Lately, I’ve started a system where each of our boys has a couple of new chores he must do each day. Yes, even the 4-year-old. I instituted this because I actually cannot keep up with the housekeeping all myself anyway.

I pay them a quarter for each of those jobs, plus I give them extra coins when they exhibit a wonderful attitude.

I’m able to pay them on the spot because I have a big juice jug full of change.

This has been working extremely well for us. Though yes, I always inspect their work, and make them fix things they’ve skipped over, like little Lego men peeking out from under the sofa.

Killing bugs for mom also counts as a chore. The 3 of them teamed up to kill the cicada under that stack of books! That particular job was free of charge. Ha!

Today I have asked Josh Wilson, of FaithFamilyFinance.com, to fill us in on why paying children for chores is a MARVELOUS idea, not just for us, but for our kids too….

Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores?

One financial decision you will need to make with your children is if you should pay your children to do chores. There are several different reasons why this is a good idea. For starters, they can learn valuable life lessons. If you are on the fence about paying your children for chores, read more to find out why it can be a good idea.

Adults Work for Money

Adults work to earn money because they have bills to pay. Paying children for chores teaches them the value of work. They can learn about the incentive of working harder to earn more money. Just as you don’t get paid if you don’t work, you have the option not to pay your child if they don’t complete their chores on schedule.

Until your children are old enough to get a part-time job, paying your children for chores can be a good way to allow your children to work for a goal instead of simply being given everything they want.

[clickToTweet tweet=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! ” quote=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! via @AprilandAlan storiesofourboys.com #responsibiity”]

Chores Teach Commitment

Chores can consist of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Even if you decide not to pay your child for some everyday chores, money is a strong incentive to remain committed for additional chores. Your children can establish a work ethic early on.

Offering to pay your child for optional tasks that you don’t necessarily have to do is a good starting place. By not paying your child for every single chore they complete, you can reward them for their efforts while avoiding the entitlement spirit of thinking they “must” get paid for every chore or they won’t do it.

Chores Can Instill Entrepreneurship

Depending on your child’s personality, paying for chores can instill a level of entrepreneurship. By realizing they can make money by providing a solution to a need, completing chores in this case, they may decide to pursue their own side hustle as they grow older.

For example, if you pay them to mow the lawn, they might ask your neighbors to mow their lawns for cash. During the winter, they might offer to shovel driveways and sidewalks for extra cash. If you only pay them an allowance for not doing chores, they might miss out on these additional money-making opportunities.

Paying for Chores Establishes Expectations

As the parent, you can set the expectations for when your children will be paid for their chores. If your children don’t do it right the first time, have them redo the task to your satisfaction. Chores can be an excellent opportunity to learn attention to detail and working efficiently to maximize their earning potential.

Remember to consider your child’s age and experience when setting expectations. Just as there is a learning curve when you start a new job, your children will need to master new skills as well. As they mature, you can increase your expectations and maybe even give them a raise as well.

Chores Can Encourage Communication

Communication is a two-way street in every relationship. Paying for chores can teach your children communication skills that can benefit them in the professional world. On payday, you can review your child’s performance and encourage them or tell them how they can improve.

Your child can also improve their communication skills because they will learn how to accept feedback, good and bad, from their superiors. Chores can also teach negotiation. Your child might offer to perform additional tasks if they are trying to increase their income.

Children Can Learn Money Management Skills

Earning money allows children the opportunity to learn the value of saving money for future purchases and accomplishing other financial goals. If you offer them additional money for completing extra tasks, your children can have an additional incentive to work hard to achieve their goals sooner.

In addition to paying your children for chores, you can also teach them budgeting and banking. Instead of just giving them money and letting them go on a spending spree, you can have them divide their paycheck into saving, spending, and giving.

For example, you can help your kids open up a savings account and they can watch as their interest grows. Each month opens the doors for a new learning experience, and even earnings for your children. You should likely use an online account with low minimums and fees to help you children keep more of their money. My children use Capital One which has an account created just for them. This will prepare them for adulthood when a portion of each paycheck goes to taxes and living expenses.

Summary

Paying children for chores is one of the most debated topics about parenting. While no parent is required to pay for chores, doing so can teach your child valuable life lessons. If you decide to pay your child, remember that you don’t have to pay them for every single chore, and you can also base the payment on their performance.

