I recently wrote a post about what our savings goals are for this year. That is, we hope to be able to transfer $1,000.00/month into our savings account each month. As I said in my previous post, we had an unexpected $800.00 medical bill from my husband's surgery that we had to pay, so we were really hoping to transfer $200.00 this month.

Well, after getting paid on Monday, we're going to be able to transfer a whopping $1,060.00 this month! We are turning around and paying $540.00 of that for our phone plans sinking fund. We also just paid $28.00 for school pictures because our daughter has her pictures today.

So, the total amount we need to save for our sinking funds this year (it's changed a little bit) is $6,914.00
The amount we have already saved and spent is $1,233.19
The amount we have in savings as of 3/4/15 is $3,441.84
Our amount left to save is $2,238.97!!!

At the rate we have been going, we just might be able to knock that out after April's savings transfer and our tax refund of $800.00 that we will hopefully receive this month and about half of May's transfer!! As long as the hubs is able to get his 8 hours/week of overtime we should be set. The only scary thing is that his work keeps saying that they are cutting overtime for the week and then they for some reason end up allowing him to work overtime. So fingers crossed that he'll be able to get his overtime for a while.

I have seen a lot of people doing the No Spend {Month} and always think to myself, Pff… I don’t need to do that! Well, this month I have had a change of heart. I don’t plan to have a complete month of no spending, but I want to limit the days that I do spend. No spend to me does not include our groceries, fuel, and bills. What is in our budget and will count is our entertainment, if we eat out as a family, and my spend money.

I’m doing this because I suddenly realized that I don’t think I have had a day yet this year that I haven’t spent money – unless I don’t leave the house! That is RIDICULOUS!!!! So, it’s definitely time for a change. I eat out for lunch – a LOT, like way too much! Taking food to work with me, whether it be a quick sandwich or leftovers, will help me watch what I’m eating. I’m also hoping that it will keep me from becoming desperate for money in the last ten days of the month.

Sunday was a no spend day for me. Hubby went to the store and bought all of our groceries and then my getting out for the day was taking a walk as a family (including our two dogs). Yesterday (Monday) I had to work and that’s usually when I cave and go get something for lunch. I made it through the day yesterday without even buying anything to drink! Drank water all day!

If figure I’m off to a good start, so I might as well continue with it! My goal is to have 15 no spend days… and I’ve already had two! I usually like to go buy a soda and drink about half of it. That will probably be something I fight myself on this month, but we’ll see!

Hope you all have a fabulous March!

At the beginning of January we were able to transfer $3,200.00 into our savings account. After that we paid some of our debt from this account ($3k to be exact), leaving us with only about $200.00. At the beginning of February we transferred $2,800.00 into savings. After I get paid on March 2nd, I’m hoping to at least transfer $200.00 to savings. Our goal is to put $1,000.00 into savings each month, but my husband had surgery last May and we ended up having to pay $800.00 this month for something that insurance would not pay.

My husband came to me and said, “The bill they sent said we can just pay $200.00 each month until it’s paid…” I cut him off and said, “NO! Pay it now!” I think he was going to go on to say “but, we should pay it all now, don’t you think?” (Or something like that). I was annoyed by the fact that we had to make this payment and just wanted it out of our lives instead of more debt two weeks after we had officially gotten out.

Basically, the $1,000.00 that we were hoping to transfer this month has been cut with hopes of just $200.00 because of that $800.00 bill we had to pay. Hopefully, we won’t have any other surprises and can continue to transfer $1,000.00/month to savings after March.

We might slow down toward the end of the year when we have the sinking funds funded and have saved up enough money to refinance because right now my husband works 2 nights a week overtime (minimum) so that we have that $1,000.00/month surplus. His normal shift is from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. When he stays over he is there from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m., which gives him 8 hours of overtime a week. He also wakes up with our son every morning while I’m at work. He is such a trooper for all he does!

Our goals for 2015 are pretty basic, but important. This will be our first official year of putting our finance together as a married couple. So, we hope to be able to achieve these goals well before the end of the year – based on how we are doing so far.

