Adventures in Debt

Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt mentioned an article about a wonderful Japanese product that she read about on Yahoo, and I just had to write something about this myself.

It’s an exploding piggy bank!

Apparently it keeps track of when you put money in, so that if you don’t save for a certain period of time, it “explodes” and dumps out all your coins. The theory is that if you have to pick up your coins, you’ll have to “reflect on (your) laziness, according to the makers of the bank.

Isn’t this just the best? It would definitely work because it’s much more visible to you, so that you’re aware of how much you’ve saved. Although I don’t know about the whole scattering coins around, because like Tricia, I might just be tempted to not put any coins in for a while just to see the thing explode.

For those visual people out there, there are other piggy banks that help you see how much you’re saving, and it also teaches you to save for different things. It’s the Money Savvy Pig from msgen.com. It’s actually got different compartments that let help you see what you’re saving for: Save, Spend, Donate, Invest. It’s a great way to teach kids that you should save your money for different reasons, but it’s also a good way for adults to divvy up their pocket change every night. Pretty soon you’ll have a good chunk of coin for something.

I’ve been saving my Toonies (that’s the $2 coin we have here in Canada) for the last while, as mad money for silly things I might want to buy. My brother-in-law’s been doing this for years, and manages to save up quite a bit. Because both my sister & I try to spend mostly cash, it’s easier to save those $2 coins, although I admit it’s difficult when I end up with $12 in coins in my wallet and have to put them in the savings jar. To avoid this disappointment, I try to clean out my change purse on a regular basis, so that I don’t end up with that much built up.