• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Money Writing Prompts

Saving for one thing, finding a wallet, spending a hundred dollars, and telling a need from a want.

Money Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. If I had a hundred dollars to spend on other people, here is who would get what.Angle: at least four people. Say why each gift fits.
  2. You find a wallet on the sidewalk on the way to school. Write the next ten minutes.Angle: decide what is inside before you start, and who you tell first.
  3. Write about finding a dollar in the pocket of a coat you have not worn since last winter.First line: Past me had left a present for present me.

Next step Deal a lost and found storyWrite about a lucky find

All 60 prompts

Saving for something 15

  • A class saves all year for one trip. Write the vote on where to go. Angle: three choices, a show of hands and a tie that has to be broken.
  • A kid needs twelve more dollars and has one weekend. Write the plan and how it goes. Angle: three ways to earn it. One works, one flops and one surprises.
  • A kid starts a small business with five dollars. Write the first day it is open. Angle: what is for sale, who the first customer is, and what goes wrong by noon.
  • Describe counting your savings on the floor of your room. Angle: the piles, the coin that rolled under the bed, the number you hoped for.
  • Describe the place where you keep your money: a jar, a box, a sock, a bank shaped like an animal. Angle: what it looks like, what it sounds like when shaken, and who knows where it is.
  • Is it harder to earn money or to keep it? Write your opinion with a story from your own life. Angle: think of a time money left your pocket faster than it came in.
  • Tell about a job you did to earn money: raking, pet sitting, selling something you made. Angle: what the work was really like in the middle, not at the start or the end.
  • Tell the story of a thing you saved for that cost more than you thought when you got to the store. First line: The price on the box was not the price on the sign.
  • Two friends save for the same thing. One gets there first. Write what happens next. Angle: the first one has a choice to make. Write it both ways if you cannot decide.
  • What are you saving for right now, or what would you save for? Describe it so the reader wants it too. Angle: where you first saw it and what you would do with it on day one.
  • Write a letter to yourself to open on the day your savings jar is full. First line: If you are reading this, you did not spend it on candy.
  • Write about saving up to buy a present for somebody else. Angle: say what you gave up along the way and what their face did.
  • Write about something you saved up for, from the first coin to the day you bought it. Angle: say how long it took and the one time you almost spent the money on something else.
  • Write about the day you finally had enough money and found you did not want the thing anymore. First line: I counted it twice, and both times it was enough.
  • Write about wanting something so much that you made a chart to track your saving. Angle: draw the chart in words: the boxes, the colors, the week nothing got filled in.

A found wallet 15

  • A cashier hands a kid too much change. Write what the kid does and why. Angle: put the mistake in the first sentence. Spend the rest on the walk back to the counter.
  • A found wallet belongs to someone the finder does not get along with. Write what happens. Angle: keep it honest. The finder is tempted for exactly one block.
  • A group of kids find coins all along one street, like a trail. Write where it leads. Angle: a penny every few steps, then a nickel. Someone has a hole in a pocket.
  • A lost-and-found box at a school holds one wallet nobody claims. Write its story. Angle: how long it has been there and why the owner never came.
  • A wallet is handed in to the school office. Write the scene when its owner comes for it. Angle: what the owner says, what the finder says, and what neither expected.
  • Is finders keepers a fair rule? Argue for or against it. Angle: test it on a marble, a ten-dollar bill and a lost dog. Does your answer change?
  • Tell the story of a found wallet that has no money in it, only one strange thing. Angle: a key, a ticket, a photo of a dog. Follow it to the owner.
  • What is the right thing to do with money you find and cannot return? Write your opinion. Angle: a single bill in an empty park. No name on it, nobody around.
  • Write a story from the point of view of the person who lost a wallet. First line: I patted the same pocket four times, as if it might grow back.
  • Write about a time you lost money and the search for it. Angle: the places you looked, in order, and the place it was or was not.
  • Write about finding a dollar in the pocket of a coat you have not worn since last winter. First line: Past me had left a present for present me.
  • Write the sign someone tapes to a lamppost about a wallet they lost, and the story behind one detail on it. Angle: the detail could be a sticker, a color or what the owner promises the finder.
  • Write the thank-you note a person might send to the kid who returned their wallet. First line: You will not know what was in the side pocket, so I will tell you.
  • You find a wallet on the sidewalk on the way to school. Write the next ten minutes. Angle: decide what is inside before you start, and who you tell first.
  • You return a found wallet and the owner offers a reward. Write whether you take it. Angle: give your reason in one sentence, then show the moment.

