You know me, I love books about saving money--especially ones full of tips. So, I was glad to review Cheaper, Better, Faster by Mary Hunt. This book is really a revised edition of her book Tiptionary. I remember having a copy of this book about ten years ago. The tips were only broadly divided and lumped together. It was one of those books that you could leave in the bathroom for reading when you just needed something light for a few minutes (similar to Uncle John's Bathroom Reader).
When I read the introduction to this book, it sounded like it was a new and improved version of the old one. I didn't find this to be so. Improved to me would have been an improvement in the formatting and the ease of use of this book. I am the kind of person who loves charts and being able to come back to information easily. This book is really formatted for bathroom reading, like the old one. It can be read 1/4-1/2 a page at a time. It can be read in any type of order. It is simply a book to read for fun--for ideas. As the author says in the beginning of the book, no one could do all of the ideas in this book in their lifetime. You can just look through and find the ones that sound fun to try!
If you love money saving tips, but would prefer to browse through them in book form than on the internet, then you'll enjoy this book. My mom enjoys it, but I don't. It's hard for me to find my way around it and at this point in my life, I prefer organized books of tips that I can use and refer to easily rather than ones that need me to sit down and read. My life just doesn't allow for that right now. But, my mom, who's in her 60s, does have the time to sit in the evenings with a book and a cup of tea.
So, that's how I'd describe this book. It's for folks who have time to sit, but not for those who don't!
Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Revell Books.
One of my dear friends--whose input I love to hear!--commented on the post I wrote about Mary Hunt's book. She asked if we give our kids allowances.
We don't. Not yet. Chris and I are talking about it this year, but we aren't sure yet what that will look like and we definitely don't think our younger two are ready. I think we need to decide the purpose of what the allowance will be for and how much guidance we will give her with it. I know we don't plan on giving her an allowance to cover everything as Ms. Hunt suggests--a salary. But, let me digress.
My friend commented about Ms. Hunt's approach and how it wouldn't be feasible for her family. Before I start feeling condemned because I can't pull off what another mom or family can, I think about their lives. It helps me determine what parts of someone's advice might be applicable to my family and our situation.
So, here are my observations. Ms. Hunt and her husband had 2 children--both boys. She tells a story of when her oldest was learning how to manage his allowance. After blowing his allowance lickety split at first, her son reacted by becoming a miser for quite some time. She was okay with letting her son give a very small birthday gift (I think it cost $1 or $2), because it was his money and what he chose to do. 1) I believe that Ms. Hunt did not homeschool. I've never heard her mention homeschooling. So, I think her kids went to public school. The expenses involved in each are different. Responsibilities for kids are too. 2) She had 2 boys. 2 Boys! 2, not 3, 4, 6, or 10 or 1. The number and the gender makes a difference, I think. My brother had the same reaction her boys did when given money. I, on the other hand, was motivated to get a job so I could participate in the activities at school that I wanted to. So was my best friend in high school. Neither of us had parents who gave us regular allowances. My brother just chose to fore go the activities. And not get a job until he had to. My friends who got allowances didn't get jobs in high school.
Also, having 2 meant that there were things that Ms. Hunt didn't have to consider. Since my girls wear the same size (no hand me downs between them :( ) and I have only 1 boy, I take this into consideration with purchases. I don't have to purchase dress shoes that will make it through more than 1 season. I need sturdy clothes, but I don't need high quality that will last through a lot of kids. If I get hand me downs that have a little life left, that's great--they only need to make it through 1 season with my kids. Whereas, my friends with multiple kids always think, "How many kids will this x item last though?" I don't think a child is going to think that when they're making a purchase. I don't mean to criticize Ms. Hunt in any way with these observations. I just wanted to point out a few differences and I think that those differences shape the voice she speaks with and shaped what she experienced personally with her family.
I think she has some good ideas--that worked for her and her family. But, that doesn't mean that it would be easy for me to take her ideas and use them like a cookie cutter on my own family. So, I never read a financial book with that thinking. Honestly, I always seek my friends out with multiple kids (3 or more) when I'm looking for ideas about money and my kids and even how to save money in general. The more people in a household, the farther things have to go. In our case, ours has to go 6 ways plus 1 dog. My husband recently put on an application that he has 5 dependents. I wondered what people would think. It also asked the ages of children--which listed 3. What they might think! My husband was including my mom, who lives with us and who we provide room and board for. He does have 5 dependents.
