Friday, January 3, 2014

Saving money a little at a time


Last year I posted about a neat money saving trick I had found while browsing on Facebook.  Hubby and I already have regular contributions to retirement savings, and I *try* to put away 10% of our monthly income (it doesn't happen every month, but I do try) so this was just a way for us to increase our savings for our Disney trip (which ended up being postponed to next year).

Having the money in the bank was really great when we had to send the Jeep in for a new starter and some regular maintenance work - $700.00 later we were able to pay for that in cash instead of using our credit card and slowly paying it off while gaining interest payments at the same time.

If you have a specific goal in mind (I have heard a lot of people that started this last January and they used the money in the account for their Christmas shopping) then it is a great way to help you reach it.  I would highly suggest that you not rely solely on this as your savings, but if you are not able to put anything else away, then this is definitely a great way to start.

This year I will continue to contribute these amounts to my account, and hopefully we will be able to use that money for our Disney trip next winter - but it makes me feel great knowing that should a small household expense come up that was not planned, or another vehicle repair that we will have the money to handle it immediately.

What about you - what are your savings goals this year?

28 comments:

  1. Bravo to you and your saving money plan! I've always told my kids to put away 10 or 20 dollars from each pay check! So far they haven't listened to me unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks so much; If I had listened to my mom with saving, I would have been able to buy a car when I finished high school....unfortunately, most of my money was spent at the local movie theater......but I had fun

      Delete
  2. I love this tip....I think I will start doing something very similar!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm going on maternity leave this year, I'm just hoping we come out of it without an additional debts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good luck - it was really difficult for us when we first went down to one income...I wish I had known about these tips back then

      Delete
  4. I am going to try the 52 week savings plan that is going around right now, it is not a lot but by the end of the year it will add up. Would love to save up so we can go to Disney in the next few years. (Judy Cowan)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saving for travel is a wonderful thing! It's kind of like rewarding yourself for all the discipline in being able to save money.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Never even thought of this method, I think that I will start backward as I have a little more money now then I do around Christmas and would still end up saving money. thank you so much for sharing this wonderful idea and it would be great to have some money put back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been thinking about trying something like this to save some money. I think if it were so clearly set out, like this is, I might be able to stick to it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am on maternity leave now, so saving is even more important! We have separate accounts for travel and the kids RESPs that we contribute to each month.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am maxing those RESPs to make sure my kids have a very good education and a great start at the future. Good tips.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's awesome! We don't have money in RESP's, but we do have separate high interest accounts for both boys.

      Delete
  10. I am saving money with RESP's too.We have found it very useful for those unexpected curve balls you get thrown at you out of the blue.It's certainly gives us a little piece of security.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great idea. I need to institute this starting this Jan!

    ReplyDelete
  12. That is my goal this year also to try and save as much as I can just to have it for back up (just in case) money. I will be putting $10 a week and emptying my purse of all it's change every week. Not everybody agrees but change does add up! This article made me want to stick to my goal even more, thank you =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. change definitely adds up! We go through ours 2 or 3 times a year and often have over $100 each time (once we had $320)

      Delete
  13. One of my goals this year is to save money on groceries by looking for the best deals and using coupons combined with store sales.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am big on price matching and using coupons. It is amazing the money you can save when you try! Good luck

      Delete
  14. Our bank has this thing you can get where they round up every purchase you make to the nearest dollar and take the extra and put it into a savings account for you. Like, if you spend $5.65, your bank puts 35 cents into a special savings account. I thought it was going to put more into our savings but after having it for 6 months there is only like 5 bucks in there

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My bank also offers this. I wouldn't say that it has added a ton of money, but in the 8 months it has added $40

      Delete
  15. Cool idea! It looks really easy to do to save money.

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from my readers, feel free to leave me a comment! (Comment Moderation is enabled, it will be published after approval)