#1 Become debt free except the house - $4,044.24
#2 Fund our sinking funds - $6,814.00
#3 Save enough money to refinance our house - $2,000.00

We completed goal #1 on January 26, 2015. We had an attorney from my husband’s custody case for visitation with his daughter from a previous relationship. After that case taking two and a half years (insane!!!!) he paid his attorney over $9,000.00 in total. We had $3,800.00 left at the beginning of 2015. His attorney told us that she would accept $3,000.00 as a payoff amount! He owed $214.24 to the courthouse for that same case, which he thought he had already paid but hadn’t. We owed a gal that did a class for us before we got married (it was required) $30.00. We took that class in August of 2014 and as our finances weren’t combined at the time, we both thought the other had paid it. Once I realized she hadn’t been paid I delivered the $30.00 to her home in person. So, all of that was paid in January of this year. Debt free!!!

Here is a list of our sinking funds for this year:
1. Personal Portfolio $2,000.00
2. Christmas $500.00
3. Vacation $1,000.00
4. Phone Plans $1,000.00
5. Car Insurance $520.00
6. Car Registrations $200.00
7. Kids birthdays $500.00
8. Clothing $500.00
9. Summer lessons $80.00
10.Vehicle Maintenance $300.00
11. Sports/Dance/School Pictures $180.00
12. Software for taxes $34.00
TOTAL $6,814.00

We have already paid out $645.19 out of our sinking funds account, which leaves us with $6,168.81 unpaid. Sitting in our “sinking funds” savings account right now is $2,920.18, which then leaves us with only $3,248.63 to save. We are hoping we can have everything saved for our sinking funds before June and then we can save the $2,000.00 for the refinance over the summer.

There are a few items that we forgot to include in our “sinking funds” account. Those funds are family pictures, pets (shots and grooming), gifts for people outside of our home (birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc.), and holidays (Halloween costumes, fireworks for the 4th of July, etc.). I figure that after we add all of that in our “sinking funds” amount would have been around $8,000.00 for this year. We will add them in for next year, and don’t worry, our kids will get to dress up and go trick-or-treating, the dogs will get their shots and groomed, and other couples will get their wedding gifts. We simply forgot them this year. We will probably handle them just as we do the other sinking funds, but we may not finish funding the account that extra $1,200.00 until after we do the refinance.

Is the total amount of our sinking funds insane or what?! Do you have sinking funds?

Fiance and I looked at some expenses we will have this year that are not monthly, just one time/once a year expenses. This is what we have

Surgery: $4,500.00
Recovery time from work: $5,500.00
College Books - Spring term: $100.00
Dress Shopping: $300.00
Cousins baby shower gift: $20.00
Sisters baby shower: $400.00
Sisters baby shower gift: $200.00
Retreat for marriage prep: $360.00
Roof: $1,500.00
Trip out of town for cousins bachelorette party: $200.00
Daughters birthday: $200.00
Fiance's vehicle registration: $200.00
Wedding gift to friends: $50.00
Lincoln trip for cousins wedding: $300.00
Wedding gift to cousin: $50.00
Sons birthday party: $250.00
Vacation: $500.00
My vehicle registration: $200.00
Christmas: $500.00
My Roth IRA: $5,500.00
Fiance's Roth IRA: $5,500.00

WOW! That's $26,330.00!! So much stuff going on this year! And I guess we decided to wait on gutters until we do siding, which will hopefully be next year!

I said I wanted to purchase my college books for this semester last weekend, but I will do it today. Hopefully it comes in under that $100.00!

2014 Goals

Monthly savings = $500.00/month: $6,000.00
Cash flow fiance’s shoulder surgery: $4,500.00
Cash flow fiance’s time off for surgery: $5,500.00
New roof: $2,000.00
Gutters: $1,500.00
Sons college savings: $715.00
Daughters college savings: $1,815.00
Sons personal savings: $315.66
Encourage daughter to do 2 chores every day she is with us
Have my three youngest siblings over for 1 chore/week
Get married!
Read a book to my son every other day
Read book to daughter every day we have her
Max out retirements
Graduate with my Associate's Degree!

2013 Review

Fully funded the emergency fund: $12,000.00
Got engaged on 3/30/13
Paid cash for fiancé to buy a pick up: $3,000.00
Started spend/save/give with daughter
Had our healthy baby boy!
Cash flowed my maternity leave: $1,500.00
Fully funded my Roth IRA: $5,500.00
Savings balance: $1,776.91 ($100.00 minimum balance)
Paid my car off!
Daughter’s savings: $40.00 (this is just a guess)
Son’s savings: $115.00
College for daughter: $1,515.00
College for son: $415.00
Got through two more college classes

Our son started sitting this last Saturday, he got his first tooth on the 17th, and has been saying “Dadda” since the 21st. They grow so fast and are so fun!

