Have you saved this week?

The other day I posted this, and since today is payday, it means I can catch up to week five and deposit 15$ into my savings account. I also set up an automatic transfer for next Friday for 6$ for week six. Why not just move both weeks at the same time? So I can watch my savings every week in my ledger!

I’m going one step farther though. My kids each have a savings account. This could get crazy expensive if I try to do the same savings plan for them – I just can’t afford it – but I can promise put at least 2$ a week (6$ total) in each of their accounts. It isn’t much, but it will turn into at least 104$ each by the end of the year. That’s not including gift money or the odd random transfer over as well. You know, when I was a kid Farmers Bank came to my grade school once a week (once a month?) and had a little stand on wheels they took to each classroom. We were able to open a real savings account and get a passbook and deposit our change (literally!). How awesome would it be for a bank to do that now? I had to open my kids accounts myself and teach them how to use a deposit slip. The banker we used at the time thought it was awesome I was doing that. Well how on earth are they supposed to learn otherwise?

So, are you following along? If you are, we should have at least 36 untouchable dollars in our accounts on the 8th. Are you putting money in your kids accounts too? Do your kids have savings accounts? If not, just because or is there a reason? I’m really curious. My parents didn’t teach me how to save, and obviously, I am still trying to really learn how to save more than a few hundred dollars at a time. We are paycheck to paycheck, just like so many others, and some weeks that paycheck just isn’t enough, let alone setting aside hundreds or thousands of dollars “for a rainy day”. My tax refund is already mostly spent (which is another post altogether! Maybe later…) and it hasn’t even been deposited yet! So yah, learning to save actual money, not just save on what gets spent.