52 Week Money Challenge - Week 9

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 $9.00 should be transferred to your savings account. We are up to $45.00 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?

Challenge Total Week 8 = $45.00 

TIPS BELOW...

So far we have started bringing our lunch, cut back on travel expenses, and taken a long hard look at our finances. Hopefully, after looking at your finances you found some more places to cut back.

This week, start your Spring Cleaning. Clean out your closets, your bookshelves, anything you can find that you can SELL. Craigslist and Ebay are the obvious options to sell unwanted things, but also look into bartering. Bartering can help you and others get the goods and services they need without spending money....and the best part...you don't have to spend any money. Try BarterQuest or Tradeaway...

Even if you missed weeks 1 through 8, you can still get started today. Deposit $36 into a savings account and you will be caught up.

Keep Up the Good Work!