I’ve offered a few different ideas on ways to save money. I’ll list three of them below:

1. Rounding every withdrawl to the nearest dollar in your checkbook. I have found this results in an average of 50 cents PER transaction. That means every debit, every check. That can add to substantial amounts of money at the end of each month to get out of debt!!

2. The old “coins in a jar”. When I was younger that was our spending money on vacation. Usually there was about $120-$130 in the coin jar at the end of a year. It was a pretty good way to do things!

3. Take 5% of what you earn off the top and move it to savings before you pay a single bill. This, of course, means you need to be living within your means first.

Today I want to talk about what you’re saving for! One issue people who are out of balance run in to is what to do with that money. Savers see it as a safety net, a source of security, and go in to spasms of fear and guilt at the idea of spending a penny of it.  Spenders get itchy fingers as they see that balance climb. They begin to focus on all the things they’ve been denying themselves.

I suggest having two savings accounts. Longterm and Shortterm. Then name them. If you’re saving for new windows on your house or a new car, decide which account that is and how much of the money you save each month goes to that goal. By the same token decide how much of your money is for “Emergency Fund” and how high you’ll let that go. There needs to be a limit [I'd say a year's expenses] so you don’t become compulsive about it [yes, I'm talking to all the spenders out there.]

Have a goal for all the money in your account. And if you have to use some, build it back up. We’re going to explore this topic a bit more in this week’s webinar. We’re doing final testing the beginning of this week and everyone signed up for The Balance Sheet who indicated “Webinars” will be notified when enrollment is open.

In the meantime, use what you’ve learned here and we’ll look forward to talking to you again soon!

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Tiffany Colter is a passionate freelance writer whose credits include Today’s Christian, Charisma Magazine, Toledo Business Journal, and the Afictionado E-zine. Tenacious in her approach not only to create a great story, but also to mentor other writers, Tiffany can always be found in the presence of a book or laptop. A former world traveler who is fluent in three languages, she strives to reach those who are hurting around her.     She enjoys helping others build a strong business and writes a daily marketing blog for writers called the Writing Career Coach and a common-sense money management site, TheBalancedLife.com. Tiffany lives outside Toledo, OH with her husband, a recent cancer survivor, and their four girls.

Tags: Money Saving Ideas, money saving tips, saving

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 3:00 am and is filed under Attitude, Money Saving Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.