It's interesting because my oldest daughter, Autumn, is going into 4th grade. My husband hasn't wanted them to worry about money and how to spend it, so I've been saving any money that's given to them as gifts. I think he hasn't wanted them to grow up before they have to. We have seen that often as soon as people have money they become preoccupied with figuring out how they might spend it. This consume a lot of their time and energy. He has wanted to keep our kids from this as long as we can. We both know the time is coming to teach them about having money themselves and letting it go.
Last week was a first step in several ways for me and Autumn.
The first situation was when Autumn's Grandma gave her $5 as a get well present--she's been miserable with an illness. She wanted to go to Target and look at the dollar section. So, we did, but she didn't find anything she wanted. So, we meandered over to the toy aisle. Sami had plenty of ideas about what she should spend it on. Autumn was very disappointed, because we had just finished our money chapter and she understood she didn't have enough money to purchase any of the things Sami was pointing out. She also had wanted to get something to share with her siblings and something for herself. I explained to her that she could save it. But, she told me she didn't want to, because then it would eat at her about wanting to spend it. So, I suggested that she get an edible treat to share and then save the rest. She could save it for something bigger. She replied that she doesn't get money so how would she save? She had a good point there. I reminded her about birthdays and Christmas. She replied that she knew that she was supposed to save that for college some day. I told her that we would give her part of any money she received then (which my husband and I had already discussed). That satisfied her and we went off to the food section of the store. She found a back of ring pops for $1.49 (plus tax). We took them home and she savored her treat. The rest of the money is sitting in her wallet in her dresser to my knowledge.
The second situation began a week ago in Target's shoe section. I have always bought my girls practical Mary Jane's from Payless or Target for winter dress shoes. My girls love to run (especially Sami) and I have been so fearful of them in slick soled shoes. We were at Target and Autumn found some flats that she loved. They looked so grown up! I cringed. My little girl--growing up. I still wanted to hold on to her and so I stalled. I spoke with my husband about it and he encouraged me to let her get some flats. It was time. I had 2 $10 off $25 or more coupons for Payless this week, so I took the girls there yesterday. I am very thankful for the Lord's blessing in this--I found these sweet flats that were grown up looking, but had a strap across. The girls loved them immediately! Then, I asked them to try on the traditional black Mary Jane's. I had an idea that I proposed to them. How about wearing the flats to church on Sundays and the Mary Jane's the rest of the week? My girls really don't like tennis shoes most of the time and are always asking to wear there church shoes. It seemed like a good solution and they were thrilled! They did like the Mary Jane's, but they had wanted to feel grown up, too. With the coupons and a tax-free clothing week for back to school shopping, the two pairs cost the same as 1 would have cost for each of the girls. I was very thankful and so were they. The one thing I'm very conscious of when picking out clothing and shoes for my kids is trying to find a balance between what's best and practical (and modest) and something they like. My husband tells a story of a pair of shoes he once had that he hated. I've never forgotten how that experience has impacted him. I understand that it's good for my girls to have some choice within some boundaries. I have to remember my budget and they have to get shoes and clothing that will work for our family.
This Payless story is a good example though of how having only 3 kids changes things for me. If I had multiple kids and I needed my shoes to last through more than 1 child, I'd probably head to the Stride Rite Outlet and watch for the Stride Rite sales regularly. The Payless shoes will only last a season, if that. I had to replace Autumn's Payless sandals in the middle of the summer this year. I know that her new sandals will get passed on to a friend's child who will be able to use them, though, and that comforts me.
I'm not sure that this has been much but a rambling post, but I better scoot and wrap up this up. My kids are off to breakfast this morning with their free coupons that they earned from the summer library reading program!
Several years ago, I read various books by Ellie Kay, Jonni McCoy, Mary Hunt, Larry Burkett, and others. Then, I went to look at the websites for each author. I have been struck by a singular irony about the websites. The stated mission and goal of each of these Christian authors is to help families in financial crisis. But, most of the websites have a fee to access the information on the site. I found the same thing last week with the Economides' website. It seems very strange to me. I do understand that the authors need to make a living and this is one of the ways that they earn money. But, I wish it didn't have to be that way. I wonder how much money they make from their books vs. their websites and whether there might be more ways these authors and organizations could share their knowledge freely (with no strings attached as a free trial offer) to help families in need. I was thankful to find this morning that on some of the websites, there is a lot information available than others.
