6 Ways To Make/Save Money Without Your Parents Knowing

If you’re a kid, you may be looking to take charge of your finances at an early age or save up for something expensive like a gaming console or a trip abroad.

However, you want to hold onto those savings and keep them secret so that you can reach your goal. Here are some ways to save money without your parents knowing.

Saving is not easy, it takes hard work, patience, and self-control – things that are difficult even for adults to get right. And, if you’re exercising restraint and remaining disciplined, the last thing you’d want is for someone to find out about the money you’ve been putting away.

This article will help you with some tips for making and saving money without your parents knowing.

How To Make And Save Money Without Your Parents Knowing?

As a kid, you have very little control over your finances and have to answer your parents for every financial decision that you make. After all, they’re the ones keeping a roof over your head, putting food on the table, and clothes on your back.

But, while you can certainly recognize their hard work and dedication to maintaining your standard of living, you may want to start saving for an item like a new gaming console, which they may not approve of. So you’ve decided that you want to start saving for that item.

But, at the same time, you’d like to keep this under wraps so that your parents or your siblings don’t help themselves to the nest egg that you’ve built up.

So, we’ve compiled a few tips to help you earn some money and save your hard-earned dollars.

How To Make Money As A Kid

Before you start to put your money away, you have to find a way to make that money. In the United States, laws state that nobody under the age of 14 is legally allowed to be employed – so if you’re younger than that, it going to be a challenge.

However, there are many casual jobs that you can pick up that remain “off the books” which many kids have been using to make some extra cash for generations. In years gone by, a young kid may have taken on a paper route, delivering newspapers from door to door.

Unfortunately, newspapers have become archaic in the digital age, so that is no longer an option. However, there are still many casual jobs out there that aren’t considered formal employment that any kid can do and is well within the confines of the law.

For example, you could start a yard sale, selling unused items at home to people in the neighborhood. Or you could take up a babysitting job and look after young children while their parents go out to dinner. You can also help your neighbors with yard work like mowing their lawns. Other informal jobs include walking dogs, washing cars, watering plants, and much more.

These jobs aren’t going to make you hundreds of dollars at a time, but every penny counts when it comes to saving. So, if you want to reach that target dollar amount, $10 or $20 for a few hours of work will go a long way.

6 Ways To Hide Your Money From Your Parents & Siblings

Now that you’re making money and are starting to fill up that piggy bank, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re the only person that has access to it and keeps it safe from anyone that may steal it, whether a parent or a sibling.

That’s your hard-earned money and you deserve to enjoy the fruits of your patience and discipline.

Here are six ways to save money without your parents or siblings knowing:

1.     Hide Your Money In A Book

It may seem clichèd, but one great place to hid your money is in a book. It’s easy to slip dollar bills into the pages of a book without it being noticeable. And, if you find a book that you don’t like and is never read, you can even carefully cut the pages to hollow the book out which means it will go unnoticed once those bills start to stack up.

2.     Hide Your Money In A Register Vent

Because dollars are so easy to fold up, they can be slipped into narrow spaces like a register vent. However, remember that you need a screwdriver to open the vent when you need to access your cash.

3.     Hide Your Money Under A Drawer Or Desk

Another option is to store your money in an envelope and use tape to place it underneath a desk and out of sight. It also helps to tape it inside a drawer where it’s covered by clothes and cannot be easily seen.

4.     Hide Your Money In A Sock Drawer

Your parents and your siblings probably aren’t interested in looking through all of your socks and underwear. So, if you want to hide your money, a great way is to store it inside a sock and put it into the drawer. But you also need to make sure that the sock doesn’t find its way into the washing machine!

5.     Hide Your Money In A DVD Case

An old DVD case is another great place to store banknotes because nobody watches DVDs anymore, right? Sliding money into the case is a great way to keep your money out of sight. However, it’s not ideal for storing coins, because they’ll rattle around and give the game away. Not to mention, they could scratch the disk inside.

6.     Hide Your Coins In Empty Bottles

Empty bottles are a great place to store coins, but you should find an empty bottle that isn’t made out of transparent plastic or glass because then anyone can see what’s inside. Also bear in mind, if someone picks it up, it’ll be heavy and the rattling sound of the coins could lead to the money being discovered. You also need to make sure that the bottle isn’t thrown away.

5 Places Where You SHOULDN’T Hide Your Money

Now that you know about some good places to hide your money, here are a few places that you should avoid stashing your extra cash:

1.     Outlets & Other Fire Hazards

Sometimes people will try to hide their money behind the panel of a power outlet. This is not a good idea because it could be a fire hazard. The banknotes are flammable and could have disastrous consequences that include not only losing all of your savings but burning the entire house down.