Josh Wilson is the owner of a start-up personal finance blog, Family Faith Finance. Check out his blog and learn more about his journey through life.

The post Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

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As a fairly recent college graduate — and as someone who just paid off hefty student loans — I know firsthand how expensive getting a college education can be. The cost of a degree is rising. What you may have spent on your own tuition and fees may not even cover a semester of your child’s tuition by the time he or she is ready to head off to a college university. The thought of paying for college in this era can be daunting. However, it is doable — as long as you come up with a strategy for making it happen.

Of course, it may not be possible to fully fund your child or children’s college education. Yet with some advance planning and some careful saving, you can put away a decent amount of money to help your kids get their degrees with minimal debt. Read on to pick up some ideas on how you can accomplish this goal.

Get a Head Start

The best way to save for your kids’ college education is by starting early. The idea of paying $40,000 a year or more for tuition and fees is scary. If you start socking away a little bit of money each month when your child is born, you can take advantage of compounding interest to get a great return on your investment.

You can automate your savings through electronic funds transfer (EFT), direct deposit, or other forms of automatic savings to have your child’s college education account grow without you even thinking about it.

So exactly how much will you need to set aside in order to pay for your child’s college education?

That number will depend on a variety of factors, such as the return on your investment, the cost of tuition, and how much of the tuition you intend to cover.

If you plan to pay 50% of a private college education that costs $45,370 per year now, or $390,298 total (assuming a 4% increase in college costs per year), then you will need to put away $458 per month into a plan with a 6% return starting when your child is born in order to cover that cost.

If you want to cover 50% of a less expensive in-state public university education at an average of $20,090 now, or $172,825 total assuming the same 4% annual increase in college costs, then you would need to put $203 each month into the same plan.

These relatively low amounts can help you save a significant amount of money over time. This will make a rather large dent in the total cost of attending college for your kids.

Use a 529 Plan

In the example above, the money was invested into a plan known as a 529 college savings plan. This type of plan is a tax-deferred savings plan that allows families to put aside money for qualified higher education expenses. Thirty-four states sponsor this type of plan, and several states permit parents to deduct contributions to this plan from their income taxes.

The money that you put into 529 plans will grow. Meanwhile, all distributions from the account that are used for qualified higher education expenses (such as tuition, fees, room and board) are free from federal income taxes.

A 529 plan is a great option, as they are fairly low-cost and have great tax benefits. Family members and friends can even contribute to the account.

Grants & Scholarships

One of the best resources for paying for college is one that many people often overlook — grants and scholarships. Looking for alternative funding sources such as grants and scholarships can help reduce the total amount of money that you either need to pay or borrow for college. Scholarships can be found through school guidance counselors, or through websites such as Scholarship.com.

Spending a few hours applying for scholarships can result in receiving hundreds or thousands of dollars in funding for school. They can reduce your child’s debt burden significantly. Grants, which are a monetary award that are usually offered to help students study in a particular field, can also be helpful. They are offered through a number of sources, such as the federal and state government, your child’s college, or local organizations. Your child’s college financial aid office and various online sites should have information available on applying for grants.

Student Loans: Which type is best?

Student loans are a fact of life for many students, and may be something that your children have to take out in order to pay for school. Federal student loans tend to have more favorable terms, and often have better interest rates. Subsidized student loans are preferable, as the government covers the cost of interest while your child is in school and during the grace period. Private student loans should be taken out as a last resort, as they tend to have much higher interest rates and can significantly add to a student’s debt burden.

Last Word

Saving for college can seem like a daunting, and sometimes impossible, task. It’s not, though, I promise! The earlier you get started the better, given the power of compounding interest. Even if you haven’t gotten a head start, it’s never too late. Try to come up with a plan and start saving – your child will thank you eventually!

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Jacob runs his own personal finance blog over at Dollar Diligence. Through meticulously watching his money and extreme frugality, he was able to pay down over $25k in student loan debt in just 15 months. You can learn more about his story and follow him here.

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The post 4 Hacks to Help You Save and Pay for Your Child’s Higher Education appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

What is “dealspotr”?

