I was asked to attend a wedding in Africa in December of 2014.
My first thought...how am i going to afford a trip like that!??
I am very good at budgeting and i am also good at traveling! I am really good at researching and finding good deals. and thank goodness for things like Groupon that make it easier to travel and get great deals on activities and places to eat.
I was doing my usual blog browsing and i came across this graphic:
What you do is you get a jar...box...can...Tupperware...you get whatever you want and each week you deposit a certain amount of money in it.
By the end of the year you should have OVER $1000 to do what you need to do with it.
My weakness is going to starbucks. They have an amazing passion tea that I LOVE buuuut i does not agree with my budget each month. my solution: i found a very similar tea on Amazon that i purchased (for a really good price) and i will make my own tea. The excess money that i will have each week/month from those extra expenses that i am cutting back on will go towards this challenge.
So at the end of the year when i am ready to go on my trip, i will have MORE than enough spending money to have fun with! I will not have to wait and fit the trip into my budget at the end of the year. I will not have to stress about not being able to enjoy some good food or go shopping while i am there!
So this is my challenge for the year.
Who else would like to join?
Is anyone else doing any other challenges?
Please feel free to share! :-)
I called myself trying this last year. It didn't work so well. At that time I was getting paid monthly so I would take care of all my money setting aside at one time. I found another way to save money in a MSN article that suggested different ways to save. I picked two. Save every $5 bill you get and save all coins made before the year you were born. I was able to save more money with the $5 bills and I'm actually still saving the coins.
ReplyDeleteBUT anyway you choose to save money that works is golden. I hope this works so that you can enjoy yourself in Africa!!
I love this idea! I'm going to try it! Just not with a set amount - I'll throw change in, which there's always a lot of in my wallet, and when it adds up at the end of the year, I"ll get myself a treat with it. Or travel somewhere maybe?!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great idea!
I did this last year in January (2013) and it was great. What I did was put all my savings in a Christmas Club account at one of my banks (which you could just start a Christmas Club account with $1). It worked better for me this way because you are penalized if you try to withdraw any of the money -- who wants to be penalized with your own money??? So of course I never tried to withdraw any. They send you a check of it all in December and you have money for Christmas or for whatever. It went well I didn't follow the chart to the "T" but I ended up saving $360 bucks that I didn't save in prior years.
ReplyDeleteHope you meet your goal!!!
I meant to say they send you a check in October.
ReplyDeleteThe 52 week challenge is awesome on how it lured people to start a saving lifestyle and stop doing some of the most common money mistakes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.21stcenturynews.com.au/5-common-money-mistakes/
I am actually doing this savings challenge this year too. So far I am on track! My biggest challenge is having the cash to put in the jar. I don't really carry a lot of cash, but so far I am making it work. Good luck to you. I hope it's going well. My goal is to also use the money saved for travel. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Saving!