2/21/11

Making Bank Tutorial

Make Your Own Bank
In honor of Celebrate the Boy month over at Made by Rae and Made, I've come up with something crafty for the boys. This little project can easily be customized for a girl and a variety of ages and has probably been done in some form or another before but is perfect for any little man with a Transformer/Thomas the Train/Spiderman habit.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
This Save/Spend/Share bank came to be after we ordered a similar bank online that came in primary colors. It was well designed but...in primary colors. Did I mention the primary colors? I have no qualms with red, yellow, blue, and green in their bold states but I knew I could make something similar for Sebastian to use as a learning tool that we both enjoyed. I used contact paper for a modern look but it could easily be substituted for Kraft paper so that your children could decorate it with crayons or stickers.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
We've recently started giving him an allowance in return for completing basic chores such as making his bed, putting his dirty clothes away, picking his room up, clearing his place at the table, etc. and wanted to teach him at an early age about save and sharing. The spending part comes easy to him. He takes after his mother.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
I used three plastic Welch's juice containers that had yellow lids (we like yellow!), two shades of wood grain contact paper (available at hardware and some home stores), a ruler, sharp kitchen scissors, and a large rubber band. I used the one from the original bank but you can use an industrial strength rubber band.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
I measured and cut the lighter wood grain contact paper so that it fit around the juice containers and overlapped about 1/2". I had to adjust them a few times to make sure it was even but contact paper is forgiving!

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
I then hand cut the words 'save', 'spend', and 'share' from the darker wood grain contact paper making sure they'd work above the line of the rubber band.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
I then poked a hole in the middle of the plastic lids with my sharp scissors and cut out a rectangle in the center of each.

Celebrate The Boy-Making Bank!
Lastly I reattached the lids and gathered them with the rubber band.

Make Your Own Bank
Each week when Sebastian gets his allowance we give it to him so he can put 10% in his save category and 10% in his share category. The rest he gets to keep and use on any toys or treats that he wants. We've explained that we don't always buy something just to buy something when we go to the store and that when he chooses to spend his money on something, he has to wait awhile to build up enough money to buy something else. This has helped him to appreciate how much things cost, make choices about what kinds of toys he wants to buy, and hopefully will help him take care of those things a little more.

We're also hoping that it will instill a sense of generosity when we decide together how to spend the money on someone else when he's saved up a larger amount in his share container. We've talked about purchasing chicks or a bunny through Heifer International or maybe donating it to a local charity. Sharing this with Sebastian has been not only fun but good accountability for us to remember to manage our money well!

Thanks for stopping by! If you're here for the first time from Celebrate the Boy, welcome! If you haven't checked out the projects and round ups that have been shared so far, you'll want to head over NOW and see what so many creative women have been making for their boys! Thanks Dana and Rae!!

xoxo,
Rachel

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35 comments:

Mollie said...

Oh how I love this!

Shoshonee said...

What a great way to teach valuable lessons on money!! I may have to make these for my nieces! Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

The Veda House said...

My dad had the same methods of saving as I was growing up. I really appreciate it now.

AshleyAnn said...

I love that wood grain contact paper...I had to stop using it for a while because I was covering too many things with it. Great project!

angelina la dawn said...

this is awesome! gotta love faux bois.

nova said...

Oh my gosh, I am SOOOO doing this. Except mine will say

Go To Spain, New Clothes, Emergency, Wisdom Teeth, Camera, Shoes, New Kitchen Table, New Laptop...

...yeah I need a lot of Welsh's cans and contact paper.

Morgan said...

I LOVE this! Just curious, are you guys Dave Ramsey fans? :)

annalea said...

very cool! thanks for sharing.

RachelDenbow said...

Morgan,

We are really familiar with Dave Ramsey and his program, yes. ;)

Brittany said...

this is actually a GREAT idea!! love it :)

Unknown said...

Genius. absolute genius. so simple.

MrsPolkaDot said...

LOVE this idea! Thanks for a lot of inspiration! :)

diane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
diane said...

making banks for my girls was on my to do list for this month and your diy is perfect. i had been saving trader's joe's coffee cans, but they are a little big, especially if I want three of them per person. I love your idea for using juice containers.

Rebekah said...

oh my gosh you are so awesome! love this - we just started Dave Ramsey's class at our church and he would be so impressed with you at how your instilling the importance of teaching kids about money! and it's sooo cute too!

Romina (Decorando!) said...

Great lesson!
Hugs from Argentina!

Romi

dana said...

Brilliant Rachel!
Thanks for sharing with us. Love the faux wood paper

lisA said...

What a great idea!!! am seriously thinking of making one of thses for myself (even though im 29!) I find the spending part easy - not so good at the saving! and sharing - I could choose a different charity each month!!!

Jari said...

rachel this is great! thank you so much for sharing :) i'm going to be making these with my girls! :) xo.

suz said...

well done -- very inspiring!

Melissa said...

Love this! Perfect timing. My daughter just dropped her piggy bank last week and broke it. She had received it as a gift and well, let's just say it wasn't my favorite.

Katie said...

this is adorable! i'd love to create my own grown-up version :)

Brooke said...

love. love. love this. well done. And kudos to you for getting your little man on the chores & saving/sharing band-wagon so early! xo

bethanndodd said...

Adorable...my 3 boys are already excited to make their own! Thanks for the great idea!

Anonymous said...

Love it! Very masculine, but stylish...and easy! Can't wait to share on my blog. Thanks.

Dhilma said...

Hello Rachel,
That's a lovely and wise way of teaching a child how to handle money. I love it because it will teach him to save some of it to share too. I'm going to adopt your method with my son when he's a little bigger. Thank you for a wonderful tutorial. I will surely be following you now :-)
Dhilma

Erin said...

i love this & think it's perfect for my 5 year old. i guess we'll have to go buy some juice now ;)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea on how to teach your children about money - I wish more parents taught their kids like this.

Rae said...

Oooh very nice! We aren't to the allowance phase yet with E, but it's nice to have a hip option for when we do.

Love the idea of using the concentrate containers...brilliant!!!

The Reed Family said...

just thought I would let you know I just stopped over from MADE and have now been looking at tons of your posts. You have some great ideas!!

Steph at ModernParentsMessyKids.com said...

This is a wonderful concept in a great package - thanks so much for sharing.

Anonymous said...

awesome project! i love that you made a share container... Sebastian's going to grow up so well :) xoxo!

The Moonjar Team said...

Hi!
Moonjars are a great way to get going on Save Spend and Share!

If you are making your own at home, you might be interested in our Conversations to Go- it is a conversation box filled with great open ended questions for the family around money ideas. You might discover a family mission or that each member holds very different values around the Share box. It is wonderful that you are starting the conversation and visual tools really do help!!
www.moonjar.com

Unknown said...

these are absolutely adorable!

Anonymous said...

this is an awesome idea! and i know exactly what we'll be doing with our daughter for craft time one day this week!