Lines across the top for what they’re saving for, what it costs, what each square is worth and the day they started. Below that, a box to draw the thing and a small table of prices and square values. The rest of the page is a ten-by-ten grid of a hundred numbered squares, filling from the bottom left like a jar, with squares 25, 50 and 75 marked and square 100 marked “got it”.

A square is always one hundredth of the price, so the same sheet works for a £10 goal or a £100 one. Only the value of a square changes.

Setting it up

Fill in the top together, with the actual price of the actual thing. Then the square: a £30 goal makes each square £0.30. The table on the sheet covers the round prices; anything else is the price divided by a hundred, which is a good first division to do together.

Let them draw it, however badly. A drawing they made keeps the sheet theirs. Before you print, check the goal is close enough: about a month away for under-tens, two months for older children.

Colouring on payday

Same day every week. They count up in square-sized steps until they reach what they saved: at £0.30 a square, £3 is ten squares. If the money doesn’t divide evenly, colour the squares it fully covers and carry the rest into next week.

Use pencil crayon, not felt tip. If money comes back out of the savings, the squares come off too, and a chart that can’t go backwards stops being true quite quickly.

The marked squares are there to be noticed out loud. Passing a quarter on a goal that seemed enormous is the moment most children decide it’s actually going to happen.

When the last square is coloured

Write the date on the “I got it on” line and go and buy the thing, soon, while the sheet is still on the fridge. Keep the finished chart: a stack of full ones is the best argument a child has, a year later, that saving works.

Printing it

Both paper sizes are on this page. Print at 100% so the squares stay big enough to colour. Colour printing helps, but the milestones are labelled, so mono works. One sheet per goal, stuck up where they’ll pass it every day.