Finance Discussions

What a GREAT IDEA! I'll have to try that!

Another way to save is to use store rewards cards, coupons and buy things on sale! But here's the kicker!:   At the end of your receipt from most stores, it will usually state "You Saved $(such in such amount)." If not, you can calculate how much you saved on your own. document that savings in your checkbook, if you use your debt or a check as what I call "rewards," cajonlady0 refers to it as "hide-away." If you paid cash, take the "You Saved $___" amount and put it in savings or in your "rewards" or "hide-away" register. You'd be surprised as to how quickly that adds up! My husband once met a woman who was doing this every year since she'd use the double couponing of Ralph's from very young and she retired on 1.4 million dollars in 2003! Also, if you budget your grocery spending and you saved more than you had budgeted for groceries, take the funds left over and save it.

My mom swears by this technique too but it doesn't work for me.  I am always 100% aware of all the money I have in any account and all the bills I owe.  Luckily I'm also pretty frugal so I don't spend until I am broke like some people do. 

It's a great tip though and it works for my mom.  She says for her it's emergency money in case she ever accidently writes too many checks one day or something like that, this way she won't have to worry about overdraft fees. 

A CD is also an awesome idea.  I got one for 18 months and then every 18 months I roll it over for another 18.  The only reason I don't set it for longer is just in case I really need it since we are still building up our savings. I'm not ready to commit to a CD longer than 18 months.

Anyway, back to the tricking yourself thing.  The reason it doesn't work for me is bc I cannot trick myself.  For example, I tried the trick before to set your clock ahead so I would always be a few minutes ahead of schedule.... however every morning I did the math and knew how much time I really had.  It didn't work at all, so after a few months of that I had to set it to the right time because all I was doing was wasting time doing math each morning :) 

That is another great idea :)  I'd like to keep track of how much I saved in rewards, but like I said above I'd never really trick my brain into forgetting about that money.  However, this idea of documenting rewards is something I think I should start because I get motivated by seeing something like that add up :)  Time to add a new tab in my Budget Spreadsheet :)

I'm on a very strict budget. I even have a monthly budget spreadsheet that I keep. You have a great concept! This wouldn't work for me because I know exactly what I have in my checking and all the monthly bills I pay. I have it down to a science.

This is what I do each month. Once I get paid each month, I transfer what was left over in my checking from the previous month to my savings. I do this for two reasons, (1) to save money, and (2) if something comes up and I need extra $$$, it will be there in my savings to take out. I've been doing this for the past two years and it has been working for me. If I don't have money for it, I don't buy it. This is why I pay my monthly bills at the beginning of the month. I don't even use my credit cards as much as I did years ago. I have gotten pretty frugal since going on disability.

I used to do something similar... I would always round up the deductions from my account (I.E. I paid 2.46 at the store and I would record it as 3.00).  Then when it came time to reconsile my account on payday, I would then take the difference and immediately transfer it into my savings account.  True it may have only been a couple of dollars, but when you do that twice a month it adds up eventually.

I'm like vivasuzi though I cannot trick myself with $$ since I use my online account statement to know how much I have.  Right now we are at the point where every penny is counting toward something. But eventually I want to get back to the point where small amounts are going straight into a savings account.

when i was a single parent with two children i used to "round" the amount up.  so if it was 23.34 then I would round it to 24.00. you would be amazed at the end of the month how those pennies add up.

now though since i am married to a financial analyst i just let him work his magic! not that I don't know what it is I just need bottom lines ;-)

another trick -- while not necessarily "saving" it helps you pay off things faster which actually makes it easier to budget it to round up when you are making a payment.  just those few extra dollars or cents can really make a difference over the course of a few months.  

 

LisaCarey said…

another trick -- while not necessarily "saving" it helps you pay off things faster which actually makes it easier to budget it to round up when you are making a payment.  just those few extra dollars or cents can really make a difference over the course of a few months.  

 

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Very good point.  Especially with bills that have interest to them.  I did this with my car payments and then one month when we were particularly tight I called and they said I only owed a quarter of my payment for that month. 

I leave the checkbook in the capable hands of Mrs. Xeno.  This is a woman who should have been on the short list to head up the Office of Management & Budget!

I round my car payment up about 50$ every month.  With the car payment, what it does is lower your NEXT months payment, however I just keep paying the same amount everymonth.  I think right now they say my monthly payment is like 180$ so the fact that I keep rounding up does mean that if I ever have a hard time I'd have a really low car payment :)

I send extra to my second mortgage each month too and I've already planned out that once the second mortgage is paid off, I will send that payment to the first mortgage as if I still have 2 mortgages.  Same with the car, once the car is paid off, I plan to send that amount to my first mortgage each month.  Maybe that way I can get it paid in 29 years instead of 30 :-D

That is my husband's saving strategy as well :-D  I know a lot of women who do the bills for the house and think it's funny when TV shows joke as if women can't do the bills.  My husband still pays like 3 minor bills on his own, but we have an online budget spreadsheet he can update so I still keep track of it all :)

vivasuzi said…

I send extra to my second mortgage each month too and I've already planned out that once the second mortgage is paid off, I will send that payment to the first mortgage as if I still have 2 mortgages.  Same with the car, once the car is paid off, I plan to send that amount to my first mortgage each month.  Maybe that way I can get it paid in 29 years instead of 30 :-D

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You bring up a good one here... If you're trying to pay off debt, once you pay off the smallest bill, don't just look at that as money backin your pocket.  Take that payment amount and apply it to the next smallest bill then repeat once that one is paid off.  Watch how quickly you end up paying off your debts.

Yep I actually got that tip from a website all about getting out of debt.  I wasn't IN Debt but with 2 mortgages, a car, and new bills coming up ever since I got married, I did research about it.  They said to organize all your bills from lowest amount owed to most owed.  If you have extra money to spend, you should send it to the lowest bill.  Then as each bill is paid off, you spend the extra to the next bill on the list.  Of course their #1 rule was to still pay the actual minimum balance each month.

"Checkbook"... does it fit in the disc drive?

LOL! Yes, it's called Quicken. LOL!

vivasuzi said…

I send extra to my second mortgage each month too and I've already planned out that once the second mortgage is paid off, I will send that payment to the first mortgage as if I still have 2 mortgages.  Same with the car, once the car is paid off, I plan to send that amount to my first mortgage each month.  Maybe that way I can get it paid in 29 years instead of 30 :-D

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That's a great idea. You'd be surprised how many years it knocks off the mortgage if you do it over a long period of time.