Dollar Bill Bank

On the heels of the "Baby Steps" topic, I'ld like to share the Dollar Bill Bank idea.

I was driving home from the dog track one night. I stopped at Mobil to put gas in my car. (Luckily Vance had given me a credit card so I didn't have to spend my cash) I noticed poking out of the trash can next to the pumps a large, about 3 feet tall, plastic bottle. It was a bank with a slit in the plastic bottle cap and a Texans logo label. My kids love the Texans! Richard was a freshman in high school at the time. So I came up with an idea. What if every night we saved our silver change in this bank? (baby steps) I especially wanted to teach Richard that wealth and riches are achieved over a period of time, slowly, not just in an instant. So each night we watched as the level of nickles, dimes, and quarters inched up. My original goal for him was to fill it up in the 3 1/2 years until graduation. At that time, we would buy him something for which all his hard work saving would be meaningful. To our surprise the bank filled up in less than two years!!! With this fill up he bought a game system. At the time this was $450. Wow! Upon graduation, we had filled it up again. This time he bought a 42" flat screen TV for $750. I hope he learned the lesson, but if he didn't, surprise, surprise....I DID!

Somewhere in there, the thought occured to me: If saving change is so significant, what would saving dollar bills each night be? So I started saving my dollar bills. My silver change still went to Richard's bank, but each night my dollar bills went to mine. I kept pennies, and whenever I spent money, I always gave the cashier the necessary pennies to get change. I saved both the silver change and dollar bills to their respective banks. (baby steps)

Richard is on his own now. Hopefully each night he still saves his change. My dollar bill bank has provided for me many times. One trip to Las Vegas was all dollar bill money...about $800. This year I opened a CD. Every three months I transfer the dollar bill bank into the CD. On an average, I manage to save $300 each month. Also, on those slim and lean days, the dollar bill bank pays for the little items I need.

I will always keep the dollar bill bank. It has provided a means of savings that is painless. It's nice to know there's something extra out there if I need it.