Make More Cents - Review and Giveaway (Closed)

Part of living a frugal life is passing along those values to our children. We do this daily, by example and in teachable moments, but sometimes it's helpful to have extra resources. Make More Cents, a company whose goal is to encourage and develop money-savvy kids and money-wise adults, offers a selection of resources that can meet that need.

The Moneywise Kids Game, for example, is a money math game that helps kids (ages 7 and up) learn to count bills, make change, and budget money. There's also a Pretend & Play Checkbook (for ages 5 and up), a number of books for kids and adults, and My Smart Budget (described as "a fun parent-child interactive financial literacy program that trains kids as young as 8 to become Money Wise for Life™").

Make More Cents also offers a wide variety of piggy banks, coin jars, safes, and coin sorters. When I had the opportunity to review a product, I chose the EZ-Count Money Jar Digital Coin Counter.

I received the Digital Coin Counter along with a package of 100 preformed coin wrappers.



(Note that there are 25 wrappers each for quarters, nickels, pennies, and dimes. They're nested, so not all types are visible.)

My son, the aspiring videographer who shall be known as "Mooseman," wanted to make a video demo of the Digital Coin Counter:

We found that the E-Z Count Money Jar Digital Coin Counter is both fun to use and accurate. It can be used with or without the preformed coin wrappers. Occasionally the coins miss the tubes, but in general it works extremely well. (We really put it to the test by feeding in the coins very rapidly!)

I can see how this would encourage kids (and adults!) to save coins; the increasing count on the digital display is a visible reminder that coins quickly add up to dollars.

Buy it: Order the E-Z Count Money Jar Digital Coin Counter or other resources at Make More Cents.

Win it: Make More Cents is offering an E-Z Count Money Jar Digital Coin Counter to one lucky winner.

This giveaway is closed. Congratulations to Nancye!

Here's how to enter:

Visit the Make More Cents website, then come back and leave me a comment to let me know which product most appeals to you. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. Limit 1 entry by this method. This must be done in order to qualify for extra entries.

Here's how you can earn additional entries (please leave one comment per entry):

• Become a fan of Make More Cents on Facebook. (1 entry)
• Subscribe to the Make More Cents blog. (1 entry)
• Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. (1 entry per day)
• Subscribe to my feed in a feed reader or by email. Leave an extra comment to let me know you've done this. If you already subscribe, leave a comment to let me know. (1 entry)
• Blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with a link to your blog post. (1 entry)

More details: Open to residents of USA, age 18 or older. Giveaway ends on 8/31/09 at noon (Eastern time). Winner will be chosen by the random number generator at Random.org. Winner will be contacted by email and must claim the prize within 72 hours, or another winner will be chosen. Void where prohibited.