If I had a hundred 15

  • A hundred-dollar bill tells the story of its week, hand to hand. First line: On Monday I was folded into a birthday card.
  • If I had a hundred dollars and had to make it last a whole year, how would I do it? Angle: divide it up on paper first. Then write the month it nearly ran out.
  • If I had a hundred dollars and had to spend it in one hour, where would I go? Angle: write it as a race against the clock, shop by shop.
  • If I had a hundred dollars for my classroom, what would I buy for it? Angle: three things the room needs and one thing it only wants.
  • If I had a hundred dollars to give away to one cause, which would I choose and why? Angle: animals, a park, a food pantry, a library. Pick one and make your case.
  • If I had a hundred dollars to spend on other people, here is who would get what. Angle: at least four people. Say why each gift fits.
  • If I had a hundred dollars to start a business, what would I sell? Angle: what you buy first, what you charge, and who your first customer would be.
  • If I had a hundred dollars, the first thing I would do is... Finish the thought and keep going. Angle: the first thing, the second thing, and what would be left.
  • If I had a hundred pennies instead of a hundred dollars, what could I still do with them? Angle: think of things to build, count, stack or line up.
  • Plan the best day you could have for a hundred dollars with three friends. Angle: write the schedule with prices, then the part that cost nothing and was best.
  • Somebody hides a hundred dollars in small bills around a town for people to find. Write one finder's morning. Angle: say where the bill was tucked and what the finder does before lunch.
  • What can a hundred dollars not buy? Make a list and write about one thing on it. Angle: start with five things. Circle the one you would pick over the money.
  • Would you rather have a hundred dollars today or two hundred a year from now? Explain your choice. Angle: say what you would do during the year of waiting.
  • Write about a hundred dollars spent a little at a time beside a hundred dollars spent all at once. Angle: two kids, same money, one month. Compare them on the last day.
  • Write about a kid who wins a hundred dollars in a drawing and changes her mind three times about it. Angle: each plan lasts one day. The fourth plan is the one she keeps.

Needs and wants 15

  • A character has everything she wants and is missing one thing she needs. Write what it is. Angle: keep it small and close to home: a friend at lunch, a quiet hour, a key.
  • A family has to cut one want from its shopping list. Write the talk at the kitchen table. Angle: each person defends one item. Somebody gives theirs up.
  • A kid on a desert island gets one crate of needs and one small box of wants. Write what is in each. Angle: the box of wants holds three things. Choosing them takes all night.
  • Describe a want that turned into a need, or a need that used to be only a want. Angle: a coat in a cold snap, a bike when the bus stopped coming.
  • Explain the difference between a need and a want to a five-year-old, using only things in a kitchen. Angle: point at the water and the cookies and go from there.
  • Is a phone a need or a want? Pick a side and argue it. Angle: think of who is using it and what for. Your answer may change by person.
  • Make two lists, things you need and things you want, and write about one item that was hard to place. Angle: say which list it ended on and what argument put it there.
  • Pack a backpack for a week away with room for only ten things. Write which needs go in and which wants stay home. Angle: say which item was a want you pretended was a need.
  • Should kids get to decide how to spend their own money? Write your opinion and one rule you would add. Angle: think about birthday money, earned money and found money. Same answer?
  • Two siblings share ten dollars at a store. One wants a treat and one needs a notebook. Write the scene in the aisle. Angle: prices matter here. Make the two things cost more than ten together.
  • What do you really need for a good day? Write a list of five things and explain the last one. Angle: none of the five can be bought on the day itself.
  • Write about a time you got something you needed when you were hoping for something you wanted. First line: It was socks, and I said thank you the way I had been taught.
  • Write about something you wanted badly a year ago and do not care about now. Angle: where it is at this moment and when you last touched it.
  • Write about the best thing you own that cost no money. Angle: how you got it and why no price would be right.
  • Write an ad that tries to make a want sound like a need. Then write what the ad left out. Angle: invent the product. Something like glow-in-the-dark shoelaces.

How it works

These money writing prompts keep the sums small enough for a child to picture: twelve dollars short, a dollar in a coat pocket, a hundred to spend. Some are stories and some are opinions to argue.

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Creative writing prompts about money

The story prompts give money something to do. A kid starts a small business with five dollars. A hundred-dollar bill tells its own week, hand to hand. A found wallet holds no money at all, only a key, a ticket or a photo of a dog.

Needs and wants, to argue

Fifteen prompts sort needs from wants, and several ask for a side. Is a phone a need or a want? Pack ten things for a week away and say which want you pretended was a need. One asks for an ad that dresses a want up as a need.

  • Give the money a number. Twelve dollars is easier to write about than some money.
  • In an opinion piece, test your rule on something small and on something large.

Questions and answers

Are these writing prompts for money for kids?

Yes. They are about pocket-sized money: a savings jar, change from a cashier, a bill found in a park. None asks what a family earns or owns, and nothing here is advice on what to do with money.

What is an If I had a hundred dollars writing prompt?

A prompt that hands the writer a hundred dollars and one condition: spend it in an hour, make it last a year, use it on other people or on the classroom. Seven on the list open with those words.

What is a good writing prompt about finding money?

One with a choice in it. You find a wallet on the sidewalk on the way to school: write the next ten minutes. Or argue whether finders keepers is a fair rule.

What can kids write about saving money?

The wait. Describe the place the money is kept, count it on the bedroom floor, or write the day there was finally enough and the thing was no longer wanted.

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