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'.
This is a page about saving your raise. Saving money can be difficult. One thing that might work for you, if you get a raise, is to bank it, all of it. This way that extra money can grow and be used for future large purchases or unforeseen events.
Saving money is an important skill to learn. This is a page about challenging yourself to save.
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.
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.
The first thing I do now is look at the fliers for the week and plan my menu around the sales. I give myself one hour a week to do this.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I would like to know how do I go about saving money for the future?
By Machelle Smith from GA
There are several ways to approach this;
1 - each week after you get paid write yourself a check for a pre-determined amount, put the checks in a safe place and don't cash them. Make sure your put them in your check book journal though.
2 - When you get money, no matter what the source, take out 10% (like you would for church) and put it in a coffee can or box for safe keeping.
3 - if you don't trust yourself make a deal with someone you do trust to hold your money (or check).
4 - if you have no one to trust start a savings account and only deposit money, never withdraw on a whim.
5 - get yourself a large locked box with a slot in it for inserting money. Give the key to someone to hold onto for you.
The best place to get this sort of advice would be at your bank. They offer assistance like this for free, and the person you talk to would have a lot more experience than any of us do.