We got our daughter for Christmas on Friday, so we opened gifts with them on Saturday. Had Christmas with fiance’s family on Sunday. We also had our first marriage prep class last night. We are Catholic and have to take classes before we can get married in the Catholic Church.

This morning, my sister had her ultrasound to find out if it was a boy or girl. It’s a BOY!!!! Eeeek! I’m soooo excited to be an aunt and for my son to have a little cousin. 

What our family received for Christmas:
Me – $100.00 from soon to be mother-in-law, $200.00 from soon to be father-in-law, gift certificate to tan and a gift certificate to dye my hair from my parents, a cute new pair of black boots, and some bath and body works stuff.

Fiance - $100.00 from his mom, $200.00 from his dad, minutes for his phone from my parents (he uses Straighttalk), and meat injector for cooking his meat.

Daughter – $50.00 and 2 silver coins from her grandparents, and lots of toys from everybody else.

Son – $50.00 and 4 silver coins from his grandparents, a bunch of toys from everybody else, and $100.00 from his great aunt (my aunt) to his college fund through his GradSave account for his first Christmas.

This is the amount my son has received for his first 6 months:
His savings account = $115.66
His GradSave account = $265.00
Plus the 4 silver dollars
I think he’s had a good year!

I won’t know my status on my goals until tomorrow after payday.

Me: Saw in our local paper yesterday that I graduated from Central Community College on December 5th. I was definitely not not aware of this! I called and I graduated with my diploma, but not with my actual degree. I guess that's something!


The kids: I looked at GradSave accounts today and my mom and step-dad contributed $100 to each child today!

Total contributed to daughter through GradSave: $115
Total contributed to son through GradSave: $165

I usually spend cash for as many things as I can. I save all of the change to pay daughter for her chores and then anything above that I put into my 6 month-old sons piggy bank(s). Well, his bank(s) were full so I deposited into my savings account that I don't really use and it earns a little bit of interest. The balance on that account is $65.66!

And then I splurged a little bit. I knew that Dave Ramsey was coming out with a new book that he and his daughter wrote, it comes out April, 2014. I saw on their facebook page that they were letting people pre-purchase it and then you get the Financial Peace Junior now and the book "Smart Money Smart Kids" in April. That was $35.00. So I'm waiting for Financial Peace Junior that we will use with our daughter. I probably didn't get much of a deal, but I was going back and forth on whether or not to purchase Financial Peace Junior because I really want it. So, I got it!

I have had a bit of a spending problem lately. Ugh! I think it's because it's end of the year/Christmas and I'm stressing out over getting my college classes done.

2014 Financial:

My Income: $1,300.00/per MONTH (after taxes) – Yuck!
Other income: $1,500.00 – tax return
$1,000.00 – other

Monthly Expenses (does not include savings, retirement or college):
Bills: $400.00 (Cell phone, internet, tv, gas, electricity, water, car insurance)
Fuel: $120.00 (My fuel)
Groceries: $100.00 (I only pay a small percentage of groceries)
Babysitter: $50.00 - $65.00 (Depends on how many days and how long. I pay 35% toward babysitter. We will have to switch babysitters in June, 2013, so we’ll see if it becomes more expensive.
Misc.: $80.00
TOTAL: $670.00 - $685.00
Other:
Will be left with about $500.00/month for retirement/college/savings

Random expenses in 2014:
1.Wedding Gifts = $100.00
2.Wedding Travel = $500.00
3.Car Registration(s) = $500.00
4.Kids’ birthday parties = $300.00 ($150.00 each for cake & ice cream, party supplies, presents, etc.)
5.Vacation = $500.00 (Not sure we’ll take one)
6.Clothing = $500.00 – we are all really in need of some clothes!
7.Home (random doings) = $150.00 – the house is so blah right now!
8.Birthday gifts/Graduation gifts = $150.00
9.Christmas = $400.00
Total Random = $3,100.00

Investments in 2014:
College:$300.00 for the year (fiancé does another $300.00)
Retirement:$5,500.00 for the year (fiancé max’s out his Roth also)

Savings will go toward:
Shoulder surgery: $4,500.00 $4,000.00/$4,500.00
Recover time: $5,500.00
Roof: $2,000.00
Gutters: $1,200.00

I don't know how to manage next year:
1. Throw tax return and other at retirement so I don't have to budget so much for that - if I do that I'd contribute $58.00/week to retirement; or
2. Throw tax return and other at random expenses so that they are covered and we don't have to worry about it. Save monthly for retirement and surgery, time off, and house improvements; or
3. Throw tax return and other at surgery, time, and house improvements so we can get that out of the way.