Here are a few things I did find:
1) Ellie Kay's site has all sorts of free calculators on it under the tools tab. Ms. Kay's book Heroes at Home is a financial book for soldiers and their families that I really enjoyed and agreed with.
2) Jonni McCoy's site has all sorts of information on it--recipes, tips, articles, links... and the content has free. She's changed her site a lot from the last time I looked at it and it is much easier to read now and find information on.
3) Matt Bell is discontinuing his site and has joined Sound Mind Investing. This is the kind of site that really bothers me. I just took a look at it. It took me several minutes to find how much it actually costs to subscribe to the site. It costs $10/month. I am saddened that Matt Bell has joined the site and is discontinuing his own site. There is some good budgeting information on his site that will only be there for a little longer if you're interested. It's similar to the budgeting forms I invented for my own family.
4) Mary Hunt has no content available on her site without a membership that costs $29/year. This seems less expensive than it used to be. But, there were a few things that bother me about her site. There's a lot of advertising on it. It also uses the same gimics that secular financial advertising uses--offering "free" things that aren't really free (these kind of ads make me cringe).
5) Crown Financial Ministries (started by Larry Burkett) site has made a lot more information available online for free! I am very pleased with this and glad that they are doing this for families. I looked at their site a few years ago and very little was available for free.
6) Dave Ramsey's site is also $9.95/month like the one Matt Bell is joining. Similar tools and fee, just a different person.
It was really interesting looking at all of these sites and others. The financial bloggers I looked through have a ton of advertising on their sites. The sites are hard to look at, because they are so busy. Honestly, I'd rather buy a book and read it than look through one of the sites.
But, today my purpose is to review a book by Mary Hunt, Raising Financially Confident Kids. I have read other books by Mary Hunt before. I didn't expect to like a lot in this book. Surprisingly, I did. This book is about how she and her husband taught their kids about finances and raised them to be good stewards of their finances. I would read this book--try and think of her as a regular mom. Don't look at her website first and shield your eyes from the commercialism of her other books. Just take this singular book on its own. I don't fully intend to follow all of her ideas (especially the one about giving preschoolers your coupons and lists at the store--that is quite stressful when they drop that really important coupon along your trip and even after retracing your steps you can't find it!), but there were some great ideas too about how to expose your kids to financial gimics like home shopping networks. I did like her ideas for different age children. The ideas may help you or spur you on to come up with your own ideas that fit for your family.
What I most liked (and was surprised by) in this book was that, in contrast to the Economides book, is that Ms. Hunt brings God into the picture. She doesn't go as far as Crown Financial Ministries does and how I feel--that our children need to understand that God has given them what they have and it is important to be good stewards of this, but she almost gets there. I also like that at the end, she states "God's plan is for children to grow wings and fly away. Our job as parents is to prepare them for the flight. Building financial confidence is one important way" (p. 205). Ms. Hunt seems to realize in this statement that finances are just one part of our lives. They shouldn't consume us, lest they become an idol.
A great portion of this book is devoted to talking about debt and how we debt-proof our kids--essentially how we teach them to avoid debt. Her website is titled debt-proof living. Debt is becoming a greater and greater part of our world and it is becoming more and more accepted. We have to teach our kids that they need to live within their means and not expect to live beyond them.
In the end, I am glad that I read this book. It helped me feel better about Mary Hunt's perspective on finances and what she teaches. There were some good ideas in this book about how and what to teach our children about finances. I obviously have my own opinions about the fee for access websites when it comes to Christian financial websites, including Mary Hunt's. I hope someday she will consider how she can help people who can't afford her site and possibly making some content on her site available without a membership fee. What I just realized as I finished writing this review is that for years I have been viewing people who work with Christians and their finances as working in ministry, but really these are businesses. I would be wise to remember this and see folks like Mary Hunt as business owners, not ministry leaders or parachurch missionaries.
Please note that I received a complimentary copy of Mary Hunt's book from Revel Publishing for review.
