Yuri has had a Youth Savers account in our trusted multi-purpose cooperative since he was a baby. We all have separate accounts; I’ve had mine even before I graduated if I remember correctly. Even though Job and I have separate savings accounts and our priority is to save for Yuri, we see to it that he also has his own “fund.” We want him to understand that money is not just for spending; it’s also meant to be saved for the future.
Okay, before I proceed, Yuri does not have an allowance. He’s only in kindergarten, after all teehee. So where does his “savings” come from?
His first source of “income” is, of course, his cash gifts from his ninongs/ninangs, titos/titas, etc. He only receives cash occasionally, just to clear that up, but I make sure he understands that even though they are gifts, they are not to be spent but to be kept. Sometimes he also receives gift cheques, which I sometimes convert to cash for his keeping. During parties and village events (like Christmas and Halloween and Fiesta), cash is often given as game prizes, and we also keep them. For example, during our street party last Christmas, we earned P300 by just joining the games. We didn’t even win haha!
His second — and bigger — source of income is kupit. Kupit with permission, lol! No, seriously, I’m sure you moms can relate to this. Because of all the errands, chores, and trips to the grocery, my wallet is almost always filled to the brim with coins. Super coins. Instead of spending them on something mundane or leaving them to rip my wallet apart, I “offload” them to Yuri’s coin banks. He has multiple coin banks so we divide the coins into denominations (e.g. one coin bank is specifically for P5-coins only).
So at the end of each year, we’re left with three or four heavy alkansya plus a few peso bills. Sometimes, when Job or I have extra money, we add more to Yuri’s total “savings.”
(Disclaimer: This specific fund is not part of our emergency/retirement/education fund.)
Anyway, during the last quarter of last year, I noticed SM and Robinsons’ coin campaigns. Apparently, they’re giving out incentives to people who exchange their coins for bills! Bingo! I wasn’t able to exchange Yuri’s coins right away because 1) I wanted the full year to pass before counting Yuri’s total savings and 2) I didn’t have time prior to my Christmas break.
Well, it’s a blessing that I waited because before the year ended, Watsons also came up with their own coin campaign and their incentives were a lot higher than both SM and Robinsons’ combined! Woot!