I think I could cash flow us through fiance's time off work for surgery if I throw it at retirement. I just don't know the best way to go about it.

Fiance will also help with everything except my portion of college, and retirement.

Any ideas?! We have a lot going on next year!

Tonight I looked at our bank accounts and this is what I found:

Fiances checking: $2, 500
My checking: $200 (I run it pretty low as I always know where I'm at and transfer extra into savings)
My savings: $2, 074 (will pull from this to fully fund retirement by end of year but after Christmas it will be $2, 100)
Fiances 401k: $15, 000
Fiances Roth: $2, 200 (he will fully fund it for 2013)
My Roth: $4, 500 ($5, 500 by end of year)
Utilites account: $800 ($1, 000 by end of year. We deposit average amount of all our utility bills and bring it back to $1, 000 in December)
Investment accounts: $15, 000 (all but about $3, 00 is our EF)
Kids' college: $1, 600

Debts:
House: $82, 500 (assessor says it's worth about 90k)
Attorney: $5, 300
My car: $333.00

Also, GradSave has received $80 from family already! :-)

Our son has been awfully grumpy in the evenings lately. He normally goes to sleep pretty easy at night, but the last two nights have been a different story.. It's making it very difficult to get any homework done (I have a lot to do before the semester is over, which is December 13th). Guess I will be getting up at 5:00 a.m.

My college advisor told me that after this semester I have three classes to take and that one of those classes is offered every semester and the other two will only be offered Spring of 2014. I went to sign up for those classes when it came time to register and they are not being offered next semester. I am mad!! That would put graduation off a year (those classes are only offered Spring semester when they are offered). I'm trying to be nice because it is not my intention to get my advisor in trouble, but I do expect them to do whatever they can to help me graduate next Spring. UGH!!!!!

Anyway, the weekend was pretty productive. Fiance and I both got some laundry done (even some folding and putting away!), he cleaned the kitchen, and made supper Saturday, I made lunch Saturday and supper Sunday, got some shopping done, went to Church, went to his Grandma's place to have lunch with her on Sunday, watched our Huskers lose, and watched some football on Sunday also.. AND I got a little homework done.

While shopping this weekend, we had daughter look at some toys and show us things she would want for Christmas. While looking, she found a cheap book ($3.00) that she really wanted. Fiance asked me if we should just get it for her for that night. I told him no, and that we really need to quit just buying her things and have her purchase extra items that she wants with the money that she earns and gets to put in her "Spend" jar. We did that and she was pretty excited that she got to take her own money and purchase something. I think she felt like a big girl. When she got home and put the change back in her money jar I think she realized that there wasn't much there now, but she sure is proud of that book! We'll see what happens when she wants to purchase a more expensive item and has to take some time to earn and save up money.

Fiance is working overtime Monday - Thursday I guess to come up with his portion of the Christmas budget. Yuck! I guess if he can do that then I should definitely make an effort to get up early to get my homework done.

On my way home tonight I decided to stop and get a drink ($1.92) which I knew I really shouldn't spend money on anyway and was really second guessing it by the time I got to the window to pay. A boy that looked to be 3 or so years younger than me came up and said (with a smile) "I've got it, just pull up to the second window". I'm not sure if he was doing something nice or what, but I got my drink for free!!

Well, it's back to bed for me for a few hours! Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Fiance got a raise of $0.52, plus a $200.00-something bonus last week!!

And sons gradsave account has been set up for less than a month and now has $50.00 from Grandma! He just turned 4 months old yesterday. It has already been very exciting watching him grow.. smiling, laughing, cooing, rolling over, eating some rice cereal.. I just love him!! :-)

My ending balance in my checking account for last month, was $570.23 - would have been lower, but I haven't paid my CC's yet. My deposit from work was $1,426.77, for a total of $1,997.00 ($175.00 of this is from savings and is to fund retirement for next month, so I need $175.00 to be my ending balance). Here is my budget for this month and it is frightening:

Beginning balance = $1,997.00
Retirement - $660.00
Bills - $351.00
Pets - $35.00
College - $25.00
CC 1 - $246.96
CC 2 - $171.27
Babysitter - $50.00
Fuel - $120.00
Groceries - $100.00
Unexpected expenses, miscellaneous - $150.00

This leaves me with a balance of $87.77, but leaves me short $87.23 for retirement next month.

