With absolute seriousness, Ryan glanced up from the kitchen table and wanted to know what ‘red ink’ they were talking about.  After all, he said, he has only ever seen the morning paper covered in black ink.

On his quest to find the comic section this morning Ryan stumbled across the title of an article on the front page, The Red Ink Flows, from which came his query.  Even if he had read the words that followed…deficit could hit $21.3 billion… it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.   How could he know that red ink (in the red) refers to a loss?  It’s not exactly intuitive.

Which made me think about other money phrases, or idioms.  Things like money doesn’t grow on trees, saving for a rainy day, made of money, penny pinching...  As adults, we’ve been saying them so long we tend not to think too much about the literal meaning.  But taken literally, they’re hilarious.

Which then gave me an idea for a fun lesson to do with my money students…having them represent a money idiom of their choice through a drawing.  Not only will it be fun to draw something ridiculous, but it’s the perfect opportunity to introduce the meaning behind the phrases.  There’s wisdom, or at the very least some interesting conversation, to be found in those words. 

See if you can guess some of these “illustrations”:

1. a pot cooking on the stove filled with books
2. fingers squeezing a penny
3. a nicely dressed penny
4. a lady at the checkout counter handing over an arm and a leg (okay…maybe this one won’t make the list…)
5. a baby with a spoon in it’s mouth
6. a mouth filled with bills and coins

Did you figure them out?

1. cooking the books
2. penny pinching
3. pretty penny
4. costs an arm and a leg
5. born with a silver spoon in his mouth
6. put your money where your mouth is

 Do you have any favorites?