Start Saving Money With A Piggy Bank

I'm sure that you remember having a piggy bank when you were a child or have a child with a piggy bank of their own. A piggy bank is a common way for kids to learn about the basics of saving and how money adds up by tucking it away, as opposed to spending it.

Piggy banks aren't just for kids. Having a coin jar or a piggy bank is still a great idea, even as you get older. You'd be surprised at how quickly your loose change adds up over a month or a year.

My grandfather was a big fan of the old fashioned piggy bank. Every day when he came home from work he'd empty his pockets of all his loose change and drop it into his piggy bank. As soon the “piggy' was full, it would be time to roll coins.

I recall spending more than a few afternoons rolling coins with my grandad and being amazed at how many quarters, nickels and dimes his piggy bank held (pennies always went in a different jar.) Of course, this was before Coinstar was available, so we'd work together to sort and stack his shiny silver coins into their respective denominations and then put them in the paper wrappers from the bank.

One time he had over two hundred dollars, which seemed like a HUGE amount of cash to a seven year old and is still a pretty big sum, even now.

A piggy bank might seem like a small way to save, but it definitely works. If you happen to be a waitress, bartender or have a job that's reliant on tips, this is a terrific way to start accumulating cash without feeling pinched and after you've done it for a month or two, it starts to add up and is a great beginning to systematic savings.