Are you a saver?
By lizardgod
@lizardgod (443)
United States
February 13, 2011 6:58am CST
Do you think you are the type of person who has the natural habits to save money? In short, are you a saver?
I realized that even though I was not bad with money that I would spend more than I thought I was. It just seemed to go very quickly. I finally realized that it was more habit that it was anything else. I have always made decent money through my job and my little side endeavors to a point where I really haven't really ever worried about the things in life I need. I guess compared to some people I have a very frugal mindset, but I think a lot of that comes from growing up very poor. The bad part is that for the same reason I also had the habit of buying things I wanted when I could. After so many years of going through life and realizing that the actual savings I had accrued over the years was far less than they should have been I started to wonder why, and low and behold the answer was my habits. As a man who is willing to change aspects of my life to better myself that realization was the kick in the butt I needed to get me moving. So I decided to start with something simple, something to begin to change my habits so that I would naturally save a little more hear and there. I talked my girlfriend into doing this as well and it was amazing how fast it worked. What we have done is something you may have heard of before as a method to save but with a little twist. The first part is easy, we never spend change. Always use bills to pay for everything, if you are the kind of person that uses nothing but a credit/debit card then try and find one of those accounts that will round up and transfer the leftover change to another account. The twist you might ask, for every shift we worked we would take two dollars and turn them into quarters and add them to our change collection. At first we stuck with only adding quarters but after the mindset had be put into place it was very easy for us to leave bills alone and we were then able to not have to worry with that part, simply putting two bills in the collection.
After one month we decided to count the collection and were we shocked, over 200 dollars and we had never missed it, never even noticed. So now we are on out second month and we have decided that after this month is over we will increase it to three dollars per shift. The next step comes very soon as we are going out bank shopping looking for no/low risk investments to put the collection into. The end goal is at the end of the year we will take half of what is there and reinvest it and the other half we will use towards something fun. As we expect over $3000 in the account at the end of the year it is very likely that we will be able to pay for most, if not all, of a very nice cruise, something we have both been wanting to do.
Well after all that long and drawn out story I am still curious, are you a saver? Well if you are, or if you are not, I hope you at least liked the story and maybe found a tool that you can you use in your own life to not only better your own habits but your life and level of fun as well.
Thanks for all the responses and for reading.
2 people like this
8 responses
@katie0 (5203)
• Japan
14 Feb 11
Very much. The only time I spent money and regret it was like a decade and something ago, after that as my money is gone I never did it again, I regret it to have more than a month to live without anything.
I save even buying things that are just cents cheaper. I save it a lot. I turn off the lights all the time and stuff like that. Not only for the money, but to be green too.
@lizardgod (443)
• United States
14 Feb 11
Yeah I do that too, drives my girlfriend nuts. I will work through the house and turn every light off behind me. I think it is just part of the mindset because she has started to do the same thing a little bit more now that she started setting the change aside. All I can say is keep it up and I am sure that sometime in the future you will see the benefits for sure.
@lizardgod (443)
• United States
13 Feb 11
Of course there are needs. The question is not so much your needs but the little things here and there that add up over the course of a year that you could have set aside to earn a little extra cash. One of the smallest and most simple things that I have ever seen is price shopping at a local retail store. As a tiny example lets take something like toilet paper. 4 packs of it cost around $3 for the better stuff ( I will never use cheap TP no matter how much it saves lol). On the other hand when you look at the larger packs of the same brand and type you will find that instead of $0.75 a roll that you can easily drop it down to $0.30 a roll. For something that never goes bad, and that you will always need you can save something small like this $0.45 a roll. Assuming you use only one roll a week that is $23.40 a year in only a single product in your household. Little things like seeing these saving and taking the opportunity will add up in the long run.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
13 Feb 11
Most of my income is deposited directly into a checking account and I pay bill from that account. I have done two things. First I have a small amount $50 deposited directly into a savings account. At the end of the month I transfer any extra money into savings. I can do this because I take out spending money as I need it and it shows up right away as being removed from the account. Each month I can transfer between $20 and $100 per month. This is my emergency fund.
@lizardgod (443)
• United States
13 Feb 11
That is a great alternative for people who prefer paperless/paperlite lives. I am sure that one day, if it hasn't already happened, you will be really glad to have that emergency fund.
@Linda4ualways (2282)
• United States
13 Feb 11
I have a jar I put pennies and other coins in and hope it turns out to be worth it next year. I want to go shopping for black friday.
@lizardgod (443)
• United States
13 Feb 11
If you never spend your change from a day to day basis whenever you buy something it will add up quick, fast, and in a hurry. Hope you get that shopping spree, I honestly think you can't find a better day of aggressive shopping than black friday.
@srganesh (6340)
• India
14 Feb 11
that is a good example to follow by everybody and is quite easy too. just starting with the changes alone to savings and eventually it will show the taste of accumulating more and more. well, I am a good saver as a kid. I use to save my pocket money and try to get things i liked so much, ofcourse my dad will spare the rest. But he appreciated my motivation. But now, as an adult I have forgotten simply about savings. But I am motivated again by your story. Thanks!
@sender621 (14893)
• United States
13 Feb 11
I give it my best effort to be a saver. i often don't succeed in my endeavors. I tend to be a bit more of a spender. I am working at trying change these habits. My financial world will be so much better off for it.@lizardgod (443)
• United States
13 Feb 11
One of the most interesting aspects of changing my habits even in the smallest way was that I was able to set aside a decent amount without even knowing it, and to then set that amount aside to earn interest and before you know it there is a decent chunk of money ready to be invested for your future.
@dreamsharmin (2281)
• China
13 Feb 11
Yes i am a saver. I save some money. Now i stay so far from my family for my study and here i live alone and my father send me money for my cost. When ever he send me money i just took some money and save it to my Piggy bank. My habit start from 2 years back. Last year when i go back home i gave my saver money to my mom. And she become so happy though she didn't use the money but she became so happy. And from last year to now i am still saving money. For two purpose this time one is i would like to buy a laptop for my younger brother and when again i will go back home then i want to donate some money to poor people though i am also a poor person but i know in this there is so many people who's condition is down then me. I want to help them. I want to help such a family. So that's why i am saving money. And sometime when my father do late to send money then i use that money and again put that amount what amount i took from my piggy bank.So my this habit also safe me from big problem. Because it's really hard to get land money in foreign country.
So i save money and always suggest my friend to save money.
