Remember as a kid saving every coin you could get your hands on and hiding it away in your money box? Then once a week - or more if you were me - sneaking a butter knife to your room to pry open the fidgety opening at the bottom and shaking out all your coins to see if you had saved enough for that must have new toy? Aaahh the memories.
Sadly as we grow up we tend to lose the joy in saving coins. But the joy is the only thing to fade because all those coins still hold their value and each one takes you a step closer to your dream/goal.
That's where savings jars come in. We're too old for money boxes and piggy banks as adults they're called savings jars.
Savings jars can either be just that or they can become a loose change dish. Ours went from being a crappy old jar that fell off the fridge and smashed into a thousand pieces to a loose change dish on the kitchen bench, the money wasn't being saved it was being used if we had to run up to the store for milk, or you know the emergency fish and chip lunch.
That changed this weekend. I found this tutorial for a Disneyland funds saving jar and I was immediately motivated.
And can I just take a moment to say that as a huge disney fanatic I am thrilled at how many people have disney savings funds set up, it's still obviously the happiest place on earth - just maybe not the cheapest.
See the good thing about savings jars is they are homemade and therefore can look however we want them too.
So back on track I searched the house till I found an old coffee jar and raided the kids toy room for the perfect motivational piece. For us it's an aeroplane. Ultimately all our goals end with us travelling. We want the house first so we are settled and then we can hit the road and see this amazing world we live in. So I stuck the plane on top of the jar painted it with spray paint hubby had stored in the shed - I thought the silver would look better than sunflower yellow - and hey presto one motivational savings jar ready for use.
The loose change dish was emptied into the new jar, the jar was placed beside our hard copy motivational board that I spoke about yesterday and our savings corner was ready to go.
It was once it was all set up that I thought of a big problem. I hardly ever have cash on me, ever. I don't go out a lot and when I do go out I tend to go for the ease of the debit card. Now if we are to carry on doing it that way my motivational savings jar is never going to fill up so here are some options on how to use your savings jar.
*Withdraw your budgeted spending amount each pay day and keep it in your purse. This should stop you over spending on unnecessary items which itself will help toward your savings goal but also if you put any loose change into the jar after each shopping trip the jar will soon fill up.
*If you know you tend to have money to spare at the end of each pay week still withdraw your spending money but instead of loose change try the $5 note trick. Anytime you get a five dollar note as part of your change when shopping put it in a separate part of your purse and once you get home put it straight in the savings jar. If you manage this option you'll see yourself needing to take a trip to the bank sooner rather than later to make a deposit.
*Get your significant other to get in on the action too. Have them empty the loose change from their wallets/purse at the end of each pay week. If your house is like mine you'll see more change come from hubby's wallet than your own purse.
*Don't just stick to silver. when I say all your loose change goes in the jar I mean the shiny gold ones too. As tempting as it is to hold on to them throw them in the jar and watch your dream get closer. Gold adds up quick.
Do you have any tips to offer that I missed? Let us know and share the motivation.
Skye.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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