Introduction
Growing money
Found a five cents
Found a five cents
Found a five cent just now
Just now I found five cents
Found five cents just now.
MEC holds up five cents coin: What must I do with this money?
Children/cast: SAVE IT!
MEC: No! It’s only five cents. I’d rather buy a sweet.
Cast member: You can have a one rand very soon, if you save more five cents.
MEC: How many five cents will I need to make one rand?
Children: 20
MEC: Oh, so I must find more five cents to save to get one rand, which is much more than just five cents! My five cents can grow into one rand!
CAST (sings):
It’s worth a one rand
It’s worth a one rand
It’s worth one rand pretty soon
Twenty, five cents make a one rand
Make a one rand pretty soon.
School saving
MEC: I can see that this school knows about saving. I believe you are into the five cents savings business and I will give the five cents and all the other five cents in my purse to Shembe Memorial to make your five cents grow even bigger.
MEC: Mr Principal, why are you saving all these five cents?
Principal: Response
Government saving
MEC: Now we know why Shembe Memorial is saving. But it is not only important for Shembe Memorial to save. It is also important for government to save money. If government does not save, it will not have enough money to build roads, new schools, hospitals, or enough money to pay your teachers. That will force South Africa to go and borrow money. It is VERY expensive to borrow money because you have to pay back the money plus interest and you end up paying more than the money you have borrowed.
The cost of borrowing money
It is the same as when your aunt buys a television set on a loan instalment agreement for the Soccer World Cup. Let us say the price of the television set is R3000 and your aunt signs a contract to pay back the money over two years. She agrees to pay back the money by paying R404 per month. Now let us do some quick calculations: if you pay R404 for 24 months (two years) then your total will be R9696. How much does the television set cost? R3000. How much extra will your aunt pay for the television set if she signs the loan agreement? R6696! She can buy three television sets with that money!
Now what if you aunt starts saving R404 a month eight months before the Soccer World Cup? Then it will not be necessary for her to pay R6696 extra. The more money you borrow, the more you pay back. That is why it is always better to buy cash. But very few people have R3000 in their pockets and that is why we must put money aside for the times we will need big sums of money. It can be for one’s education; to buy a bed or a fridge or a cow; or a deposit on a house a house or a motor car or you want to start your own small business. It can also be for unexpected events, like a funeral.
It is also important for children to save. Saving can help you achieve any financial goal. You can get there by setting money aside. And best of all, you can have what you want without being drowned in debt.
Finding money to save
While it may seem difficult sometimes just to make ends meet, chances are you have extra money you didn’t even know about. Here are some ways to find it:
Keep track of everything you spend for a week. You might be surprised what you’re buying, and what you can do without. Explain difference between "needs" and "wants".
Something that you need, is something you cannot live without, something you must have. Something that you want is something you would really like to have but can live. (Make two columns on the board or flipchart, one headed 'needs', the other headed 'wants'. Write each item in the relevant column, as learners decide if it is a 'need' or 'want'. For example shoes, vegetables, kentucky, play station, toys, chocolate, school uniform, bus or taxi fare, soap, camera, cellphone).
Ways of saving
- Sometimes we need to retrain our minds to be satisfied with what we have. We all need clothing but do you really need an expensive branded jean at the cost of R500 or can you buy a cheaper branded jean for R100? Wearing clothes from a less expensive store does not make you inferior. You must also know how much your parents can afford. Help them to live within their means by not putting pressure on them to buy more expensive items that they cannot afford. If you really want that expensive jean, start saving and raising money your own money, e.g. by selling popcorn.
- Get value for your money. Shop around before your buy. When you have to buy something, make sure that you don’t pay more for something than its real value.
- You need to buy food. Which will give you the most value for money: the chips or the orange? (Hold up orange and chips). At a cost of R1.25 for the orange, it is not only cheaper but also healthier than the chips, which I bought at R2.50. It is also cheaper and healthier to make sandwiches the night before to take to school the following day, rather than buying "something" at school. You can put anything on the bread, even a spoonful of spinach or potatoes that was left of dinner if you don't have peanut butter or jam left.
- Help your family to start your own vegetable garden and to keep chickens. Then you don’t even have to buy spinach or eggs.
- You can also save by giving, not just out of generosity but also by agreement to receive the favour back when needed. For example you can offer to help your neighbour to plant or harvest his vegetables but by doing this you expect him or her to help you when you need to plant or harvest.
- One can save all by yourself or in a savings club or stokvel. There is no reason why children cannot start their own stokvels. By saving as a group you can help each other to learn financial skills. You can also ask people, who are good at money and understand finances to give you some training.
Saving is not always easy because there are always things that we think we need or want. But the only way to afford these items is to save whenever you get some money. If you save 10 cents of every R1 that has been given to you, you will soon have rands and no longer cents. Money likes to grow. Let us build on our success with the Soccer World Cup and not only be the world’s best host but also the world’s best savers.
MEC: I say go, go, go! You say?
Cast: Grow, grow, grow! Cling, cling, cling! Ca ching, ca ching.
All: Go, go, go! Grow, grow, grow! Cling, cling, cling! Ca ching, ca ching! Laduma!