If my ending balance this month is $87.77, this is what my budget for next month will look like:

Income will be anywhere from $1,277.57 - $1,447.64 (as our business hours are only 7 hours/day, but we cannot work more than 40 hours/week)
Retirement - $825.00
Bills - $351.00
Fuel - $120.00
Groceries - $100.00
Babysitter - $80.00
College - $25.00
Unexpected expenses/miscellaneous - $150.00
I will be anywhere from -$285.66 to -$115.59 at the end of the year.

Ouch! Not looking forward to the next couple months!

Thank goodness I still have sick days left. We get 42 hours for sick days/year and I haven't used all of mine. If I don't use anymore I will get $300.00 for that at the end of the year. I'm relying on that money to replace the difference in my budget.

Fiance got his bonus and it was $700.00!!!! That's about $2, 600.00 we have so far for shoulder surgery.

Here's an update on our goals:
Shoulder surgery: $4,000.00
Fiances time off: $6,000.00
Roof: $2,000.00
Gutters: $1,500.00
Fence: $10,000.00
Siding: $15,00.00

Yikes!! :-(

We had a great weekend! We got our daughter started on doing chores and she LOVED it! We figure it's a good time to start them on chores now when they enjoy it and maybe they'll just be used to it as they get older. She made $1.50 between Saturday and today. We also got a leak under the sink fixed and we all pitched in and got the house picked up - still have laundry to do!

And I sat our son in the highchair on Saturday while the rest of us were cleaning and set his toy on his tray for something to look at and he actually grabbed it all on his own!

We had a wonderful weekend and hope everyone else did as well! Have a productive week, everyone!

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. Son had his two month appointment and had to get three shots...poor baby! Fiance and I found out that we are actually going to be able to replace the roof for basically nothing - holding back $500.00 for unexpected expenses. I got a homework assignment turned in for one class and another assignment halfway done for my other college class! Also got some laundry washed and dried..which is the easy part.

My goals for tonight:
1. unload/load dishwasher
2. wash/dry laundry
3. get SOME laundry folded!!! (this is always my problem)
4. complete/turn in a homework assignment

My fiance and I talked to our parents this weekend about what they wanted to contribute to the wedding. The wedding will be paid for! I will probably still hold back about $2,000.00 until we're sure that everything gets paid for.

Our new goals (I really have no idea how much things will cost. I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea and hopefully figuring too high):

1. Wedding (just in case) $500.00/$500.00
2. Shoulder surgery for fiance $0.00/$5,000.00
3. Income for time off during recovery $0.00/$20,000.00
4. Roof $500.00/$500.00 (my step-dad manages a roofing company where we live and can get us shingles for nothing and my biological father can help install it)
5. Siding $1,000.00/$7,000.00 (my step-dad also use to own his own business doing siding and roofing so he can help side our house)
6. Privacy fence $0.00/$5,000.00
7. Replace kitchen cupboards/cabinets $0.00/8,000.00
8. Finish basement (mainly wall under stairs and ceiling $0.00/$5,000.00
9. Family vehicle $0.00/$15,000.00

I have been a change saver since I was a waitress. Now when I spend cash for items, I round the total to the nearest dollar and just save the change. While I was pregnant I saved up my change to put towards my sons college fund every month. I wasn’t able to save the full $150.00 (save $25.00/month), but did save about $100.00 of it. Was able to fund the last $50.00 by selling my old prom dress!

For the last two months I have just been putting most of it in my son’s piggy bank. Now that we are going to be letting my fiancé’s daughter earn a little money, the first $3.00 that I save every two weeks will be put aside for her when she completes a “chore” and then I will probably just throw the rest in my son’s piggy bank.

All pennies go into a cute monkey jar that my sister made for him. I have saved several dollars in change for my son the past two months, which has been put into a Humpty Dumpty piggy bank…that I can’t open! For his baptism, he got a Cross piggy bank with $13.00 in quarters in it and then a $20.00 bill from his grandparents. I have been putting the change/money in the piggy bank that I can actually open ever since he got it. So he already has $33+.

