Remember the "Dollar a Day" challenge? Well, i'm tweaking it.
The Dollar a Day challenge was all about dropping a dollar in my cup every work day (i stole the idea from Counting My Pennies), thus easily saving a few hundred each year.I initially rocked it out, getting up to the early $100's, but sadly i have tuckerd out...You know that site failblog.org? Well, stamp a big ol' Pwnd on me cuz I ain't added a single $1 bill in over 5 months! I blame it all on my memory. It's a shame too as it was one of my first blog "challenges". Maybe you all had better luck?
At any rate, rather than give up on it 100%, i figured i'd give it another go - except this time taking a different route. I'm gonna try unloading all my $1 bills from my money clip each Friday, and putting them into a cup @ home.
Tweaking a similar idea from SmartSpending, I'll add them all up at the end of 6 months and pad my sexy Savings account! A bit of a twist, eh? The amounts would probably be lower than the $1 a day idea, but i'm hoping the "following through" part will take over, thus leaving me with MORE money than planned.
You see, the hard part about the other plan was mainly REMEMBERING to place a dollar each work day in my cup. This new route only requires me to remember something ONCE a week ;) And on a Friday, when i'm nice and relaxed. Plus, i don't have to worry about breaking a $5'er or $10'er if i don't have a dollar in my pocket every work day.
If i end the week with zero Washingtons in my pocket w/ this game plan, i simply deposit nothing in my cup. But if i have 8 singletons hanging in there, then i drop all 8. Nice and simple, just how i like it ;)
Will i tucker out like the last challenge? Perhaps, but at least i'm still hangin' in there.
Labels: challenges, saving, updates
posted by J. Money at
11:06 AM
16 Comments:
I would think that remembering once a week would be more difficult than on a daily basis. On the other hand I would have problems having the single dollar on a daily basis.
Good luck with setting some cash aside!
Suggestion (because I agree with Matt): Set yourself an automated email reminder every Friday at 10am, and don't open or delete it until you do it. I use this trick for a few things, like paying my credit card bill (which I always forget to do in January, for some reason - ouch!).
I just don't ever use cash anymore, I would get more from the keep the change kind of programs on credit cards. However I am closing in on my second check from chase for $250 for the year! So getting $500 for spending using my card instead of cash wins out.
Other than buying banannas how often do you use cash?
I don't carry much cash anymore either, and every dollar is pretty much budgeted, but I do have the classic "Change jar" on my desk and that baby is getting pretty heavy. I am starting to look forward to turning it in!
I rarely use cash either. But I like the new challenge. Good luck!
J money, I hate to ask but whatever happened to the wedding pictures?
haha...Lord knows i love those bananas! the only other times i use cash is for work lunches a few times a week, beers out at the bars (so my c/c doesn't get over charged),or random little things here and there that i don't want to budget for ;)
@Kate - that's a good idea, except i'll have to do it that night when i get home from work - it does work for other things i have to do during work hours though ;) shh...
@Dawn - time for Coinstar! i'm totally hitting that up again here shortly...it's been about 8 months since my last visit!
And oh man, don't even get me started on the WEDDING PIX! just for you though, i'll go ahead and make an update here shortly ;) it's nothing good though. that f'er...arghhhhhh!
Think it'd be any easier if you guys had dollar (and two-dollar) coins like us up here in Canada, eh? It's easy to dump your loonies and toonies in the change jar when it's all a bunch of metal.
loonies and toonies!! boy, haven't heard those names since i was 8 years old addicted to Nickelodeon ;) But hell yeah, it would be much easier...esp to get rid of all that coin in the pocket - yikes.
Hmm, if I saw a guy with a couple of hundred dollar bills in a cup, I would assume he was saving up for a night at a cheap strip club. :-)
Far easier (and cleaner) to set up ACH transfers, though I believe most banks have a minimum of around $5 per transaction.
that sounds like a great idea --- i may have to try that!
If I carried cash, I would definitely do something like this, but I've found that if I use cash, I tend to spend more than if I use my debit card. But, the editor of my blog's parent site, YoungMoney.com is actually doing something similar to this in a series about saving $1000 by Black Friday (as in the day after Thanksgiving, not the day of the Stock Market crash). I can't believe how much she's saved already and she only started a month ago.
I just came across this one. Wouldn't it be easier to set up an auto draft to ING (or something like it) for $7 per week?
hum...yes, that indeed would make it easier! haha....are you telling me that i should probably start doing this again? cuz if so, you're one ;)
Yep, that is what I'm saying, but do it the lazy way by auto draft. Maybe it is just me, but if I have to remember it, it won't get done. If it automatically comes out of my account and automatically entered into my Money software (another awesome feature) it will get done. I am sure you have enough on your plate to remember. And will you really miss $7 a week? Probably not. Another trick is once you have the weekly auto draft set up (weekly because it is a smaller amount so it looks easier to handle) every 4-6 weeks increase your amount by $2-5. Before you know it you will have a kick butt Travel/Christmas/Suprise the Mrs. or whatever you want to call the account.
oh yeah, i'd def. agree it makes it easier! maybe i'll try it for a month or two and see what happens...i pretty much save a few hundred every month anyways (extras from my budget), but this could only help. thanks for hollering!
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