Saving Makes Me Smile

My 'on sale' boots bought me this 1.94L Soap for FREE!

Earlier in the week, I received my Canadian Tire Scratch Card.  You know the one, where when you scratch and win up to $5000?  Well, of course I planned for it to be the scratch-and-win $5.00 card that most of us will get and looked for the deals.   I found a 1.94L Soft Soap Hand Soap Refill on sale for $4.51 regular $15.81.  Plus, I found my Rubber Boots (seen above) on sale for $23.72 regular $33.89.  Less my $5.00 Scratch Card - total savings were $26.47.  I paid $23.23 total! In other words - I paid sale price for the boots and got the hand soap free.  Savings of 53% overall.  Plus we earned a little Canadian Tire Money which we save towards Christmas Gifts. 

 

Okay..now...

 

On to Zellers.  I waited until the bitter end of this chain to get a few deals for our summer trailer. It was worth it.  Along with some much needed socks and brita filters, we purchased all our bedding and a storage unit for 60% off.   On our total bill we saved $95.88 ... but wait we only spent $72.65.  WE SAVED MORE THAN WE SPENT - It would have cost us $168.53 but we saved almost 60%.

 

Today we (hubby and daughter excitedly in on the deals) saved - $122.35. 

 

P.S. I really love my boots.

 

 

 

 

 

Budget

I hate this word and frankly we fail at keeping to one.  We’ve racked up debt and both hubby and I lean towards impulse spending.  I’ve watched my own parents go bankrupt.  I recognized too that there are things I really want to be part of my life and future– and chasing the almighty dollar was not one of them. 

Past tense : We were unhappy and needed to take our financial lives by the reins.

The funny thing – wait for it – I am a bookkeeper for a local non-profit.  I track their money, reconcile their accounts, track the budget and suggest areas of improvement. I hear you laughing.     A debt-addled individual bookkeeping when she doesn’t even keep her own books.

Last April, I changed this.  I purchased (online) the same software I use at work and began to track our spending.  At first we didn’t change any of our habits but we looked at areas that we felt we spent too much.  It turned out that we found three areas that our money was ‘leaking’.

1.      Fast Food  (over $1800 per year? Chips, Pop, Convenience Stores, Take Out)

2.      Gym Membership ($700 a year and we were not getting there more than once a week)

3.      Vehicle Expenses (Specifically Insurance and Fuel).

These are the area’s we budgeted first and began to practice changing habits.  Fast food is now a travel-only treat.  Our Gym-Membership was cancelled except for our daughter – whose membership can be entered as a tax-credit on our federal forms.  And our vehicle expenses: 1) we shopped around for insurance rates and found one that saved us $1400 a year and 2) I decided that 3 days a week, May 1 – October 1^st,  I will be biking to work (That is 63 days of biking 9kms or 567km saved in gas.  It also makes up for the cancelling of a gym membership).

Budgeting is a learning curve.  We are still struggling in some areas but we continue to WATCH our finances and improve the ‘leaks’.

Here is a link to a great resource if you are interested in starting a budget.  Ten steps - just ten steps:  Canadian Budget Binder

 

 

Saving in a Jar

 

 

Here is a simple way to practice saving we learned from practicing with our daughter.
Here is how it works with a young child.

1) Put three clear ½ pint jars on his/her dresser.
2) Label 1: Save, 2: Spend 3: Give.
3) Now pay her a monthly allowance. A suggestion I’ve widely seen is $1.00 x their age per week. When she was 5 we started this practice by giving her $20.00 a month in loonies and toonies. She had the responsibility to pick one item to save towards (at 5 ...years old this was a Tinkerbell doll for $19.95).

4) With her $20.00 in hand she divided the amounts between the 3 jars.

At first, all her money went into spending and believe me it was spent very quickly. After a few weeks though, when we asked how much she had saved towards her doll she started to listen to our suggestion to put some money into savings and giving. I think it took us only 3 months for her to acquire that first doll. At the store she paid the attendant for the item and walked out proud as a peacock. The next few weeks she was putting more and more aside to save for items then before. She also has learned that the smile on the faces of the people you give money to for charity is a reward in its own.

Now that she is 10, we do it a little differently.
1) She has a notebook with 4 columns: 1 Save, 2 Spend, 3 Give 4 Balance.
2) She receives $40.00 a month allowance. This time NOT in cash.
3) On paper, practicing her grade 4 math skills we work out splitting the monies between Save/Give/Spend. If money is put on paper into savings – she adds that to her working balance of Savings (fourth column).

4) We transfer the money out of our bank account into a savings account that we opened when we began her RESP.

5) The money she chooses to give and spend is given to her in cash and we donate the one and she has charge of the other.

This year, because she knows that savings work – she has chosen to save for a larger $200.00 item. She also picked between 5 charities and choose to give her money to a local father to help him pay for his cancer treatment (she doesn’t want his child to lose a daddy). She does not have a DEBIT card. All amounts are cash only.

Get it? Sorta?
One jar Save, one jar Give, one jar Spend.

Now, for us grownups who love our debit cards. Here’s the deal: you NEED to see your savings grow.

1) Set 3 glass 1L jars on your bedroom dresser. Label Spend, Give, Save.
2) Pay yourself a small weekly practice allowance (even if it is $10.00/40bucks a month! do it! We do $20.00 a week) Get the money in small bills and coin (5’s, Twoonies and Loonies).

3) Divide your money. Put the lids on and practice taking only from the jar for that activity. You want a Timmies’ coffee – pull from spend. You would like to donate 3 cans of food the local food bank, buy three cans and donate. You CANNOT switch money from any jar to the other until the end of the month.

At the end of the month her are the ADULT options -->

A) Savings:
i) Put Savings in the bank into a separate Savings account.
ii) Leave Savings and continue to build it in the jar.
iii) Spend Savings because you have reached your goal.

B) Spending monies left over: Automatically put these into Savings.
C) Giving money left over - continue to build this jar or donate immediatly
D) Put your new month’s money divided between the three jars.

This system is not your savings for a new car, or 10% you pay yourself from each check. This is visual practice with smaller amounts for miscellaneous items bought weekly. I spend mine on tea, a sub lunch, lip balm etc. My savings this month are for a badly needed highlight job (Shh.... I’m a real blonde - as the roots grow out it encourages me to save more.)

Try it. We’ve practiced this for years and although it has been one step forward and two back sometimes. We can see when we are improving and we defiantly are happy with the money-tips we are teaching our daughter.

Let me know what you think. Who’s going to try it this month?