I decided to count my Saved Savings Challenge monies right up until July 1. The grand total was:
$286.02
That’s a lot more than I thought it would be. That’s because I figured since I don’t do much shopping, my saved savings wouldn’t be super-high.
Shows what I know.
Among the savings were some obvious ones: using coupons, cashing in Walgreens Balance Reward scrip to pay for needed purchases, getting a payment from the Mr. Rebates cash-back shopping site.
Also some that wouldn’t work for everyone: using a rewards credit card that gives 2 percent cash back for my purchases, picking up a package of Reynolds Oven Bags for $1 at the thrift store, ordering discounted gift cards on the secondary market (saving just over $51). Not everyone has access to thrift stores, or wants to deal with discounted gift cards, or can’t/won’t) get a rewards credit card.
Depending on whom you ask, at least two of my hacks might not be considered “saving” at all. For example, I included the money I didn’t spend after talking myself out of going for fast food* on several occasions. And I was tasked to review a local musical that I’d otherwise have paid to see, thereby “saving” on the $28 ticket. (Getting paid to go, too.)
Are either of those a stretch? Maybe. But as I said at the beginning of this challenge, each participant gets to make the rules.
So how did you guys do? And what are you saving for, anyway?
What dreams will your savings fuel?
My own fund is earning 2.2 percent interest at Ally Bank. Ultimately the money will go toward a trip to London, probably in spring 2021. My daughter (whose blog many of you read) suggested we make this journey together and I thought it was a grand idea. Ideally, my 20 months’ worth of stashed saved savings will cover a big chunk of my expenses.
We’re definitely frugal-hacking it: Abby is getting a new travel rewards card, and estimates she’ll earn enough points for at least five nights in a London hotel. Between now and then I’ll be accruing Alaska Airlines miles. It’s my main carrier, for obvious reasons, but it’s also a partner with an airline that flies direct from Phoenix to Heathrow.
Enough about me. What are you doing with your saved savings? Will they go toward the holidays, a special trip, a graduation present, a wedding?
Or do your dollars have even more serious work to do: additional mortgage payments, retirement planning, an emergency fund** or maybe a “pay for next car with cash” project? Please share your goals in the comments.
Here’s hoping that your saved savings challenge turned out as surprisingly well as mine did. In fact, here’s hoping yours far, far excelled my own stash.
As noted, I’m planning to keep the Saved Savings Challenge going until I leave for London. Chances are that I will continue after I return, too. Professional musicians still practice; they may even play scales. This challenge, then, is a reminder to me that dollars could be slipping through the cracks.
It isn’t that I can’t afford that movie popcorn or a paperback at the secondhand bookstore. It’s that I want to know what my money is doing. My oft-repeated mantra is “I save where I can so I can spend where I want.” But I can’t track my dollars if I’ve stopped paying attention.
*Bonus health points for me, especially since recent lab work indicates that I really, really need to cut back on saturated fats. I don’t want those damned delicious McDonald’s fries to be the literal death of me.
**Want to save money faster? Take a look at this free Google Doc, “Challenge Yourself to Save.” It contains more than 30 examples of “stealth savings” hacks, by which a few (or more than a few) dollars can be squeezed out of even the tightest of budgets. This is a chapter from my first book, “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change For The Short Term Or The Long Haul.” I offer the chapter for free to anyone who asks; feel free to share the link.
‘Chances are that I will continue after I return, too. Professional musicians still practice; they may even play scales. This challenge, then, is a reminder to me that dollars could be slipping through the cracks’. This is so true yet something I would have never thought of.
Musicians at the peaks of their profession know (or should know) that complacency is the death of art. In my case, it’s the death of frugality.
Not that I don’t spend money! The fact that I’m saving for a trip to another country indicates otherwise. But the old saying “take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves” does resonate with me. Every $4 that I spend on fast food I didn’t really need means $4 that I can’t make work for me in other ways. Do it enough times and it starts to look like real money.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
Hi Donna! I really enjoyed this challenge..and was happy to see that I racked up $52.94.
My personal rules were – savings from coupons, Target cartwheel, ibotta cash back, upside (gas) cash back. It was an eye opener watching it grow as I transferred sometimes less than a dollar at a time! You are correct that without moving them to a specific account, the savings would just get lost in the shuffle. Still savings, but much more meaningful to me when looked at this way!
