I just talked to a friend who was complaining that she has to come up with $1000 every October and she has nothing saved up. I asked her if she could save $19.25 on a weekly basis. She said she could, if she cut out her morning coffee and took her own to work, and if she also skipped eating lunch out one day a week.
That's a good reminder that we all need, to save small amounts toward big bills. I do it on a monthly basis for bills that are due every 3 or 6 months like the newspaper, house insurance, etc. I divide the yearly totals of each by 12, and put that amount aside every month to save. When the bigger bills finally come, the money is there to transfer back to checking, and if there were a true emergency where we had to have the money, it would still be there.
Now if I could just make myself go make a list of all the household appliances that wear out every 10 years or so, and put THAT money aside. Can't afford to put that much aside in reality, but I can work on one or two. I've found that if the money is in my checking account, it's GONE, but if I don't have it there, I can do without a lot of 'wants' that I would otherwise have thought were 'needs'.
One instant budget breaker is impulse buying. Stores create displays that are so enticing it's hard to resist wandering over to them and buying something that is most definitely not on the shopping list. Spontaneous shopping is seldom a good choice.
My husband and I have never had a lot of money. Our whole married lives, we have had to watch and constantly be careful. We were married and started our family very young, and neither of us has a college education.
With each task I perform during the course of a day, I think of ways that I can save. Small amounts saved each day add up to large savings at the end of the year.
I decided to write another post to help others out since my first post was a success. I want to share my opinion on stuff that works for me.
I belong to a weekly creative writing class that costs $9 each week for the class. We are now on two weeks break from the class, so that is $18 that I save for that time.
I encouraged a friend to start a savings account. She had no savings and had to charge emergencies when they came up. She said she did not have money to start a savings account with and could not afford to add to it if she did.
Sometimes it gets a little tight waiting for payday, so I go into the money stashes I have to ease things just a bit. The stashes include my piggy bank (I do have one), and other coin receptacles.
When I enter an amount taken from my checking account either by check or debit card I always enter the correct amount in the ledger but I round up the amount I deduct from the checking account.
"A penny saved is a penny earned," said Benjamin Franklin. However, what good is a penny saved if it's spent on something else?
When visiting a mall, there is one thing that makes me want to spend, spend, spend! That is the sight of another shopper with lots of lovely designer store bags in her arms.
