52 Week Money Challenge - Week 10 - The 30 Day Rule

So far we have started bringing our lunch to work, used the Latte Factor, cut back on travel expenses, taken a long hard look at our finances, negotiating your bills, and found way to make money (or other things you need) by bartering. Hopefully, after looking at your finances you found some more places to cut back.

One huge drain on everyones finances is impulse buys. Now that we have started cutting back in little ways, it's time to focus on the big money drainers. We all want something that we can't afford and spend little time thinking about the effects of our purchases. How do we combat these impulse buys that are draining our finances?

Develop a 30 day rule for items that cost over $100 (I say $100 because I don't feel comfortable impluse buying anything that expensive, develop your own LOGICAL number). The purpose of waiting 30 days is to really think about the purchase. Do you need it or do you want it? You may find that over those 30 days, you may not even remember how bad you originally wanted the item. If you do still want it after 30 days, you can develop a plan as to how you will pay for it over those 30 days.

10 weeks in, these simple changes should start to become a habit. These are life changes not just to complete the 52 Week Money Challenge. The goal is to change the way you handle your finances and your life.

Challenge Total Week 10 = $55.00 

Saving money is hard. It takes discipline and self-control to stick with the plan you developed.  This year why not make it easy on yourself?

I am a huge fan of ING (ING has been bought by Capital One and will become Capital One 360. Doesn't look like much will change...). ING lets you automate your savings so you don't have to think about it. The greatest feature is that it takes a couple days to get money transferred back to your checking account. There are a couple ways around this, but not being able to touch the money in your ING accounts is great for medium/long term savings goals.

If you have an ING, or other savings account, simply automate your savings transfers each month according to the chart below and watch the money stack up.

If you don't have a savings account, GET ONE! Not just for this challenge but everyone needs at least one savings account - with an Emergency Fund.

This week $10.00 should be transferred to your savings account. We are up to $55.00 this year.

Things from this point on will start to grow pretty quickly. How are you doing? Any savings light bulbs going off? Have you planned what you are going to do with the money at the end of the year?

Even if you missed weeks 1 through 9, you can still get started today. Deposit $45 into a savings account and you will be caught up.

Keep Up the Good Work!