budgeting Archives - as Jules is going

Our “Fake Economy”

February 20, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

We created our own "fake economy", as my hubs likes to call it.

My 3.5 year old goes through phases of responding then not responding to different methods of discipline (ie. spankings, time outs, grounding, etc) and/or rewards (stickers, extra fun snack, candy, etc).

The "fake economy" works like this:

Every time Maggie does her "morning routine" chart all by herself (no begged assistance from mom and dad who are juggling the younger babes) she 'earns' a bread tie. Bread tie? Yep, straight got this from a psych. teacher in college. I've been collecting the for years.
She can also "earn" a bread tie by

Doing her chart without being asked
Using the potty with DRY/CLEAN panties
Listening 1st time (at parents discretion something super important)
Staying in her bed at nap and night-time

She places them in her cupcake shaped piggy bank right now. This afternoon she 'earned' a special craft. We'll be making 3 new piggy banks!

One for GOD
One for SAVING
One for SPENDING

This will be a great way to begin teaching her about finances! My hubs and I have created a list of things she can "buy" with her bread ties. This list will be bought with those ties in the Spending or Saving bank. On Sundays we will count out her ties and each one will be worth a penny. She'll then give the pennies we give her (in exchange for her ties) to our church offering. It's not quite the 10% {tithe} but it will begin to teach her that God has ask us to give back a portion of what He given us. I pray it will also teach her to be generous and that the 10% is a minimal suggestion of what we can give back.

Do you have any good ideas for teaching your child about handling finances? How about a "fake economy" of your own? PLEASE SHARE in the comments below!

I'm also linked up over at:

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: budgeting, preschool finances, reward system, teaching preschoolers to budget God's way

Preschool Finances

February 16, 2012 by Jules 1 Comment

How to you teach your child about budgeting?

Yep, those my friend are more washed out formula cans. Are you ready from some up-cycling? We have begun a new habit in our home. Partly to teach our oldest child (3.5) about prioritizing and budgeting but also just as a different system of reward. I'll tell you more about our "fake economy" later but for now I just want to tell you the 3 basic categories we are teaching her to "budget" her money into. God. Save. Spend. That simple. We give back to God just a simple part of what He's so graciously allowed us to manage. Then we save for bigger things. And we get to spend more frequently on smaller things. Here is how we made her 3 banks:

Like I said, I'm working on a future post about our "reward system" but I will just say it involves bread-ties and then divides them {currently}divides them {she calls it 'organizing' them} Evenly into the 3 categories/banks.

How are starting to teach your littles about finances and how to handle them God's way? I'm always up for new ideas!!!

Filed Under: Homeschool, Parenting, Projects, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: budgeting, commision, DIY piggy banks, homeschool, preschooler, priorities, reward system, teaching finances

Levelized Billing

September 29, 2011 by Jules Leave a Comment

Looking for any and every way to cut your bills and save time?

Did you know you can get similar payments year round and you don't have to write checks every month?

I LOVE this! We have our utility services through city water, entergy (electricity), Center Point Energy (natural gas), SuddenLink (internet only), and AT&T. Each service may call it something different but all of these offer at least one if not both services called "Levelized Billing" (or "Average Monthly Billing") and "Automatic Bank Draft" (or "Electronic Withdraw") so yesterday I spent ~1 finding all of our utilities online or calling to them set up.

I hear some of you, "There's no way I want to give out my personal information and allow someone else access to my account" "I like knowing when money is coming out of my account", and so on. I've had all those arguments. After my 3rd blessing came along everything seemed to stared piling up, and the only 'adult time' I had was being spent doing house work, paying bills, balancing the check book or on the computer. I decided I needed to cut out some out...anything that was just unnecessary. No matter my silly qualms. Since I seems to check my online checking register often and already have our home mortgage coming out automatically each month it was just the push I needed to try this with all my bills that made it available. It was so simple. I can try to up date you after my 1st month or so to let you know if I'm still liking it.

Wanna try it? Here is how:

utility account information (all found on an old bill)
personal information (i.e. Name, house #, phone #, email address, usually thing you'll have memorized)
create a password (I keep a document on my computer with "account reminders" to help me remember what different accounts ask you to use for 'usernames' or passwords)

For Levelized Billing:

you need to have lived at your residence for at least 1 full year
have your online account ID already set up

For Auto Draft:

utility account information (all found on an old bill)
have your online account ID already set up
a method you want them to use each month for billing- your credit card (I personally discourage) but debit card might work in the same way or simply your *checking account information (all found on the bottom of a check)
a few minutes

{it is almost scary how fast you can set this up}

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Do you have these services already set up?
Do you like them?
Are they helpful to you and your family?
If so, how? If not, what are the drawbacks!
Do you have any other helpful hint to share for saving money and time?

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Nope, no one is paying me for my indorsement of this service...but if you know how I CAN get paid for that- LET ME KNOW! ;o)

Photo Credit: Woman Paying Bills