Money Saving

[Scorpion (Girl)]

What specific plans or ideas have you used to lower your monthly spending, like budgeting techniques or spending habits? ? How have these changes helped you save money?

 

[InMyOpinion]

My boyfriend and I have a budged and we really stick to it. In the budget we have saving plans for emergency funds, retirement funds, rainy day funds, wedding fund, kids funds etc. Every time either of us get paid we get out our budget and see where the money will go. Don't get me wrong, we also have some money budgeted for fun, gifts etc. however we do have more in savings than we do for fun. The reason for that is because when we decide to have kids we want to be able to do things with the kids such as travel, go on vacation etc. We also want to be make sure that if our kids want to join a sport or extracurricular activity we can afford it. I never was able to do any sports or extracurricular activities because my parents just couldn't be bothered and honestly, I really wish I had done something after school. So, for me it is extremely important to be able to give that to my kids if they so choose to.

I used to be a spender and lived paycheck to paycheck and it really didn't bother me at the time. I grew up with a lot of death, depression and sadness around me so I lived like I wouldn't really live to my 30s. Though I never got into any heavy drugs (just marijuana and very little and not often at all.) I would make silly decisions because I never really thought I'd make it to see my 30th birthday. Now I'm 32 and I really wish I would have planned things differently. I didn't get myself in debt which I'm very proud and happy about but I also had no savings either. My mindset changed when I met my boyfriend and we would talk about our futwure and what kind of lifestyle we would want. Neither of us want to be rich in the sense of need expensive things or go on expensive trips to feel rich in life.

At first it was difficult for me to change my habits but what I ended up doing was writing what was important to me on a piece of paper and I stuck in on my debit card so every time I went to go pay for something I would see what I would potentially be missing out on because of my impulse buys or unnecessary purchases. This helped me a lot because it was a visual and I'm a visual person.

Now I tend to think about my future more than I think of the now and so I find it much easier to save when I know what I'm saving for and why.

I'm excited to see how other people are at saving money and what tips and tricks work for them.

 

[Cory]

I suck at saving money. When I reach a certain amount, I feel I must buy things I want on eBay. I don't go as crazy as I used to, try and always have X amount in my bank account, but I digress, I could be more disciplined when it comes to saving money.