When Mama comes home, her feet hurt. "There's no good place for me to take a load off my feet," she says. When Grandma wants to sit back and hum and cut up potatoes, she has to get as comfortable as she can on a hard kitchen chair. So that is how come Mama brought home the biggest jar she could find at the diner and all the coins started to go into the jar.

In A CHAIR FOR MY MOTHER, written and illustrated by Vera B. Williams, a young girl narrates the story of how her family recovered from the loss of their possessions in a fire. Although neighbors and relatives in her close-knit community provide a kitchen table and a bed, the family still has no comfortable place to sit. So Mother brings home a big jar from the restaurant where she works as a waitress, and everyone begins to contribute their change.

Walter loves to count change. After we read this book for, oh, the hundredth time, he suggested we set up a jar of our own. A lamp was the item we settled on, as the ancient one in our living room has the habit of flickering off in the middle of a good read. My older son, Max, taped the words "Lamp Fund" to the side of an empty mason jar.

The jar soon began filling up with spare change--from under couch cushions, my husband's pockets and the boys' allowance. But somehow it lacked distinction. So we personalized it. Now it sports a toy soccer player glued to the top with two coins wedged into his outstretched arms. Other families might paste a picture of the desired object onto the jar. Or take a more aesthetic approach: A friend of mine painted in the designs on a fancy molded jar that once contained pasta sauce. However you decorate them, these jars really work. After just three months, we've saved more than $30.