I am a Mormon stay-at-home-mom of six. Yeah, I know, "that's a lot of kids"! Sometimes it truly is A LOT. Most of the time it's not. It's simply put...our normal. On my page you'll find spiritual thoughts, tales of trials, happy moments, recipes, funny stories, and more. Enjoy!!






Tuesday, January 5, 2016

So, you want to save some money this year??

I've been thinking a lot about all of these money saving challenges that have been floating around the web; on Facebook and Pinterest, etc. It's the start of the new year and everyone is trying to do better in many areas of life.  Saving money seems to be a big area to focus on.

I even got a new 2016 calendar out with the intention of writing the amount I planned to spend each day or week on it.  But before I started writing I wanted to be sure which plan or challenge I wanted to completely commit to for the year.

There's the Penny Challenge:

.01 on day 1
.02 on day 2
.10 on day 10
1.00 on day 100
3.65 on day 365

At the end of the challenge you will have saved $667.95.  That's a nice chunk of change.

A friend of mine suggested that if you have more income in the beginning of the year you could switch this around and start on day one saving $3.65 and go backwards.  Great idea!

The Dollar Challenge:

1.00 at week 1
2.00 at week 2
52.00 at week 52

By the end of the year you will have saved $1378.00.  That's pretty sweet!


As I started really looking closely at each of these challenges, I realized that the last few months you would have to save a substantial amount.  That means that if you were doing the penny challenge, beginning in January, you would be trying to scrape together $108.50 during the month of December.  If you're doing the Dollar Challenge you would have to scramble to come up with $202.00. You might have to jump several hurdles along with flying through a flaming hoop to get this done!

Now, I don't know about you, but when you're "poor" or don't have any, and I mean zero, extra money each month, this just isn't going to happen.  There's no way to do it.  There is no way on this beautiful planet to come up with that kind of money.  Unless someone has come up with a way to grow money on trees.  Point me in their direction, because, I want in!

These money saving challenges all sound wonderful...in theory.

And I LOVE when "they" say something fits all budgets or is low cost.  I don't know who "they" are, but "they" probably have more money than I do.  Haha! Or a smaller number of dependents...

I decided I wanted to see just what I'd need to save each month if I wanted to have $1000 by the end of November.  Can we all just laugh out loud for a minute please, because I only wish I could come up with this amount each month...extra...on top of bills and necessities.  I would need to have approximately $90 each month to reach my $1000 goal.

Yes, I can laugh about it right now.  It's far better to laugh than to worry and bemoan my situation.  It is what it is.  And I know it won't last forever.  So, I try to see the positives.  There are a lot of positives!

Instead I've decided that I'm going to do my own money saving challenge that is something I can actually tackle.  Plus, I realize that there are many many people, besides myself, in the world who simply don't have the kind of income that could accommodate these savings plans.

I looked at my finances to see where our money is going.  I searched for unnecessary spending.  Once I found that and added it up I figured out how much money we could save each month.  I've decided to save a certain amount from each paycheck.  It may be small, but it'll be more than we had before. And THAT, my friends, is what really matters.

Whether I choose to save $5 each pay check or $20 from each check, at least I'll be saving.  Even if the amount changes each time, I've made a decision to save, even a little, each month.

#thepennychallenge
#thedollarchallenge
#moneysavingideas
#savingmoneywhenyourepoor
#chooseyouramounttosave










1 comment:

  1. Good idea that is my idea too now I just have to practice it :)

    ReplyDelete