I first heard of dealspotr.com a few months ago, and I didn’t know what to think of it at first. It’s a place to find good deals to save money, and you can share deals that you find too.

You can find coupon codes as well as sales on there.

My Experience with dealspotr

I thought, “Okay, you can post deals when you find them…eh…”

I found an exciting deal at Papa John’s, and if you know anything about my family, you realize this MATTERS to us, so I posted it on dealspotr to share the happiness. It wasn’t hard.  Past that, I kind of forgot about dealspotr.com.

Then came spring break. Saving money has been not just nice but necessary.

Y’all! You can save some serious buck-a-rinos with this website.

The whole point of this website is to compile tons of good deals for all different types of things in one place. It’s the kind of thing thrifty people dream of.

Some merchants even offer exclusive deals through dealspotr.

When I use it, I head straight to the search bar.

Type in the place you are going or the thing you are trying to buy, and see what pops up. You never know. You could save hundreds on a vacation or just save $1 on your meal, but you won’t know until you search.

When I hear about a site that gives you deals, I like to see proof. Just how good are these deals? Are they worth taking the time to dig up?

Here’s what I found, to give you a few examples.

These are coupon codes that I found on dealspotr. I had spring break on the brain.

Legoland Discovery Center ——Get free child ticket with purchase of adult ticket coupon code (to be used to purchase tickets online)

Legoland Theme Park— Free child ticket with purchase of adult ticket. Copy code and purchase online.

Papa John’s Pizza—- 25% off code

Most deals that I found on there do NOT require a coupon code. These are sales. You can just click on the link and purchase at the discounted price.

This swing set is $342 at Walmart right now (March 20th, 2017), as opposed to the regular price of $586!!!!!

And this deal was my personal favorite with Easter coming up:

Before I went to Starbucks, I typed in Starbucks. There was a 10% discount on there for Starbucks. Awesome.

I need to buy tennis shoes for one of my sons, so I typed in “Nikes”, and I found about 5 different pairs of Nike tennis shoes, on sale, that would fit Caleb.

40% off your purchase at the GAP was another exciting deal I found on my personalized feed. They offer suggestions for you on your homepage, but to me, using the search bar was the most helpful way to use this site.

Now, you may need to create your own dealspotr.com account to be able to see all of these links that I’m including.

But the good news is that it’s free to join, and you can adjust your settings so that you don’t get unwanted email.

Do you think I can talk Alan into buying the boys that discounted swingset I found? 

You can also actually earn points and money from this company.

Fill out your profile, and upload deals that you find to start collecting points.

The points you earn by posting deals for them adds up to gift cards to places like Amazon!

Pssst! If you are a blogger or you have a ton of social media followers, you can earn even more! So be sure to check that out here. And be sure to use one of these codes:

lIAVKePx   or ESoM2F54

Have you tried Dealspotr or another program like it? Tell us about it in the comments! 

Happy saving!

****This post is sponsored by dealspotr.com, a community to find coupons, coupon codes, and sales and even share deals that you’ve found as well. All opinions are my own, for better or for worse.****

The post How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our family is living on a budget for the first time…..since 8 years ago when we read that Dave Ramsey book.

This year was a huge change. We went from paying about $3,000/year in school tuitions to Classical Conversations and preschool to paying about $15,000/year total in private school tuitions. That’s two full school tuitions plus a partial one for my kindergartener, who has a partial scholarship. It was a big jump. We realized we were going to have to make major changes in how we live to pay for all of this.

These tips will help you for sure. I do realize $15,000 would only pay for one child’s tuition in a large city. At the time that I wrote this we lived in Georgia, where the cost of living is lower.

I want to share what we are doing to pay for private school:

#1. We down-sized our house.

We went from a 5-bedroom home in luxurious Monterey, California to a 3-bedroom home in Georgia. The difference is so vast, but I’ve actually enjoyed this change! No more stairs to go up and down. Hmmm Maybe that’s why I’ve gained weight….Plus, our new house still comfortably fits us. It has everything we need, and it came with a way better backyard, so this was not a hardship. This was a win. We only lost about 500 square feet, so we ditched a room or two worth of furniture, and all is well.

We do have four kids in a 3-bedroom house, but only one of them complained, and I think it’s good for them.

