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Friday, April 08, 2011

A Little Life Lesson in Money


I won this cute little fella a couple of weeks ago on the Beyond the Baby Facebook page, thanks to Money Savvy Kids  It arrived in yesterday's mail and this morning was spent, setting it up and explaining how it all worked, it was a lot of fun having the 'money discussion' (I wish someone would have had the same discussion with me, when I was younger)


The money savvy pig has 4 slots unlike your traditional money box, which only has the one - Save, Spend, Donate and Invest.. So I went through and explained each of the areas to Mr 6 as best I could (I'm not too crash hot on the save and invest myself, so I hope I covered it well!)  I'm sure I covered the spend accurately though! No,seriously.. after explaining EACH area fully (using the handy little booklet that comes with the money box) we set up some of the goal stickers that came with the piggy.  He decided in his 'SAVE' slot, he would like to save for a new craft set, he decided $20 was his goal for his 'SPEND' slot and after getting $20 in there, he would like to take it to the store & buy something, his 'DONATE' slot he is going to use to put into various charity boxes at stores and the 'INVEST' slot is so far going to be used for an Ipod (which at age 6 is a big investment of course!).  The book encourages using the INVEST slot for future expenses such as cars or education, but when explained to Mr 6, he decided to Ipod would be an excellent investment for his 2012 future, perhaps we'll tackle University at 7.. hehehehe..

We then set about emptying his old money box, into the new. 

I empty out my purse at the end of each week and give all the silver coins (20c and under) to the kids equally in their money boxes, its amazing how quickly they tend to add up, so Mr 6's money box was full of mostly 5c and 10c coins and of course the odd $1 or $2 that he gets from odd jobs or change from his pocket money.  I got out my trusty purse and we 'exchanged' a lot of his 5c coins for larger currency such as 50c, $1.00 or $2.00 coins and I found this too was a great lesson in money - IE. "How many 5c coins do you think makes up 50c?" and  "If I give you $1.00, how many 10c coins will you need to give me?"  so on and so forth..  it was a lot of fun.

So there we have it, a new piggy bank.. I'm hopeful to swap over all the kids money boxes to this style over the upcoming months, I think it may help them to learn a valuable life lesson and will eliminate finding an empty money box (such as I did in Miss 9's room today) seems she may have made a withdrawal from it for the tuck shop quite regularly of late and decided to leave only 5c behind.. (oh well you cant blame a girl for taking after her Stepmother!) but perhaps the Money Savvy Piggy Bank may help her too (maybe I should grab one for myself while I'm at it).

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Some of the blogs I love!

I adore that I found the world of blogging & even moreso adore that I found lots of gorgeous blogs from such clever women that I love to read whenever I get a chance to sit with a cuppa.  These blogs give me great inspiration for craft, recipe's, my home and life in general and I thought i'd share some of my favourite blogs that I love to read with you;

Super Organiser Mum

Eighteen25


Two Little Tots (Gruber Girls)


A Little Delightful



Sunny Side Up

Clover Lane

My Pigeon Pair
Landee See, Landee Do


The Organised Housewife

Happy reading, im sure you will find something you love in each of them!

Meal Planning Monday


It seems hubby has taken over the duties of cooking over the past few nights, which has been a pleasant change, I dont know what it is about someone else cooking for you, but it always tastes much better when its popped down in front of you, minus the endless hours of slaving over a hot stove! So iv been quite spoilt the past few nights as I have been feeling rather exhausted.. But tomorrow night I shall resume my cooking duties & let hubby kick his heels up, before we all look rather rotund (his meals are always far more calorie laden & extravagent than mine! - pan gravy and all!)

This week the meals will be relatively straight forward & nothing too 'out there' and will be reliant on a lot of vegetables as my cravings have been leaning towards meat and veg lately (not to mention chocolate.. but you'll see that from my baking list!)

Monday - Tonight we had lasagna, vegetables & beer battered oven fries.

Tuesday - 
Fish and Salad inc. Baby Spinach Leaves, tomatoes, olives, asparagus, lebanese cucumber, beetroot, grated cheese & carrot.   

Wednesday-
Silverside cooked in the slow cooker with white sauce and vegetables (broccolini, cauliflower, carrots, peas & corn).

Thursday-
Lemon Pork Chops (saw this on a recipe card today & it looks yum!) with vegetables.

Friday-
No cook night!

Saturday-
Mini Pizza's made out of ciabata bread, the kids can help put their own toppings on.

Sunday-
Roast of the week - Roast Chicken with Roast Vegetables (potato, sweet potato, corn on the cob, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini and peas) with chicken gravy!


BAKE LIST:
Smartie Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies.
Triple Choc, Chocolate Muffins.
Pikelets
Chocolate Cake.
Some easter cooking..

Other recipe ideas I would; like to try this week
1. Eggs in a basket -  I saw this cute little recipe on Bianca's blog, A Little Delightful and I thought it looked so yummy!
2. Sardine, Cheese, Spinach, egg and tomato bakes (in individual ramekins)

When I work out how to add The Organised Housewifes new Meal planning button I shall, but in the meantime, check out her link to her meal planning.. great recipes!

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Hrmmm...

Well, its 5am and I really should be asleep, but I had a overwhelming desire to fiddle around with the design of my blog, so here I am.. after 3 hours, still not entirely happy.. but it will have to do for now, because if I don't get some sleep, ill be in trouble in the morning (well later in the morning in any case!) So yes, its all a work in progress.. and it will probably look entirely different in the days to come.. well here's hoping :-)