[mahreez]

Just want to know how people do it. i tried saving a portion of everything i earn for my savings, but then i always end up by spending it altogether. could really use the advice. thanks.

[pinksugar]

I wrote some tips on this in one of the the no buy support forum threads:

A. make a budget. Previously I'd just spend until there was no money left. This sucks if you are paid monthly like I am.

B. Anything you can pay in advance as soon as you get paid - do so. So, if you know you always go out to dinner on a saturday, put aside X amount for each week and keep it in an envelope until it's time to spend it. I do this with bus tickets, phone credit, my starbucks card and long-standing weekly 'dates' with my friends.

C. Only keep notes in your wallet. You will be less likely to spend them! If you do spend, remove any coins from your wallet and put them in a bucket, piggy bank or whatever when you get home. They will soon add up to a couple of hundred dollars!

D. Give yourself a goal. Mine is - I want to go overseas next year for my internship. It will be 3-4 months of unpaid, full time employment. I need savings to do this, therefore, I must make some before then! LOL.

E. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by my friends who are VERY savings conscious. They've really helped me and I realise I was ashamed of what I'd achieved. One friend has been working full time for 4 years and has $40 000. Meanwhile, I've been working part time/casually for even LONGER and I have NO savings from my work! I was really ashamed when I learnt that and it encourages to keep me on track. If she can do so well, so can I - she's an amazing inspiration.

D. This same friend said her rule is to spend half, save half. Obviously, some of the time I've been working I might only be earning $100 a week! (stupid casual employment!) but when you're working full time, or even part-time several days a week like I am now - it's possible to only spend half of your wage.

So there you go! Rosie's savings tips I hope these help - people save in lots of different ways but these are what I've found to work best for me. Good luck with your savings!

I would add to this that, I originally tried what you did - to put money into a separate account. It didn't work for me either, I would spend the money in both.

Instead, I keep my savings in my account until I get paid again - then I remove what I saved the previous month and put it into my savings 'tin' - because it's not on a card, the money isn't easily accessible, so I can't spend it.


Phew! I guess for some, saving is easy, but for me, I have to have all these things in place, and if I don't work at it, then nothing gets saved, lol

[magneticheart]

Great post Rosie!

I do the whole 'Only put notes in your wallet' thing. Then any change I have I put into a big jar and then put what I've saved in the bank at the end of the year, it's really amazing how dropping a few coins in every now and then builds up! Setting yourself a budget is the most important thing though. If I need to go shopping I'll put a certain amount of money in my pocket and buy what I need first then maybe treat myself, although seeing as I hate shopping that's not a big problem for me when I'm trying to save money. The big problem for me is not having money to spend on days out with friends but I guess you just have to try harder to do things that involve very little spending. As a very skint student I have to watch my money lol

[KristinaD]

My fiance and I have been listening to Dave Ramsey's CD series from Financial Peace University. Many would disagree with the way he goes about things (don't buy things on credit, make a monthly budget of EVERYTHING you're going to spend before you spend it, if you don't have the money for it..DOnt buy it)!!!

It's very practical...he used to be borderline bankrupt and now he's debt free and helps others to become debt free.

Website is: Real Debt Help - Get out of debt with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Plan. and his book "Total Money Makeover" is very useful!

[jmgjmg623]

Saving money isn't a hard thing for me to do. I just don't spend it. Example: I love makeup and fashion but I don't spend hundreds of dollars on it. I'd rather have my 4 cars, my nice big house, my 4 computers, and so on. Whether, it's in a bank account or here in the house, I just don't spend it unless I have to. Sorry, I couldn't offer any advice but hope it helps.

[Sreyomac]

There are 2 ways we save money:

We get paid every two weeks so i have highly estimated all the bills we have occurred for one month and divided that by 2(for each pay check) and that will be what is bills... the left over is what you get to spend or save. We just agreed on a set amount and stash it away. This way your saving,bills are paid with extra still in the account, and you know how much money is left your enjoyment until next payday.

Another way i save is to write all the transactions from my card or checks rounded up to the nearest dollar in my register. I paid for most of the Christmas gifts by using this method last year. It was nice to have over $600 in the bank I "saved" with little effort.

[áshna]

Im only 16, so i work part time once a week for 8.5 hours and get $90 for it.

So i put $50 into my Serious Savers Account, this is good, cause ive set it up so that im only aloud to take money out of the account through my dads internet banking account, so i have to listen to him lecturing me about how good saving is before i can actually get money out of that account - therefore i dont do that often lol.

and i put $40 a week in a little box that i made with foil, and i made it so that its easy to put money into it, but hard to take money out as you are running the risk of breaking the beautiful box. Therefore i dont like taking money out of that either. loll. and i just have a post it sittin on top so that i can keep track of much much money is in their without having to count it all the time.

I have been saving for about 6 months now and i have $1660 in my bank, but thatll go down to $1300 tommorow

but what i do to stop myself from spending is, take advantage of my laziness, and make it harrd for me to take money out, and make it easy to put money in.

NOTE:This is the only time being lazy is good for you!

[irnogs]

I've been using Quicken for a while and it's really simplified budgeting. There are a lot of built in tools that can help if you need a place to start. It's well worth the cost. I like that I can download new transactions from my online accounts so easily and reconcile all of my accounts.

