Tithing and Budget Game - Awesome St Patrick's Day Activity - Personal Development Tithing Activity

For this activity, you'll need about 10 minutes before the activity to cut and glue the "clover cards" and 2 dice.

 The idea is that every time a participant rolls a 7, they can choose a "clover card".  You can choose to have these clover cards just on the table (as shown below) or if you want to make it a bit more fun, you can hide them around the room and they have to "work" for them. However- there are 42 clover cards... so if you make them work for the cards, you man want to hide them in bunches or else it would take a super long time to get them all.  Also if you hide them, you'll want to make sure they find them all.... the amount of credits/debits works out so there's just a bit of savings left (which they can trade in to the leader for a prize). If it's taking too long for them to get all 

 the cards, you can say that if they roll a 7, 8 or 9 then they can choose a clover card to speed things up a bit. 

The clover card will either have a yellow coin or a green expense. I tried using expenses that most typical 8-12 year olds would use in any given week (for example: toothbrush and paste - $5,  toilet paper - $10, dinner - $20). When they choose a coin card, they'll place it on the credit page. When they choose an expense card, they'll place it on the debit page (apparently this is banking use of the terms credit/debit and not accounting... either way it introduces them to some financial terms :).

Once all the clover cards have been found, it's time to budget (well, kind of). Have them count up all the coins. It should total $300 (this is important because I made the coins so they can pay for tithing, pay for the expenses and still have some left over). 

Then teach them how to figure out 10% - To find 10% all we need to do is move/shift the decimal one place to the left. Thus 10% of 300 = 30. Now would also be a good time to read 3 Nephi 24:10-11. I put it on a table tent with the name of the game on the other side.  

Next, have them match each expense with a coin as if they are paying for it. For example, place it to the side once a "$5" coin is matched with a "$5" expense. 

Once everything is paid for, they should have some savings. I figured they could be rewarded for their savings with a surprise.... maybe chocolate gold coin or something.  

To end the lesson, I would share this story from "The Blessings of Tithing" by Henry B. Eyring.

Enough Money

By Fabiano dos Santos da Silva

I met the missionaries when I was 17. At that time my older brother and I lived together. Our mother had passed away the year before, and life was difficult. When the missionaries taught me, I could see that this Church was the church I had always sought. But the influence of my friends prevented me from going to church on Sundays.

One time I went to a Church activity during the week. Seeing all the young people laughing and playing brought me great joy. The missionaries, with the youth, took that opportunity to teach me a gospel lesson, and I felt so good I resolved to be baptized.

But even after I joined the Church, I faced challenges. I was the only member of the Church in that part of town and lived far away from the meetinghouse. My nonmember friends no longer wanted anything to do with me. When I felt alone, I prayed and felt the love of the Lord.

Each month, I received a small allotment of money from a fund my mother left. It was difficult to sustain myself with so little money. But I determined to be obedient. I paid tithing and also had to pay for transportation to seminary and Sunday meetings. I didn’t understand how, but at the end of the month, I found that there had been enough money to do it all.

I know that I have been blessed by paying tithing. Obeying this commandment helped me gain a stronger testimony, serve a mission, and recognize blessings so I can strengthen new members who are facing challenges.

You can get my files for this activity <HERE>