Okay, full disclosure here, I have lumped a WHOLE BUNCH of things in to this one idea for myself for the year and I am now completely overwhelmed.
1. Yes, I am committed to the Compact and reducing my purchasing of new items. Yes, I am staying within the guidelines as much as possible.
But I also said I would do a Freezer/Pantry challenge in which I am using up all the food in my freezer and pantry rather than buying something else to prepare for dinner. So there's that.
Then I agreed to a Savings Challenge of seeing how much I could put away in my savings account for the year. My goal is $5000. I think this is very conservative and do-able. But I haven't been accountable in that I didn't write down my starting balance and make note of each deposit. I think I need to get some of this written down so that I can track where my savings are coming from.
And on top of this! I signed up on the cleaning-decluttering daily challenge. Daily is just too much. I have not been able to commit to this. I would bet that I haven't even opened this week's daily emails due to the fact that I have been babysitting all week and this is the first time I have been on the computer since last week. So, I can't very well do the challenge when I haven't even SEEN the challenge. It's too much.
This is for my own accountability. But I will try to keep regular updates to stay on track.
Showing posts with label savings goal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label savings goal. Show all posts
Friday, January 26, 2018
Friday, January 14, 2011
Your money or your life
You probably already know that I keep a savings account separate from all other accounts. It is my money. I am not trying to be separatist and hoarding away money from from family, but I am trying to be practical. Any money that is kept co-mingled with all the rest gets easily spent. If it is not there, and you don't think about it, it can be separate and grow and be there for the rainy day that always shows up.
If I hadn't had my savings account it would have been a struggle to keep up with all the car repairs and maintenance that we did last year. If I hadn't had my savings account I would not have been able to just walk in and buy the most precious antique sofa that was just made to go with the set of chairs I have in my living room.
Truth be known, I really like the sense of peace and security it gives me to know that that little cushion is there should we need it. I try to add to it at least once a month with loose change that adds up. Also, each week I give myself an allowance out of our checking account and at the end of the week anything that is left goes to the savings account. I am hoping and aiming for an increase of $20,000 in my savings account this year. That means I need to average $1666.66 each month. I might be a tad bit behind already this month!
Anyhoo, I was reading an article about this very topic of women and the need to save.
Please check out this short but informative article here and see what you think. I was really struck by the facts that twice as many women than men would be poor in their old age. We live longer than men and yet we save 40% less than they do. Not a good match up there.
What she says is that we should get in the habit of saving as little as $3.00 per day, every single day. At the end of the year you will have $1095 and that is a good amount to be able to invest in a cd or other retirement account. Keep doing this no matter what.
It's just another way of remembering to pay yourself first.
Are you putting away $3.00 or more each day for your future? What ways are you finding helpful to get your money socked away? I would love to learn more ideas about this. Please share!
If I hadn't had my savings account it would have been a struggle to keep up with all the car repairs and maintenance that we did last year. If I hadn't had my savings account I would not have been able to just walk in and buy the most precious antique sofa that was just made to go with the set of chairs I have in my living room.
Truth be known, I really like the sense of peace and security it gives me to know that that little cushion is there should we need it. I try to add to it at least once a month with loose change that adds up. Also, each week I give myself an allowance out of our checking account and at the end of the week anything that is left goes to the savings account. I am hoping and aiming for an increase of $20,000 in my savings account this year. That means I need to average $1666.66 each month. I might be a tad bit behind already this month!
Anyhoo, I was reading an article about this very topic of women and the need to save.
Please check out this short but informative article here and see what you think. I was really struck by the facts that twice as many women than men would be poor in their old age. We live longer than men and yet we save 40% less than they do. Not a good match up there.
What she says is that we should get in the habit of saving as little as $3.00 per day, every single day. At the end of the year you will have $1095 and that is a good amount to be able to invest in a cd or other retirement account. Keep doing this no matter what.
It's just another way of remembering to pay yourself first.
Are you putting away $3.00 or more each day for your future? What ways are you finding helpful to get your money socked away? I would love to learn more ideas about this. Please share!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
My Savings Account is made of quicksand
or something like that. I set myself a goal of saving $20,000 this year. So far this month I have added 1350.00 and taken out 200.00. This is not good. The debit was a transfer to the RachelPie's account that was "slightly" overdrafted and I was trying to stop the hemorrhaging of 35.00 fees. Those things add up in a heartbeat!
I have a box of stuff to take to Half Price Books and hope there will be cash for some of it rather than just store credit. I hope to get that done by tomorrow for the end of the month tally.
One thing I have been thinking of doing is taking the total amount deducted off my grocery purchases for coupons and adding that amount to savings. It will mean a payment out for the net amount of the groceries and another smaller payment to savings for the coupon savings. So I will be paying "full price" out of my checking. Is this worth it or is it just confusing? I want the whole total over a month or over the whole year of coupon savings to be tangible, and if I get $10.00 off and don't do anything with that $10.00 it just gets lost in the checking account and isn't really meaningful. Am I figuring this right or am I confusing myself?
The other thing I am doing is each week I withdraw money to be my spending money for the week. At the end of the month if I have any of that left over I am going to put it in the savings. I hope this will help me want to NOT spend it all each week.
Do any of you have any other things you do to add to your savings? Helpful tricks, hints and such?
I have a box of stuff to take to Half Price Books and hope there will be cash for some of it rather than just store credit. I hope to get that done by tomorrow for the end of the month tally.
One thing I have been thinking of doing is taking the total amount deducted off my grocery purchases for coupons and adding that amount to savings. It will mean a payment out for the net amount of the groceries and another smaller payment to savings for the coupon savings. So I will be paying "full price" out of my checking. Is this worth it or is it just confusing? I want the whole total over a month or over the whole year of coupon savings to be tangible, and if I get $10.00 off and don't do anything with that $10.00 it just gets lost in the checking account and isn't really meaningful. Am I figuring this right or am I confusing myself?
The other thing I am doing is each week I withdraw money to be my spending money for the week. At the end of the month if I have any of that left over I am going to put it in the savings. I hope this will help me want to NOT spend it all each week.
Do any of you have any other things you do to add to your savings? Helpful tricks, hints and such?
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