I don’t get paid once a week. I don’t get paid on the first and fifteenth either. Nope. In our family, the husband gets paid every other Friday and I get ten paychecks a year, given to me sometime between the first and the fifth of each month except July and August. While I did implement a lovely 52 week saving plan last year, and the year before, I wind up dipping into it, or forgetting, or whatever, because it just didn’t work with my payment schedule. So I made a 12 Month/24 Deposit Money Saver schedule.
This year, I’m going for broke (har har) and starting with seven dollars a week, and adding seven dollars a week each week thereafter. (See my damn chart people, it makes sense). I spend more than that on stupid shit I don’t need at Target on a weekly basis. I think this is doable. Last year, while I did need to use my savings, I did manages to save quite a few hundred dollars. If I had stepped up my savings game, I think I would still have some of that money in savings and not have waved goodbye to it a few months ago.
So, this is my plan. I make one deposit out of each of my husbands paychecks OR I make one large deposit out of mine, whichever is more doable at the beginning of the month. See, those four deposits were tripping me up. I know it sounds stupid, and a dollar here and there does add up, but some weeks I was down to a few dollars spendable in my checking account, and some weeks I had the whole months deposit available to make. I figure compressing this into anywhere from 12 – 24 deposits leaves less room for imagined wiggle room. No more “I’ll make that 5$ deposit next paycheck, it’s only 5$”
I know some of those numbers look scary and big! I know not everyone has that kind of money to set aside and *not* use every month, or any month. What makes this work for me is the realization that even the big month of December is only a total payment of 329$. That is less than my last car payment! So what you say? That means I know I can do it. I made a car payment of anywhere from 325$ – 450$ a month every month for almost five years because I was forced into borrowing almost 100% of my last car. It wasn’t even a super pricey car people. I just got fucked on the payments because I had no trade-in or savings to use to make a down payment. So first or last day of the month, I don’t care. That payment is being made to my bank account. This month is already transferred.
Go Big or Go Home people. I will have 2100$ more in my savings by December. That’s my minimum.
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