photo credit: Rob Lee

This week I’ve found some great personal finance blogs and one in particular made me laugh out loud. You’ll find it among the wonderful articles found in my Google reader this week. If you are new to The Passive Dad or a regular visitor, I hope you consider subscribing to my blog and receive free updates via email or RSS reader.

Living Almost Large wrote Hip to Clip? about the trend she’s noticed of shoppers using coupons. I’ve been clipping now for about 2 months and enjoy interacting with other shoppers. I’ve managed to help out some shoppers when I had an extra 20% off coupon that I didn’t need.

If you are looking for a great source for coupons, be sure to checkout Coupon Dad before your next grocery trip.

The Family Wallet wrote Freezing Meat to Save Money and I’ve actually done this recently. We had a local store advertising tri-tip for $2.77 a pound and I bought several packages for our freezer. We bbq almost every weekend and we’ll use it up this spring and summer. Do you freeze meat or veggies if you find a good deal?

Money Ning wrote The Secret to Having More Time and Being More Organized and asks how you spend your time each day. Do you accomplish more if you stay busy throughout the day or if you have more down time?

One Frugal Girl wrote Real Numbers: Eating at Home Saved us over $130 this Month and shows how eating at home can really add up.

Not Made Of Money wrote The Tightwad Gazette – 4 Things I Learned from the Queen of Thrift and mentions how precious space can be in your home. It feels like I’m always having to find another way to store kids clothes in the garage. Currently we have the plastic stacking bins with different ages and clothes marked on the outside.

No Debt Plan wrote How to Start the Drug Store Game and walks through the process of saving money utilizing coupons and money saving programs. I’m looking forward to following Kevin’s progress.

Nancy Zimmerman wrote the funniest post I’ve read all week called Friday Fun: the Taco Bell mgr who wouldn’t accept the $2 bill as payment. You’ve got to read this perfect narration of what happened when she tried to buy a burrito. It seemed that Taco Bell thought she had “funny money”. Have you ever had someone reject a $2 bill before?

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photo credit: °Florian

Rolling coins with your kids is a great way to deposit loose change into your savings account and it can be an opportunity to teach kids about managing money. Take the time to involve your children in this simple process and discuss what money represents and how it can be used to build savings. If you are looking for a great rainy day project, you can bring out a coin jar and get the entire family working together for a common savings goal. Many families have “vacation jars”, “pizza jars”, “clothes jar”, or even an “new furnace jar” for long term savings goals. Next time you have some loose change, get a jar and start a savings fund with your family. Once the coins are spilling over the jar, roll the coins and deposit them at your local bank branch.

Some reasons rolling coins can be valuable for yourself and your family:

1. Saving the 10% fee that Coinstar charges is another huge incentive. I made the mistake once of using a Coinstar at Safeway and the machine stopped working. I estimated I had deposited over $50 in coins and Safeway wanted me to prove that amount. How do I prove that the machine ate my coins? I had to deal with 2 managers before I was finally given credit.

2. Teach your kids to sort and count. Help your children sort the coins based on color and shape and educate them on the different coin values.

3. Treasure hunt. Finding Canadian Pennies or old silver coins can be exciting. Find a silver nickel or dime and you can take your kids to the local coin shop to find out the value.

4. Compound interest. Deposit those coins in your local bank and educate your children on the power of compound interest. Those coins aren’t earning anything when they are stuck in a jar. Deposit them in the bank and your money starts working for you. Compound interest is a source of passive income.

5. Saving money. Use this time you are rolling coins with your family as an opportunity to talk about saving money. Why do you need to save these coins and what can you purchase with them? Get your children involved in the savings process and start a family “savings jar” that will be for a common goal. Maybe you want to save for a family vacation or start a college 529 savings account for you kids.

Have you started a savings jar with your family?

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I’m excited to announce that “Prosper With Me” has received a little facelift and will now be called “The Passive Dad“. It took me several weeks to research domain names and find one that fits perfectly. This blog is about passive income, budgeting, saving money, and I’m a dad. Perfect Fit! I enjoyed Prosper With Me, but also wanted to find a name that would be easy to remember and utilize the passive investment theme. I really believe that passive income can lead to financial freedom for many people and also allow families and individuals to have money work for them. Real estate, dividends, cd’s, and some businesses, can all be sources of passive income. I want to share ideas on passive income and network with others around the world who share the same goals. I’m excited about the new domain name and will be working on a new template and some new graphics. If you have any ideas for “The Passive Dad“, let me know as I would love to hear your feedback. More to come in the next few days, so check back often.

The Passive Dad

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