Saving Money

[trouts mom]

When I get paid, I leave $200 in my account for 2 weeks for groceries or whatever..and the rest after bills goes into savings..I TRY not to need any money from the savings...but I sometimes give in

And I have seperate RRSP's that I put $50/ month into.

 

[4crazycats]

I usually have no money to save. I get alot saved up and then something happens. Mostly vet bills and its all gone again. I usually allow myself 40 dollars to spen every other week on anythin I want. I save usually about 50 every other week. But I onyl have 60 in the bank right now and just got paid today! I have 40 though with me.

 

[swampwitch]

1) Don't use credit cards.
2) Don't buy it if you can't pay cash.
3) See if repairing is cheaper than replacing.
4) Don't accumulate "stuff."
5) Talk to your bank's financial advisor to start saving.

Cheers, from
SwampWitch

p.s. Russian Blue, you are so smart! You are dead on right, IMHO.

p.p.s. We've been saving for a down payment for a house. The average house price (for an average, nothing special house) here is $545,000 CDN ($487,000 US). Yikes.

 

[gayef]

One of the best things I ever did to save money was to go to a "cash only" mode for everything. I do not use credit, Period, Ever. I do have a debit card which draws directly from my checking account and I use this for everything. I also have a savings account at the same bank as my checking account. What I do is at the end of each day, I go through all of my debit card receipts and I round up each purchase and deposit the difference directly into my savings account. Here is an example of a day's receipts and what I do with them:

WalMart - $23.58 Round to $24.00 Deposit $0.42 to savings
Food Lion - $56.73 Round to $57.00 Deposit $0.27 to savings
CVS Pharmacy - $13.18 Round to $14.00 Deposit $0.82 to savings

At the end of that particular day, I deposited a total of $1.51 to my savings account. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, here is an example of a week's receipts and the resulting deposit to savings:

Monday - $1.51 to savings
Tuesday - $.62 to savings
Wednesday - $2.13 to savings
Thursday - $.23 to savings
Friday - $1.13 to savings
Saturday - $.97 to savings
Sunday - $.67 to savings for a total of $7.26 to savings

Still doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, OK, here is a month's worth ...

Week One - $7.26 to savings
Week Two - $10.15 to savings
Week Three - $8.99 to savings
Week Four - $9.35 to savings for a total of $35.75 to savings

I have been doing this for a little over 7 months now and have saved nearly $250 which I would not have saved otherwise. I also dump any gifts of money (like for birthdays or whatever) I receive into my savings. I clean out the pockets of my clothes (where I am prone to stash change and one's) and I keep a change jar to put anything I find in so I can deposit that periodically too. I have a yard sale once per year and I deposit everything I make from that into savings. I clean out my closets, cabinets and the attic and get rid of anything I haven't touched in a year. Most of the better stuff I sell on Ebay and for the rest, I do the yard sale or donate it.

 

[abbycats]

When I write checks, I always round up 5 dollars in my check ledger. This really works! I saved over 900 dollars in a year! It was a great little suprise! When things are tight I still round up a couple dollars each check in ledger! Even if you rounded up 1 dollar each check, after 1000 checks you would have a 1k savings.