2.     Air Vents & Other Tight Spaces

The first problem with an air vent is that it can blow your money through your house’s heating/cooling system, which means that you’d have to physically climb in to retrieve it. Air vents and other tight spaces may seem to be great places to hide money, but you need to make sure that you can retrieve it.

Try out the hiding place with small pieces of paper to make sure that you’ll be able to retrieve your money when you stash it in this tight space.

3.     Avoid Obvious Hiding Places

If your parents are siblings go searching for your savings, there are a few obvious places that they’ll start with which you shouldn’t use. Storing money under a mattress, in a nightstand, table, or desk are the most obvious spots that you should avoid. Also, don’t keep it in a wallet, purse, or backpack. Jacket and coat pockets could also be a go-to place for someone that’s looking for your money.

4.     Somewhere That You’ll Forget

While there are plenty of good, inventive ways to hide your money that’ll keep your parents or siblings from ever finding it, you also don’t want to store it in a place that even you won’t be able to find!

So, you need to make sure that you remember where you’ve put your money, because the day that you want to cash in your savings will eventually come and, if you can’t find it, it defeats the whole purpose of hiding it in the first place.

5.     Damp Places

While hiding your money outdoors, in or around a toilet, sink, another water source, or even in your basement can be a terrible idea. The dampness, flowing water, or moisture could ruin your banknotes and make them worthless. One great way to avoid this is by wrapping your money up into a plastic or vacuum-sealed packet. But nothing is foolproof, so best avoid damp hiding places just in case.

11 Tips For Saving Money On Your Own As A Kid

Saving money is a lot easier said than done and, before you think about stashing your money away without your parents or siblings knowing, you need to follow these tips to maintain the discipline required to achieve your savings goals.

1.   Set A Goal

If you’re saving up for a specific item, you can target a particular amount that you need to save or you may just be opting for a nice, round number. Say you want to save $300 in two months. That works out to $37.50 per week. This allows you to target an amount that you can hold yourself accountable for. Once you’ve set your goals and broken them down, you have a clearer vision of what you need to do and how much money to set aside.

2.   Ask For Practical Presents

Instead of asking for gifts like video games, sporting gear, and other unnecessary items, let people know that you’d prefer more practical gifts like school books or clothes so that you don’t need to spend your money on these items and can put the money aside instead.

3.   Take Care Of Your Stuff

If you look after all of the stuff you already have, like bikes, tech devices, games, or clothes, it can go a long way towards saving money because you won’t have to replace them.

4.   Keep A Record Of Your Expenses

A great way to make sure that you’re disciplined is to keep a notebook or even a digital spreadsheet that records all of your expenses so that you can cut out unnecessary costs.

5.   Keep A Record Of Your Savings

Just like you should keep a record for your expenses, taking note of how much you saved can help you correct yourself if you’re not reaching your goals at the end of every week.

6.   Keep Your Money Out Of Reach

It would defeat the purpose of saving if, every time you save up a decent amount of money, you go digging into your savings to buy things. So make sure your savings are in a hard-to-reach place where it stays out of sight and is not easy to simply open up and retrieve at will.

7.   Pack Lunch For School

It may seem a bit embarrassing to go to school with a packed lunch, but you’ve got to keep your eyes on the prize. Spending money on lunch every day is an unnecessary expense if you can just pack yourself a sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch every day before you leave home.

8.   Switch To Cheaper Brands

When buying clothes, there’s no need to go for the most expensive brands and you can get away with buying things that are less “stylish” and more practical.

9.   Walk/Ride A Bike To School

Instead of paying money for public transport, like the bus, to get to school every day, consider walking or riding your bike to school. It could save you a few dollars at a time, which adds up very fast!

10.          Go To The Library

Public libraries are there for a reason – for you to have free access to books, computers, and even toys, without having to pay for them. Consider spending more time at your local library to save on entertainment expenses.

11.          Don’t Give In To Peer Pressure

Finally, don’t be afraid to stand up to your friends when they question your saving habits. If they want you to go with them to a restaurant or the movies and you don’t want to spend money, just say so. True friends would understand and encourage you to be responsible with your money and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Conclusion

So, if you want to save money without your parents knowing, the tips above will take you a long way towards achieving your savings goals. Stay motivated and disciplined and find a great hiding spot, and before you know it, you’ll have all the money that you need to buy that big-ticket item.

Sources

https://www.wikihow.com/Hide-Money-from-Your-Siblings-and-Parents

https://www.wikihow.com/Save-a-Lot-of-Money-As-a-Kid,-on-Your-Own,-Without-Using-a-Bank-Account

https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/10-tips-teach-your-child-save/