Save it!!

As I have mentioned, I have no savings.  Seriously, NO SAVINGS.  For an adult with 5 children to have nothing saved is, honestly, STUPID.  Lucky for me,  if I really needed something I could borrow it from my date, or actually I have a job that allows me to get small bonuses through the year.  But the fact remains, if I can’t save money, I will never be able to buy a bigger house, or take a nice vacation, or be prepared in case of an emergency.

How can I save money?  Obviously I don’t know.  People do it, even my dad does it and he is pretty horrible with money!

I have a few ideas that I am going to try.

I bank at PNC.  The PNC mobile app is actually pretty great.  There is a “money bar” that you can use to “slide” money into your savings account from your checking account.

Last year, and in the past I eat out for lunch, a lot.  Almost every day!  That is bad for me on so many levels.  Now I can’t pack my lunch every single day, I really love going out for lunch.  But, if I can bring my lunch 4 days a week and only eat out once a week, that would be great, and save me a lot of money.  The problem, if I save money by packing my lunch I will just fritter it away in other ways.   So what I am going to do is everyday that I pack my lunch, I am going to “slide” $5 over to my savings account.  I know that isn’t a lot, but it is a start .  That equals about $1000 a year.  To save $1000 in a year just by packing my lunch, and actually see that money in my savings sounds pretty great.

My husband’s paychecks are our savings account, so that is ok.  And actually that is the money that we use for car repairs, and other unexpected expenses.  We try not to touch that if we can avoid it.   His pay is about 20% of our total income.  Keep in mind he only works part time, because he is Mr. Mom.  With all our little ones, it would cost more for child care then he would bring home.

I also plan to move $10 into savings every time I go shopping for non-food items.  For example I will go t Target, and right as I’m leaving, I will remove one thing from my cart and transfer $10 to savings.

Each time I go a grocery store, even if I only buy a gallon of milk, I will slide $5 into savings.  Lets see how much I have in savings by the end of April.  That is one month, and one week.

Wish me luck!