Activity Jars

The idea of using jars for money, activities & the like are all over Pinterest. I decided to combine two things – activities & money into a small project. Activity Jars.

Activity Jars

Using some jars I’d received from Freecycle a while back, and Ben’s empty Moccona coffee jars, all it took was a quick clean and some ideas to get this started. I’ve put them on the top shelf of my desk, hopefully to motivate me.

 

This isn’t some glossy, picture-perfect Pinterest project. Because, really, who has the time or patience to tie bows around jars & print tidy little labels? Not me. I think people get a bit de-motivated on Pinterest because their projects don’t come out as picture-perfect. Which is why I post this in all the glory of wanting it done, and not being a careful, tidy person.

Jars

Completed activity jars

 

Steps to make Activity Jars:

  • Find jars. Clean if need be. Remove labels if you can be bothered.
  • Find permanent marker & sticky tape
  • Write a list of activities & the rough price of each activity
  • Place stick tape on jar
  • Write activity & amount to save on jar
  • Place jars somewhere

See, easy. And as y0u can see, I ran out of jars, so just started using other items from around the house, like the bowl from a mini fondue set. Some jars have lids, others don’t. I’d prefer they all had lids, because I drop things, but at least with most having lids if I drop them I should roughly know which activity had how much in that jar.

 

The other advantage to doing this with jars is that you can place vouchers for the activity in there if you come across them. That way you can either save less or treat family/friends to an activity.

 

You can use this idea for date nights, if that’s your kind of thing. I’ve seen other blogs recommending vouchers, but I don’t like that idea. It doesn’t let you change your mind, vouchers have expiry dates & your money is wasted if the company goes under.

 

The activities I have jars for are:

  • Whale watching
  • Movies (el-cheapo crappy cinema kind)
  • Rainy night pizza (we take sadistic pleasure in staying dry while the pizza boy has to get drenched)
  • Gold class movies (the kind where you order food during the movie & they deliver it at the time you specify)
  • Bouncy castle hire (because I’ve always wanted to)
  • Bowling
  • Swimming lessons (I can swim fine but need stroke correction classes and never get around to it each summer)
  • Sushi (we never go back to the place we met often enough)
  • Laser tag (have never been &  it sounds so fun)
  • Stand up paddle boarding (see above)
  • Zoo (because, pretty animals)
  • Dinner out (now we can do that kind of thing again! yay!)
  • Mini golf
  • Ice skating
  • Board game
  • New bikes
  • Rock climbing

 

I’m now curious to see if I will actually do any of this. I think my main problem will be that I always use eftpos and don’t have cash on me. As a long term project, I guess it gives me the chance to change.

 

What activities would you save for?

7 Replies to “Activity Jars”

  1. This is a brilliant idea Vanessa! 🙂

    1. Thanks 🙂 I’m hoping it will also solve my indecision when I want to do something but don’t know what.

  2. Sheer genius! We save change in jars but I’m now going to modify some for specific activities.

    1. And it helps to eliminate the “what do we do today” debates. In theory 🙂

  3. Hmm I like the idea of breaking it down into activities. I tend to have envelopes in which I stash money — Petrol, Groceries, Paying back mum & dad, Pets, different holidays but this one seems nice for other activities as well. Might consider it but possibly sticking to envelopes.

    1. Envelopes are a great way of doing it in an even thriftier way! I’m hoping the glass will be visual encouragement haha.

  4. […] been wanting a bike for a while now, and I even included it in my Activity Jars (which get raided often & are a failing idea currently!). Then I was at the ProBlogger Event […]

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