Take Time to Save Time and Money

Spending and Saving; that’s what we are always doing. Whether it’s time or money we are always doing one of those things. Spend Money, Save Money. Save Time, Spend Time. Whoever has enough of either of these?

We spend time at work, in the car, paying bills, running errands but not enough with our family. We have to work and complete our parental and adult responsibilities have the things and do the things we do. As a family there a plenty of things that need to get done on a daily basis but we often lack the communication and organization to get those things done efficiently. DoughMain.com is a new, FREE, family organization and financial education website that involves not just the parents but the children too.

We’ve talked for years about doing chore charts and involving allowance and privileges to go along with it. A chart is made, hung up for a couple weeks, things get busy, overlooked and then we discard the idea. DoughMain.com keeps us on track by keeping the kids on track with their chores each day and reminding them that by completing the list of duties they get rewarded. Each chore is assigned a point value; more tedious or difficult or complaint worthy a task, the higher the value. At the end of the week we track the kid’s progress and award allowance or privileges that we deem appropriate. This past week Shaun had to complete extra homework plus start this week’s homework before being allowed to attend a friends bowling birthday party. He did so not only was he allowed to go the whole lot of us joined in a separate lane and bowled as a family.

The Family Calendar helps keep and us on track with the upteen things we have on our schedule. From vet appointments to scout meetings to field trips to after school activities we have a ton of going on each week. Rob and I discuss our calendar and update and move things around almost every night but DoughMain.com can let us keep it in one spot where we can both review it anytime. We often schedule family movie nights, errands we can do together and even visits to the dog park. This ensures we are spending enough quality time together in the midst of the madness that is life.

Financial accountability is where DoughMain.com got its start. Founder Ken Damato noticed the difference in how his children were spending their game credits on an online game and realized that he needed to teach them the importance of spending and saving wisely. Incorporating games into DoughMain.com keeps children entertained while teaching them lessons of fiscal responsibility. Sand Dollar City is one that caught my attention immediately. The premise is to keep the player’s families candy store going. The game teaches about borrowing, purchasing things that are needed and doing specific tasks to get jobs done. The idea is on the right track but needs some technical improvements. The interaction is slow, there was no sound and the graphics were rather elementary but hopefully this improves through their beta phase.

Doughmain.com is a site that can be used with the whole family; integrated family calendar, online games, financial lessons, a chore tracker and more.