Thursday, November 6, 2008

A couple ways that I save money......

First let me say this method works for me, but it may not work for you, however everything is worth a try in my opinion if it will help you save money.

There is a saying "slow and steady win's the race." That applies to my first way of saving money. I would love to say I came up with this idea, but I didn't a lady (I don't remember her name) on the Prairie Homemaker site first told me about it and I fell in love with this idea.

I will tell you what I do and then you can adapt this to suit your purposes. Dh gets paid every Wednesday, so I do all the online banking on a Wednesday. So when I check what's in the account, say it's $528.92 as the balance, I take the $8.92 and transfer it over to an RRSP account I have. Now if there is $513.28 in the bank I would transfer $13.28 into the account. So are you getting the jist of what I am doing? I only do this once a week, you could do it daily, a couple of times a week or even once a week like me. You can transfer that money into whatever account you want, just transfer it.

I started doing this back in January 2006, with a goal of saving around $500 a year, which I know isn't much, however as of the beginning of November I now have $1,700 in that account, by just doing this. I haven't missed the money, as its not a set amount, it's just whatever I have in there that week. So as you see "slow and steady is winning the race here." By the time I reach the age of 65 I will have saved around $12,000, just by doing this, which will hopefully pay for a couple of nice holidays when we retire, or our utilities for a couple of years........

I did the following post back on May 26th, 2008, this is a simple way of saving money:

One thing I have is a daily savings pot. Its a simple thing I do. I split the year into three, four month blocks. Every day for the first month I put 25 cents per day in the pot. In the second month I put 50 cents per day in the pot. In the third month I put 75 cents per day in the pot. In the fourth month I put $1 per day in the month.I then start over again, for the next four months, and then again for the next four months.

If you do that you will save the following:
January: $7.75
February: $14.00
March: $23.25
April: $30.00
May: $7.75
June: $15.00
July: $23.25
August: $30.00
September: $7.50
October: $15.50
November: $22.50
December: $31.00

For a total of $227.50, all by following that simple plan.

Another thing you could do is the following:
January 31 x 25 cents = $7.75
February 28 x 50 cents = $14.00
March 31 x 75 cents = $23.25
April 30 x $1.00 = $30.00
May 31 x $1.25 = $38.75
June 30 x $1.50 = $45.00
July 31 x $1.75 = $54.25
August 31 x $2.00 = $62.00
September 30 x $2.25 = $67.50
October 31 x $2.50 = $77.50
November 30 x $2.75 = $82.50
December 31 x $3.00 = $93.00

for a total: $595.50, that's pretty good by just putting your change away.

Of course at the end of each month you could put that money into your high interest savings account and make even more money!!!!The goal here is to get you used to saving money everyday.

I will post next week about my "boxes."

20 comments:

Rudee said...

I like this idea. I try hard to "pay" myself every payday. I'm always amazed too at what accumulates in the change pot. I might try your little "game" here as a challenge. I'll start by putting my coffee drink fund into it. I'm giving them up for awhile to try to lose weight. THat would be $3.87 a day (plus tip), 5 days a week. Time to take my own coffee in a carry mug.

Anonymous said...

My dear, you are a genius. :-)

Lindsay said...

That seems a good idea - will start this week - on the internet banking!

Anonymous said...

I like the slow n steady method -- when I was kid my grand mom used to do in a similar way -- of course she saved for decades like this and that amount helped her to build her own country house.
She was awesome at money saving, unfortunately my parents are too careless to save!!
they don't overspend or anything but just don't bother about things like old age and life security.
or if they are thinking/ have thought I don't see it!

stitchersanon said...

I wish I could do that...we got in the black in the bank and then had to pay nearly 100 euros for my sons asthma inhalors...bless him!!!
Back to square one hehe
lol
Gaynor

Cathy said...

Hello Gill
Enjoyed reading all your saving tips - some great ideas there
Did you get the reply email?
Cathy

The Good Life in Virginia said...

great idea...and something i will take to heart. yes a little here and there adds up.
thanks for the tips.

mommyknows said...

Great ideas! I so need to get in the habit of saving some money, regardless of the method. These actually sound like fun!

Sandi McBride said...

I "round off" the bank account when making new deposits for Christmas money...I start it in January and then "cash out" in December...never charged a thing for Christmas, never never...thanks for spreading the word...

Caroline said...

I love this idea i use different things like that all the time to save. I tend to change these"games" all the time because it keeps me motivated to keep saving thanks for the new ideas. caroline

Jess said...

This is such a good idea... never thought of it!

Have a great end of the week

Gill - That British Woman said...

glad you found the post useful.

Pretty busy at the moment, so forgive me if I don't pop over to your blogs.......

Gill

Hadriana's Treasures said...

Yep I agree with Kim! Well done Gill!

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

What a great idea Gill - just have to discipline myself to do it. Maybe it would be a good NY resolution too. Think I may start before that though.

A x

Anonymous said...

Great ideas!
Thanks for sharing them.
I think I'll put atleast one of them to use, soon.

Marla said...

What a great idea! My hubby would deposit $90.00 every paycheck, so 180.00 a month. With him being sick and lots of medical bills sometimes we had to borrow from savings. I glad I have some money in savings now. I need to save a little now after I pay off all of the medical bills.

Angelena said...

This is a great post. My dad always said to watch your penny's and the dollars will take care of themselves. Kind of like your slow and steady method.

DeniseinVA said...

Hi Gill, I enjoyed this post. I used to hear this a lot as a kid, "save the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves." We learned early to save all our change in one of those little banks and I still do. Another saving tip I would like to share is one my new mum-in-law told me about. She is a coupon clipper and and each time she uses one, the money she saves on coupons she puts that equal amount into their Christmas box, and by the end of the year she has a substantial amount saved. It mounts up.

Ladybird World Mother said...

Saving is just so satisfactory. Will have a go at your idea.
Thanks v much!

ChaChaneen said...

Great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing!

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