When we were getting ready to start the spend, save, give system with my fiancé’s daughter, I counted the money in her piggy bank just to see how much was there. There was about $28.00 in change and $6.00 in cash – more than I expected there to be. I took $6.00 out in change and split it up throughout the three jars. I did that just to help her get the concept as to what is going into the jars. Maybe I should take that out and put it back in her piggy bank so that she can be the first one to deposit money in those jars? Hmm..

So this is what we have…
the monkey jar – holds all of the pennies (I don’t get excited about pennies, but we will cash them in at the bank when it is full)
son’s Cross piggy bank – has about $33.00 in it
son’s Humpty Dumpty piggy bank – has a lot of quarters, but not sure how much ($5.00 give or take)
daughter has a big pink piggy bank – has $28.00 in it ($34.00 if I put that money back in it)
daughter has a small blue see through piggy bank – it’s pretty empty

What would you guys do with the piggy banks? They each have two. If I want to teach them to work for their money and do the save, spend, give system, I’m not sure that I should just put change in there and one day say “Here’s $200.00 for you!”

These are the options I have come up with so far:

1. Just throwing extra change in one piggy bank for each of them and see how much is in there someday when they become interested or request to go cash it in.
2. Use one piggy bank for extra money towards college and one towards their cars someday.

That’s really all I’ve come up with so far. I know you all probably think that I’m thinking into this a little much – I mean, it is just cents, but I have always been able to save a LOT of change. I LOVE change!

I feel like we are saving too little for their college, which is probably where the money should go. We are using a 529 to help fund their college and only contribute $25.00/month/child, but we don’t want to save too much. My fiance’s family has always been good about going to college and getting a degree – although he did not. He had a scholarship for academics to a University, but messed around too much. Most of my family on the other hand has not gotten college degrees – I would say 30% of us have not. I will completely encourage college, but also realize that college isn’t for everyone. Therefore, we will get taxed if we end up not using that money for college and taking it out, so we don’t want to save too much in case they end up not using it/needing it. They will also have to maintain a certain GPA if we are going to help pay for it.

I'm new to blogging, but I am using it as a road mao for myself/family. I hope that other people being able to read about our progress/goals will keep me motivated and responsible with money. I also want to prepare my kids financially for when they go out on their own.

Here's a little history on me and my family - I'm 23, he's 29, son is two months old to the day and fiances daughter is 4. We are getting married 9-13-14.

Debt:
$677.00 - My car - not paying on it while in school and it will be paid off in December.
$5,700.00 - Attorney - fiance's debt
$83,000.00 - House - fiance's debt

Attorney and house are not mine until next September, but I consider them when I think about us financially in the long run.

Goals for this year:
1. Fully funded Emergency Fund = $12,000.00 (half funded by me/half by fiancé)
Tax refund helped us accomplish this goal
2. Emergency fund for baby’s arrival = $1,500.00 (I don’t get paid maternity leave)
Ended up needing $1,395.00 total while I was off for 6 weeks
3. Car repairs = $500.00
Actual cost ended up being $350.00
4. Newborn pictures = $100.00
5. Car registration = $200.00
Actual cost = $158.10
6. Christmas = $500.00 – have this saved as cash
7. Retirement = $5,500.00
Have $2,840.00 as of 9/11/13 - $2,640.00 left
8. Savings = $2,000.00
Have $1,800.00 as of 9/11/13 - $200.00 left
9. Dress = $84.54
To be bridesmaid in cousins wedding next summer

I'm going to reach all of my financial goals this year!

I don't have an actual wedding savings because my fiances parents said that they want to help out *a lot* to pay for it - whatever that means. We still need to sit down with them and talk about what they want to help pay for or how much. Number 8 "Savings" will be used for the wedding if needed.

We only have my fiance's daughter every other weekend, every other holiday, and six weeks every summer. When we have her next we plan to do a chore chart with her and the spend, save, give jars. Chores will be things like feed the dogs, help set dinner table, help load washer/dryer and she will get $0.25/chore that she completes. I also plan to go to our local library and find some fund kids books on money.

My sister is also expecting a child next summer, so I'm hoping to give her some financial ideas and maybe get her child involved with the money activities we do with our kids!

We also save $25.00/month/kid into a college savings plan - so only $300 a year per kid (it isn't much).

I would love to hear what other parents do with their kids to teach them about money!