Engaging your child in a productive and educational activity focused around saving and earning money can just about be as fun as the teething years if you aren't willing to pony up the cash for a bribe. The trouble is kids just don't want to focus on things that don't seem to benefit them. If you are like millions of other Americans struggling to get by you might be wondering how to balance the budget and still teach your children about savings through an allowance.

Since these hard economic times hit, my family has had to make a few cut backs. Extra spending money for the kinds being one of them. While clipping coupons one day I had a marvelous idea. What if my kids could learn the value of saving through couponing. I quickly brought down my boys and sat them around the table. I explained to them that for every coupon they found for a product our family uses I would give them half of the coupon value in allowance. Each week after the weekly shopping trip I would pay them out for all the coupons used and they could choose to save the money or spend it at the store (I was hoping for the former but I expected the latter). At first the boys scoffed at the coupon amounts and complained about the little amount they were getting for their efforts. After I had spread the paper out and showed them all the coupons they could potentially find and how that could add I up, I quickly found them working away excitedly.

That week when it came time to go shopping the boys were really excited. I have to admit at first I made a few brand sacrifices in order to give the boys a little boost but at the end they each had earned $2 and I had saved $4! Each boy admitted that $2.00 wasn't much but that they could buy some candy with that money. After I reminded them that if they waited until next week they would have $4 each they decided to save the money to my amazement.

Couponing has become sort of a craze in our family now. We each have our own little contests and we keep a coupon request board in our kitchen. On this board I can post brand names of products that I will pay full coupon price for (these are usually the cheaper brands that I am already saving on) and the boys now have added their own coupon requests because they know I often still find coupons and free baby samples on the internet.

My oldest boy has now found several coupons for Legos which he has purchased with his saved money. He is also helping my younger one to find coupons for his toys on the internet as well. It is nice to see them enjoying such an educational activity together.

The boys find coupons everywhere now. They have printed them online, found them in the grocery store, and even started asking their friends Mothers (to my some what humiliated humor). A few of the mothers have called me and asked me about our extreme couponing lifestyle. They always laugh and agree that it is a wonderful idea to try and save by couponing and getting free baby product samples. I have even exchanged coupons with a few on drop off and pick up occasions.

Saving can be a wonderful way of connecting with your family if you make it. Most families become torn from having to suffer economic hardships but somehow our family is making it work.