Little Ways I Like to Save Money

Hi friends!  Today, I was thinking about Christmas and Black Friday shopping and I just wanted to share the little ways I've been saving for these major shopping occasions.  I know, I know.  Christmas and Black Friday are more than half a year away, but there's no better time than now to start saving.  AmIright?

For starters, the most popular method I've used to save for Christmas shopping this year has been the 52-week savings challenge.  In this challenge, you save the amount of $$ corresponding to the week of the year.  For example, if this were the 11th week of the year, I would put $11 into my savings envelope and if next week were week 12, I would put in another $12.  If you are going to attempt this challenge this week, you could either start at week 1, put the sum of the 11 week total into the envelop, or start at week 11.  I like this challenge because it is simple, it creates a habit, and it's a challenge.  My goal is to touch $0 of this money until the holiday season rolls around.    Now, for those of  you high rollers out there who say $1378 (the final sum of 52 weeks of savings) is not enough for the holiday season, you can double or triple your savings every week to get double or triple the amount saved!  Simple enough, right?  There are a bunch of charts that people have made online, just google "52-week money savings challenge".

The following blogs have great 52 week challenge charts:
thebudgetinstablog.com
being-ladylike.blogspot.com

Via

I adopted my second way of saving from Budgets are Sexy.  On his blog, J. Money introduced Digit, which is a free service that automatically withdraws small amounts of money from my account based on my spending habits so that I don't notice when the money is withdrawn.  The Digit account is linked to my bank account and the company is FDIC insured.  I also like that I'm able to withdraw the money whenever I wish or close my Digit account if I'm not happy.  Throughout the week, I receive texts that tell me $0.48 or $10 has been withdrawn from my account, but because their system is bomb.com, the only time I notice when the money has been withdrawn is when they notify me by text.  I also like that the frequency of text messages can be customized so that I can change how often they tell me what my balance is.  It's only been a month and Digit has been able to save me about $48 so far.  This isn't a whole lot, but it's $48 more than what I would have saved on my own without Digit.

The last way that I've been saving is by having a small % of my bi-weekly paycheck withdrawn and direct-deposited into a separate savings account so I don't even see the money.  This way, I don't have to remember to transfer the money and I'm saving without even thinking about it!  If you don't get direct deposit or you work for yourself, I totally recommend committing to paying yourself a certain % of your paycheck whenever you get paid.  Pay yourself before you spend!

For each of these challenges, I have placed deadlines for my savings goals.  This way I know when I can and can't touch the money and ensures I don't withdraw money prematurely.  I hope this post gave you some ideas!  If you save differently, I would really like to know what your methods are!  Let me know in the comments below!