As for budgeting, one of the things I do is schedule all of my bills 6 months in advance and calculate my future earnings and add that to the register. When I calculate my bills I always calculate high (usually round up the highest bill amount) and I calculate low on my earnings (just in case I end up sick a day - even though I do have paid time off it's nice to have breathing room). I then schedule savings and extra payments to debts as I can to use up most of what I have left in the register.

I do it this way so there isn't a ton of money sitting in my checking account after payday (since I've underestimated my earnings and usually work OT as well). I then allow myself to spend or save about 1/2 of what's left over. This gives me incentive to work more when I can and I don't have to stress about saving or paying my bills since it comes out of my paycheck right away.

[CellyCell]

Rosie gave good points.

And Rosers, I'm the same way - I see folks who saved up and bought cars while I'm here paying stuff out still. If I had saved, I would've have had over $15k easily and the other half go to whatever I wanted to spend and pay bills.

But I'm starting over again. I opened up a savings account and since being jobless practically MAKES you save, I've been good at budgeting and thinking ahead and separating money.

Last year I did pretty good saving money for 3 months - but after I went on a trip with those savings, eh - I couldn't get back on track. :/ This year I was just careless for some reason because I was always conscious about my money - even when I was jobless, I had saved enough to keep me going until I went back to work 3 months later.

The easiest thing one can do is just separate their money/check into 2. Cash is always easier, imo, to force to spend less and save the rest. Or take out cash for spending and leave the rest in a savings that won't let you touch it in a certain time period. There's accounts that give you that option and they give you interest - so you gain a bit more money that way.

[amanda1210]

I just think of it this way... there are so many little things that i dont need and so many major things that i dont need but i really want, or are important to me (like paying for college, saving up for a new car to lease when my lease for my jeep is up, and my vacation in August).

I help pay the bills in the house (families and mine) so my "allowence" from my 300+ paycheck every week is 120 dollars. i pretty much use 40-60 for gas depending on if my mom wants to pinch in 20 bucks, 15 for school parking and the other money is my "free" money to use which i save most of it, or put 20 aside for my phone bill every week or so cuz thats 55-60 a month. So im pretty much left with 15-20 a week and i just try to not buy anything at all so that i can save that money. I dont dare touch the money that i save unless its going to school tuition, my next cars down payment, or spending money for my vacation.

Just keep in mind that there are so many people worse off and that if people can save hundreds of dollars in a few months and yet live off a $100 week then you can too.

[Karren_Hutton]

It's easy for me... My wife does the bucget and she tells me if I can have some money or not... We also put 8% of what I earn in a company matching 401K plan and then we also save a protion to the local bank to save for what we need during the year.... This year is going to be especially rough with 2 in college... +$30,000 a year.... So there will not ba al lot of extra in mymakeup fund...

The big thing is no matter how much you make, set some aside in the bank as savings... it will really start to add up over time...

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by pinksugar

I wrote some tips on this in one of the the no buy support forum threads:

A. make a budget. Previously I'd just spend until there was no money left. This sucks if you are paid monthly like I am.

B. Anything you can pay in advance as soon as you get paid - do so. So, if you know you always go out to dinner on a saturday, put aside X amount for each week and keep it in an envelope until it's time to spend it. I do this with bus tickets, phone credit, my starbucks card and long-standing weekly 'dates' with my friends.

C. Only keep notes in your wallet. You will be less likely to spend them! If you do spend, remove any coins from your wallet and put them in a bucket, piggy bank or whatever when you get home. They will soon add up to a couple of hundred dollars!

D. Give yourself a goal. Mine is - I want to go overseas next year for my internship. It will be 3-4 months of unpaid, full time employment. I need savings to do this, therefore, I must make some before then! LOL.

E. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by my friends who are VERY savings conscious. They've really helped me and I realise I was ashamed of what I'd achieved. One friend has been working full time for 4 years and has $40 000. Meanwhile, I've been working part time/casually for even LONGER and I have NO savings from my work! I was really ashamed when I learnt that and it encourages to keep me on track. If she can do so well, so can I - she's an amazing inspiration.

D. This same friend said her rule is to spend half, save half. Obviously, some of the time I've been working I might only be earning $100 a week! (stupid casual employment!) but when you're working full time, or even part-time several days a week like I am now - it's possible to only spend half of your wage.

So there you go! Rosie's savings tips I hope these help - people save in lots of different ways but these are what I've found to work best for me. Good luck with your savings!

I would add to this that, I originally tried what you did - to put money into a separate account. It didn't work for me either, I would spend the money in both.

Instead, I keep my savings in my account until I get paid again - then I remove what I saved the previous month and put it into my savings 'tin' - because it's not on a card, the money isn't easily accessible, so I can't spend it.


Phew! I guess for some, saving is easy, but for me, I have to have all these things in place, and if I don't work at it, then nothing gets saved, lol

Very good tips! As basic as my budget gets is paying the necessities first (food, rent, gas, car, car insurance) and then i go to 2nd priorities on my list (phone, minor fix ups such as oil changes, or whatever comes up) and then i always buy at least one thing for me and the rest goes to savings. I dont' see the point of holding out completely on an item(within reasonable price) since i work all day. I think i'd go mad if i couldn't a little pick me up everytime i got paid.

[mahreez]

thanks for all the advice, i only got online today. today i tried not to buy anything even though i had money for it. coz i thought i'd try and save up first.

[Sirvinya]

My savings are in an account I don't have a card for. I have to actually go into the bank to pay in or take out. I usually pay in when I go to pay my credit card bill.

Also, all my monthly bills come out the day after payday. That way the money has gone straight away, I don't even see it.