Our grandparents grew up with it. The Brabantia tin with money sections for household, gas and electricity, clothing, rent and vacations. Now it is childhood sentiment and nostalgia, in the fifties it was an everyday utensil.

After World War II, it was very important for households to watch their money. After all, the war had led to scarcity and poverty. Our government also made it clear that frugality and saving were necessary. The Family Budget Institute, the forerunner of Nibud, taught people to be frugal. The institute developed teaching materials, gave lectures and courses around the country, and gave individual budget advice to people who asked for it.

Distribute wages across compartments

Many women in the 1950s were housewives and mothers. In addition to household chores, they were also responsible for the budget. For this purpose, they discovered convenient methods. Think of keeping a household book, but also budgeting and saving with the Brabantia savings tin.

Each week, when the man of the house came home with his pay, it was neatly divided among the boxes in the oblong tin. The advantage of jars (boxes) was clear even then: it provides insight into your finances and makes saving and budgeting easy. By dividing the salary between the categories immediately, there was never too much money to spend on shopping, and thanks to the 'rent' box, there was always enough left over for housing. And when they wanted to know how much money there was for clothing or a vacation, they simply looked in the tin.

From physical to digital

So our grandparents knew how to handle money. In those days, of course, they used physical money, unlike today. It may have been different times, but the principles have remained the same. Money provides stability and security in both occasions. Insight and overview are very important, and so is saving for later.

That's why Flow's jar system is based on the budgeting method of this old Brabantia savings tin. With Flow, we've made sure that it's more in line with modern times, but the system has basically remained the same:

1️⃣ Money comes in

2️⃣ You first divide your money between jars/boxes for your fixed expenses

3️⃣ The money that remains, you distribute to the rest of your jars/boxes

Where our grandparents divided the money manually and physically, we now do the same, but automatically and digitally.