#2. I took on a part-time writing gig with MontereyPremier.com in September, and I resumed product reviews and sponsored posts here on Stories of Our Boys.

Every little bit helps, and I’m still spoiled because I’m working from home. I still get to be with my three-year-old all day long. I can still cook dinner by 12 pm, and I’m able to pick up the boys from school every day. The only hitch is that I literally get paid by how much I work, so if I spend my day jumping on the trampoline with JD, baking, and sweeping, I don’t actually make any money at all. Ha….yeah, that happens a lot..

#3. We cut the bi-weekly cleaning lady, the gym, the pest control service, and the lawn care service.

Yes, we would like to have ALL of those services, but they are a luxury, not a necessity.

#4. We are “making do” with things that we would like to replace, and saving up money to replace them later, rather than spending all we have or taking on a car payment.

My minivan?

It’s a 2007. One of the doors has taken on a mind of its own, so you now have to do these special maneuvers to get it to close, and if you do it wrong it will go “Ding. Ding. Ding!” Only it won’t start all that dinging until AFTER the car is driving, so then you have to find a place to pull over and shut that door to save your sanity. Also, the defroster is having issues. I guess that’s what paper towels are for.

The minivan is paid for, and the engine runs perfectly. Just don’t stand in the trunk putting away groceries too long because it will randomly start to close the trunk door on your head. Nice little adrenaline rush as you quickly remove all body parts and small children out of the way!!!

However, we are thankful that we have two cars that run. That van has never broken down, and it has 4 good tires. We’ll make do another year.

My mattress? 

It’s 14 years old, and my hips were starting to hate, hate, hate my flattened out old mattress. It wasn’t giving much anymore. Soooo…we bought a $25 quilted mattress cover. That didn’t help much. Then we bought a $15 egg crate and put that on top of the quilted mattress cover, and we’re good again! That’ll buy us another year, I’m hoping.

Our sofa?

Well….we’ve only had it for 3 years, but it got ripped in a few places with the move. I don’t even know how because it was all wrapped and padded. I have no idea why we didn’t put in a claim on it while we had the chance, but we didn’t, so now we are stuck with a sofa that’s all hurt looking and sad.

It’s on my list to get replaced first, but not until Christmas is taken care of. Here’s hoping for a new sofa in January or February!

#5. My favorite part: Yard Sale-ing!!!

You might recall that my parents had a house fire this year, so when we moved down here I started going to yard sales with my folks. It is so addictive!!!

Here’s a list of some of my amazing finds:

-2 benches for $10 each

-Large Coach bag in PERFECT condition–for only $25!!!

-5 pairs of boys size 14 blue jeans for $2 a pair! Wow!

ladies shirts $1/shirt

-yoga pants $1

-Mom got a computer chair for $5!

-Sunglasses $1

-Baseball themed ceiling fan for half of what you’d pay in the store–I can’t remember how much! But it’s in one of the bedrooms at my parents’ new house now!

-Countless costumes, toys, books, and games

Yard Sales are my new hobby. I’m all about it.

Now I do realize that many people are into the Facebook yard sales now, the perpetual bargain fares. But have you noticed how over-priced they are? I can rarely save much over what I’d pay retail on those sites. Yard sales are still my favorite.

Thrift stores can be good too. I recently bought a nice set of shelves for only $15, plus a bag of AR books, all at Goodwill.

#6. Buying groceries at Aldi

I’m not a coupon-er, so I have to find the absolute most affordable place to go grocery shopping. Aldi is the cheapest store near me. The commissary is usually a great deal too, if you are military. But the best way to find out what place has the most affordable food is to shop a different store each week and make a comparison chart. When we lived in Texas, I was surprised to realize that Walmart actually was the cheapest, even better than the commissary!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas here for ways to stretch your budget.

We are constantly looking for more ideas! Please share in the comments or email if you have more ideas for how you save money! How do you “make do” and find discounts?

Editorial Update:

The next year we added our youngest son, which brought this to 4 kids in private school. Thankfully, half day preschool was much cheaper than regular private school. We stuck to these same principles to make it work. 

For more Money Saving Strategies, check out my other articles on this:

How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com

Where to Find Cheap Food: A Comparison of Grocery Stores

How to Save Money on Makeup & Skincare

The post How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.