Saving money is not easy, but years ago I learned an invaluable lesson. I was on a coach trip and one of the ladies told me that whenever she got a raise, she put that increase away in a savings account. She was on a fixed income and she said (mostly rightly) that if you had lived on that income for a year, then you could live without the raise.
So what I do is when I get paid once a month, I only put down in my check account balance the amount that I earned last year. And I work from that, only. If an emergency does come up, I do use it as I have that extra cushion that I have squirreled away each month. It is not as hard as it seems. If you get lots of money for your raise (could you adopt me?), then put a percentage away, say fifty or seventy-five. It really is quite painless. Again, I always had two/three and sometimes four jobs.
When I bought my first car, I did not want my standard of living to go down, so I earned enough money for gas and walking around money. Before you turn up your nose, I had some of the best part-time jobs that usually turned into full-time jobs. And my best friends came from those part-time jobs, and, let's face it, a fantastic friend is priceless. Thank you.
I'm extremely frugal, but one problem we've continually have these past few years, is that my husband will get a raise of say .25 per hour, or $10.00 per week. Not much, but still appreciated. Then, at the same time, what he pays on his health insurance will go up $15.00 per week, so we're already living $5.00 per week less than last year. This has happened at least the last 5 years. We're living on less than we were 5 years ago, and utilities and such are going up all the time. Things have always been hand-to-mouth, but I simply do not know what else we can do without. It gets so frustrating. We always seem to get by, but the last time my husband was hospitalized was extremely stressful. It made me realize how easy it could be to lose everything.
Another tip is when you receive your raise each year, increase the amount you are putting into your 401k. Even if you increase just 1% it will show in the end. I work with retirement plans and this is something that our company has started to use in marketing material and educational meeting with employees.
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Tip: If you get a raise, put that money in savings.
Archived on 12/28/2006
If you get a pay raise, or a bonus, pretend you didn't get it and continue to live within your previous budget. Put the extra money into savings every month.
