Saving Money and How to Trick Myself into Doing It
I just read an article by Liz Pulliam Weston about saving money and how to trick yourself to do it! I have to admit, it is the worst feeling in the world to get an unexpected windfall (whether big or small) and find it has just seeped away slowly without making a sound or an impact. I just HATE that!
But Ms. Weston has compiled ideas from all over the nation for saving money in small amounts, but regularly, in order to stash away thousands! She gives full credit in her book, listed at the bottom, but I want to summarize a few of the best ones.
The first one I had tried before, but I’m sort of a stickler for having all the “I”s dotted and “T”s crossed, so I didn’t like it. But I know it works for some. Padding your accounts can be very helpful. Pay yourself a weekly or monthly check by entering on your checkbook balance sheet or on your accounting software program.
Another along the same lines is to save certain bills that you come into contact with, like old twenties or all the ones you have at the end of a day. It’s like putting change in a jar only it adds up faster!
One thing I do, to save up for Christmas gifts pay myself rent. I charge myself a little per week, transferring it to a savings account that I don’t draw from. Then at Christmas, I usually have several thousand to spend on my friends, my kids, and especially my grandkids! Last year, I even had enough left over to take a cruise!
Some of the others suggested:
• saving expense reimbursements since they’ve already been paid
• depositing rebates or coupon savings into a special account
• rounding up each check when you log it in (making it look like you have less than you do
• saving the raises that you get (unless you’re on a commission basis!)
My favorite one was from a guy who had his account automatically transfer 1 hour of his wages each week. That way, he saved 52 hours worth of pay every year. If he was making about $30 per hour, that would calculate to more than $1,500. Not sure I could use it in my situation, though!
If this were a perfect world, we wouldn’t need these little tricks and hooks in order to save money, but I’m not perfect and I don’t know anyone who is. (Although some are closer than others!) So what tricks for saving money do you have???
Liz Pulliam Weston’s new book, “Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life,” is now available. Columns by Weston, the Web’s most-read personal-finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money.
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