My Review of the Mischief Saving Box

One of the most common ways that we saved as kids was to put our money in an empty can that had a lid that was easy to remove and replace. How did you save money? Did you even have any to save? I am of the view that we should teach children to save.

Yesterday I read an article about a mom who lets her daughter keep a folder with magazine pictures of all the things she is saving up for and the price for each one. Each time she gets her pocket money, she would do a little calculation to see how much more she needs and how long she needs to save for it. Savings can really be made fun for kids.

We have got a cute little number to review today. It’s the Mischief Savings Box bought on Amazon.

This savings box is square and features a little animated panda on the inside. Whenever a coin is placed on the top, the panda magically appears and slips the coin out of sight and into the box.

See a Video of the Mischief Savings Box in action

As you can see and hear, the sound made by the box while the panda attempts to ‘steal’ the money for saving, would attract most kids.

Positives of the Mischief Savings Box

• Feels fairly sturdy
• It encourages savings
• the pop-up section features different characters, depending on the one purchased (see below)
• Children will be able to retrieve the savings with adult supervision (base needs opening with a screwdriver)

Negatives of the Mischief Savings Box

• A bit noisy and may be off-putting to adults
• It uses batteries which are not supplied
• the packaging is more attractive

I would think that the box would be suitable for kids up to 9 or 10 years old.  The novelty would be lost on older children.  But I do like the idea of them learning from young to keep a tab on what they spend and what they save.

After a full discussion with my family and taking a vote out of 5 from each person, the Mischief Savings Box gets a vote of 4 stars.

These are variations of the Mischief Savings Box

Do you think this would be a good item to encourage kids to save? What are your earliest memories of saving money as a child? Do share in the comments below.