Wednesday
Dec172008
Better Budgeting: Day 2 of 15 Days of New Years Resolutions
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 2:16AM
With the shaky economy, it's more important than ever to become better at budgeting and money management. For some this is means saving more, for others it means investing, and for a lot of people it means paying off debt.
It also means managing finances and gaining an understanding of where our money is going and where it's coming from.
For me, my resolution is to keep better records for tax purposes. As a consultant, it is so important for me to track expenses and record all of my income.
I also want to start teaching my 3-year old son about money management too.
One great product I've found for that is the Money Savvy Pig by the company Money Savvy Generation. This is not your average piggy bank. There are four slots in the pig: Save, Spend, Donate, and Invest. My son and I
really enjoyed talking about each section. He wants to Save for a bike, Spend on a dinner out at our favorite burger joint, Donate to help hungry kids, and Invest in going to college
because he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. I like it because it keeps concepts simple and easy to understand.
Want one of these clever little piggies to help your children learn about money management? Leave a comment on this post to enter letting me know where your child(ren) would Save for, Spend on, Donate to, and Invest in. Additionally, please visit the Money Savvy Generation site and let me know one thing you learned from your visit. I will do a random drawing on Friday to determine the three, yes THREE!, winners.
And who doesn't like getting cash back?
One of my friends, Tara from Deal Seeking Mom, told me about this awesome program called Cashbaq. I'm not quite done with my holiday shopping and will do the rest of my shopping via the site. (And I figure this is a great way to rationalize getting a nice little gift for myself for Christmas with the cash back I receive). Right now, you get $5 just for signing up.
Here are some tools that are great for staying on track for todays New Years Resolution:
QuickBooks: They've got great products for both the self-employed and small businesses alike. Their software helps you track expenses and manage invoices...one of the most popular software solutions for personal and business finance, they offer a free trial version to ensure it's something that will work for you and your situation. Their "Simple Start" product looks great for those new to having to track expenses and income.
Freshbooks: This is an awesome invoicing solution that has a free version (for up to three clients). Definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a simple way to manage invoices. Highly recommended for consultants.
Mvelopes: This is a personal budgeting web application that helps you track your spending, expenses, and income. You can Take a tour of Mvelopes Personal and get a 30-Day Trial right now. To get a quick idea of your expenses, start by filling out this handy form.
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It also means managing finances and gaining an understanding of where our money is going and where it's coming from.
For me, my resolution is to keep better records for tax purposes. As a consultant, it is so important for me to track expenses and record all of my income.
I also want to start teaching my 3-year old son about money management too.
One great product I've found for that is the Money Savvy Pig by the company Money Savvy Generation. This is not your average piggy bank. There are four slots in the pig: Save, Spend, Donate, and Invest. My son and I
really enjoyed talking about each section. He wants to Save for a bike, Spend on a dinner out at our favorite burger joint, Donate to help hungry kids, and Invest in going to collegebecause he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. I like it because it keeps concepts simple and easy to understand.
And I've got three to giveaway!
Want one of these clever little piggies to help your children learn about money management? Leave a comment on this post to enter letting me know where your child(ren) would Save for, Spend on, Donate to, and Invest in. Additionally, please visit the Money Savvy Generation site and let me know one thing you learned from your visit. I will do a random drawing on Friday to determine the three, yes THREE!, winners.
And who doesn't like getting cash back?
One of my friends, Tara from Deal Seeking Mom, told me about this awesome program called Cashbaq. I'm not quite done with my holiday shopping and will do the rest of my shopping via the site. (And I figure this is a great way to rationalize getting a nice little gift for myself for Christmas with the cash back I receive). Right now, you get $5 just for signing up.
Here are some tools that are great for staying on track for todays New Years Resolution:
QuickBooks: They've got great products for both the self-employed and small businesses alike. Their software helps you track expenses and manage invoices...one of the most popular software solutions for personal and business finance, they offer a free trial version to ensure it's something that will work for you and your situation. Their "Simple Start" product looks great for those new to having to track expenses and income.
Freshbooks: This is an awesome invoicing solution that has a free version (for up to three clients). Definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a simple way to manage invoices. Highly recommended for consultants.
Mvelopes: This is a personal budgeting web application that helps you track your spending, expenses, and income. You can Take a tour of Mvelopes Personal and get a 30-Day Trial right now. To get a quick idea of your expenses, start by filling out this handy form.
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Reader Comments (10)
SAVE: Their first car and/or college
SPEND: Toys, of course!
INVEST: I'd have to do a little more research.
DONATE: This part excites me because we donate items to charity and needy families all of the time. My kiddos are learning about couponing and it would be fun to include the donation money to purchase things to add to the donation box - like maybe a stuffed animal or blanket for a child.
On the website, I was immediately attracted to checking out the CardGuard. Even though it claims to be for teens, believe it or not, I think I could actually benefit from this! We don't write checks anymore so we have a hard time keeping track of our spending when we swipe the cards. We can always check it with out online banking but some things don't come out right away or disappear and we forget about them. It's a pain in the rear to keep up with receipts. But this is all kept together. It'd be cool to have a way to track the spending of our cards a bit better.
We have just started implementing some of these saving techniques with our boys. It's taking some getting used to but we are hoping that as we shape them and make these things a habit, they will grow to be great stewards and wise with money!I've never seen those banks before. VERY cool!
Christi D.s last blog post..http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Christis2Cents/~3/489150420/homeland-deals-wed-dec-17th-tues-dec.html" rel="nofollow">Homeland Deals (Wed Dec 17th-Tues. Dec 23rd)
What a GREAT idea - this pig would help my 7 year old tremendously since we currently use snack size baggies for his "envelopes"! I really like the CardGuard for teens on the website. I need one of these for my 16 yod!
With my girls we use envelopes. One for God, one for saving & one for spending. Not worrying about investing...yet (they are 2 and 4). The pig is very cute.
Jodys last blog post..http://www.iowageekonline.com/2008/12/from-evening-of-christmas-cheer.html" rel="nofollow">From An Evening of Christmas Cheer
Is it too late to enter? I love those pigs – I've been meaning to take some old spaghetti sauce jars and dress them up for my girls to divide their allowance into spending/savings/giving accounts, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I love that these don't take up that much room but still divide the money!
I hadn't really thought of teaching them about investing yet, but I think it's a great idea to start early.
Mandis last blog post..http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DoodlesPlace/~3/486090553/how-much-can-heart-take.html" rel="nofollow">How much can a heart take?
Love the pigs simplistic set up! Great for teaching!! If I am not too late I would love to enter!
Love this! My five sons would save for a trip to Disney World and to see Auntie Miranda, spend on Wii games, donate to the Jimmy Hale Mission, and invest money in their Sharebuilder acct(Recieved 25$ bonus, btw)
Great tips! They overlap with ones I posted for my Make More, Be More, Do More Resolution #1 - Getting a handle on household finances. http://momwithmoney.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/resolution-1-get-a-handle-on-household-finances/
Ann Levines last blog post..http://momwithmoney.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/resolution-3-learn-to-ask-for-help/" rel="nofollow">Resolution #3: Learn to Ask For Help
[...] » I won this one-of-a-kind piggy bank from a giveaway over at Jessica Knows during her Better Budgeting series. It is from Money Savvy Generation. There are 4 chambers: save, spend, donate, and invest. We just [...]
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