CLOSED - Teach Your Kids Healthy Money Habits With the Money Savvy Pig {Review and Giveaway}

This giveaway has ended! Thanks to all who entered! The winner has been contacted and will be announced as soon as she has confirmed. More giveaways are posted on the left sidebar, so be sure to check them out!

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, Scott and I have been following the Dave Ramsey plan for getting out of debt over the better part of a year and have seen tremendous success with it! As Dave would say, we're "changing our family tree" (in the financial sense, that is), and we're always looking for ways to teach Angelica about how to handle money.

Even though she's still young enough to consider a penny a REALLY big deal, I figure it's better to start introducing her to the very basic concepts now so that as she grows and understands more, the concepts of saving, giving, investing and spending will already be familiar to her.

Enter the Money Savvy Pig from Money Savvy Generation!

The Money Savvy Pig is a piggy bank which introduces the four main uses for money in a way that is perfect for kids to understand. With Angelica being almost three, I showed her the piggy bank and then explained how it works to her in a way that I thought she would best comprehend. Below is a paraphrasing of how this went:

• Save: This is money you save in case you need it for something really important. (You'll see in a moment what Angelica deems "really important".)
• Spend: This is money that you use to buy things you need, like food, or sometimes things that you want, like a new toy...but you need to spend on the things you need first.
• Donate: This is money that you give to someone else who needs it, like how mommy and daddy give money to church, or how you can give money to a friend who doesn't have any.
• Invest: This is money that you put in and it makes more money. (I then showed her how if she put a penny in, I would put a penny in too.)

Then I gave her a pile of pennies and let her go to it:

If you look closely, you can see that she's putting most of her pennies into the "Save" section. That's my girl!

We also talked about what she was doing as she was putting money in the bank. This video will show a little bit of how our conversation went. (Warning: Cuteness ahead!)

As you can see, she TOTALLY gets the idea of saving for what's really important. Hehe.

Even for kids at this young age, the Money Savvy Pig introduces concepts far beyond the basics that a normal piggy bank does, and I think it's a fantastic tool for any parent who wants to introduce financial concepts to a child of any age.

To make the piggy bank even more appealing to your kids, there are six great colors to choose from! We got the pink one, but it also comes in black, red, green, purple, and platinum (which is super shiny and would make a great baby shower gift).

The Money Savvy Pig also comes with a set of stickers so that your kids can customize their piggy banks with their favorite eye color, and use stickers to represent a goal for each category. There are even blank stickers in case the pre-designed stickers don't match up with your kids goals. Here's what we did with ours!

Finally, since April is National Financial Literacy Month, Money Savvy Generation is posting ideas on Facebook to help parents start a text message conversation about money with their kids and teens. Simply text one of their messages to your child or teen and post the response you get back on Money Savvy Generation's Facebook page and you could win $100 in Money Savvy Generation products!

Buy It! The Money Savvy Pig sells for $16.99 ($19.99 for the Platinum pig, though it is on sale for $3.00 off right now).

WIN IT! Money Savvy Generation is giving away a Money Savvy Pig to one LUCKY reader of Angelica's Awesome Adventures!

MANDATORY ENTRY: (This must be done before any other entries)
Like Money Savvy Generation on Facebook!

Extra Entries (Optional): (Please leave an extra comment for each entry)

• Follow Money Savvy Generation on Twitter
  
• Comment on Money Savvy Generation's Facebook page about their upcoming iPhone app "Savings Spree" - Would your kids use the app?
  
• Comment on the Money Savvy Generation Blog (and let me know which post you commented on).
  
• Sign up for the Money Savvy Generation newsletter "Helping Kids Get Smart About Money"
  
• Follow me (publicly) on Google Friend Connect (left sidebar) and leave me a comment letting me know you did so. (If you're already following, that counts too - just comment and let me know!)
• Subscribe to Angelica's Awesome Adventures by Email (Subscription must be confirmed to count)
• Follow Angelica's Awesome Adventures on Facebook (this blog, NOT my personal page -- I love you guys but my personal page is for real-life friends and family only)
• Follow Angelica's Awesome Adventures on Twitter
• Follow Angelica's Awesome Adventures on Networked Blogs (left sidebar)
• Tweet about this giveaway - can use the following tweet: (Good for one entry DAILY)
  

Teach your kids financial literacy! #WIN a Money Savvy Pig from @angelicasmommy (Ends 4/25) http://ow.ly/4zQ26 #giveaway

• TWO Bonus Entries: Add my button to your blog and leave a link where I can find it! (Comment twice)
  
• THREE Bonus Entries: Blog about this giveaway and leave a link to your post. (Comment three times)
• FIVE BONUS ENTRIES: Post this giveaway to a giveaway linky (Comment five times with a link back to the linky) - unlimited entries!

Please leave your email address in your comment or make sure it is visible in your profile!

Contest ends on April 25, 2011 at 9 PM EST. Open to US Residents only and the prize cannot be mailed to a P.O. Box. Winner will be chosen by random.org and contacted via email. Winner must respond within 48 hours of the email being sent or another winner will be selected. (Please make sure you check your spam and junk folders frequently to make sure you don't miss out!)

Disclosure: I was not financially compensated for this review in any way. Money Savvy Generation provided me with a review package and will also handle prize fulfillment. Thanks to Money Savvy Generation for providing the review package and giveaway prize! All content in this review is my opinion.