is saving money no matter how tight your budget and teaching your children to save at an early age is a lesson they need in order to live a debt free life. Below are a few tips to help you start saving and teach your children the importance of money management.

For Children:

Start early! Every monetary gift your child receives does NOT have to be spent on frivolous items. If your child is too young to understand the value of a dollar then it is up to you to put that money away for them.

Divide each dollar your child receives into three categories and have a special bank or jar marked for each: Savings (10%), Tithing or Giving (10%) and Spending 80%. You might want to exchange bills for coins in order to do this but doing so not only instills these important principles into their fertile minds it helps them with their math. Children as young as three or four can quickly learn the principles of saving, giving and spending if we merely take the time to teach them.

Help them save for what they want. We love to give our children gifts but those they earn are valued more highly. Even if you make them save only half the amount of high priced items they desire, they will learn valuable lessons in patience and perseverance and will appreciate how hard YOU work for the things you buy.

For You:

Start small. Figure where you can cut a few pennies or a couple of dollars each week or every payday and put that in a savings account. Example: Combine activities like grocery shopping while your car is being serviced and bank what you save on gas.

Round up to the nearest dollar. Many banks are implementing this option on debit card transactions, but you can do this yourself. When you subtract a purchase from your check register, round up to the nearest dollar. At the end of the month balance your checkbook and write a check for whatever amount is in there and deposit it into your savings account. Don’t have a savings account yet? Write the check anyway and put it in an envelope earmarked for savings until you have enough to open one.

Use coupons and shop sales - Most store receipts show how much you save by using coupons and this a great way to save money – IF you take the amount you save and actually put it into your savings account! Save 20, 40 or 60 % on a sale item? Take that amount and put it into savings too.

Save loose change at the end of every day and pocket the money you save by using gift cards. If you receive a $25 gift card to eat somewhere, put that amount into your savings account. Wal-Mart offers a $.03 cent savings per gallon if you use one of their gift cards when you purchase gasoline. Might only be $.45 per tank but hey, put this in the bank with your loose change every time you fill up and watch those coins multiply!

The bible teaches us to be good stewards of what God entrusts to us and to train up our children in the way they should walk. These principles also apply to money and living a debt free life. Money is not something to be feared or idolized. It is a tool to be used in exchange for services or goods and everyone needs to know how to manage money wisely.

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