The monies are still sitting in the account, I’ve not decided if I’ll apply to the car loan, or just sit on it a while and keep adding to it for my Trip to Niagara Falls / Toronto in a few months 🙂
I remember the old envelope trick. I saw my dad do it while I was growing up. He did not have a bank account. We were poor, but had all we needed. He worked long days and often weekends. He kept envelopes and when he got paid he would sit with a pad and add up what needed to be paid and put money in the corresponding envelopes, food, utilities, phone, and a bit more. The bit more envelope did not have a name on it. It was for an emergency. He did not formally teach us, but we saw and we learned. I had an envelope system as a young mom and it worked. I have never forgotten how he sat there and made time to take care of us, and take care of his earnings. Things have changed for me I have a bank account and write checks. But I still have a “bit more” envelope tucked away in my drawer. I save for any and all events and emergencies. I think it is smart to have some cash in the house. After hurricane Sandy a few years ago, the cash we had was what we used. No power, flooded out, and all our money locked up in the bank. I’m sure many had cash on hand. I remembered my father during that storm and was grateful for my handy envelope.
Vivian – I have an envelope in a drawer also! I call it my “emergency cash stash”….!
I managed to save some money last month but it seems my real savings accumulated when I was out of the country for my bucket list to Cuba. No credit cards allowed. I was only allowed to spend the cash I had in my wallet.
I amassed $146.71 in my newly elected saved savings account in June. I probably could have added more, but I got wrapped up in preparing for and taking my trip and didn’t keep track of such things for the last 2 weeks. I’ll probably start back up next pay period. Mostly, it was coupon savings.
Last week I asked for a discount due to an issue at my hotel. I got $17 off my valet parking which I might add to saved savings for July. Also, I used a coupon card at a local diner and got $4 off my lunch.
It really does add up.
So far my money-saving is more like a freeze on spending. What I am not doing is recreational shopping. What I did do is cut cable further (internet only), foregoing my trips to DQ and buying ice cream and toppings to eat at home (I am not a saint nor am I perfect. Ice cream and summer go hand in hand or hand to mouth–whatever). I have not replaced my TV yet nor have I bought new clothes. I cannot give an exact dollar figure, but if you count $2 per cone for 30 days, $500 for a TV, and not using my amazon account–oh, I forgot!! Last month I spent over $100 on crap I didn’t need by simply hitting the place my order key. I cancelled my account, and I haven’t missed it. On line buying can be seductive and budget bashing.
I trained my car to zip by garage sales and thrift stores because I absolutely do not need more stuff.
Each day is a challenge to see how little I can spend. It’s rather fun!
It can be fun indeed! Again, not about deprivation but more of a challenge to meet one’s needs without busting one’s budget.
I agree about the ice cream, incidentally. We currently have three flavors on hand — all of them bought on sale, with coupons and with the additional 10 percent senior discount. Almost out of cones, but I have some Walgreens Balance Rewards stashed and will buy cones with some of it.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
My saved savings over 40 days = $149.92. A full $42 of that total came from rebates on heartworm medicine and flea collars for our two dogs. Your savings challenge was the swift kick I needed to get those rebate forms submitted online before the offers expired. Thanks!
The biggest eye-opener for me? I saved almost $20 just by being mindful of where I filled my gas tank. I knew I was saving anywhere from $.80 to $4 per fill-up, depending on the gas station, but I’d never tallied the savings before. Wow.
My credit card rewards and online shopping rebates already go into my IRA and long-term investment accounts. I think I’ll send my saved savings that direction, too.
Gasoline does add up quickly, especially if you have a long commute or kids who need to be taken to sports practices or some kind of lesson or extracurricular. Do you use an app like Gas Buddy to find the best price, or do you just keep it in your head? For example, the other day I noticed that the price near our library was 10 cents less than the price at the station closest to us. (It’s a moot point, though, since DF fills up at Costco.)
Glad you got those rebates taken care of — and may I suggest that you start your heartworm meds purchase through a cash-back shopping site, if you aren’t already doing so? My favorite, Mr. Rebates, offers up to 7 percent back at retailers like 1800PetMeds, 1800PetSupplies and Entirely Pets Pharmacy. Cash-back shopping sites also offer coupons and shipping codes, some of them proprietary.
If you aren’t a Mr. Rebates member, hope you’ll consider using my referral link:
http://www.mrrebates.com/refid=411769
Info on other cash-back shopping sites, such as Ebates and Extrabux, can be found here:
http://donnafreedman.com/online-deals/
Hope your saved savings continue to grow and beef up those long-term goals. Every dollar matters!
For gas prices, I use a combination of Gas Buddy, memory, and a Sam’s Club membership.
The small town nearest ours is just over the county line, and gas prices in that county are routinely $.10/gallon less than in our county. If I have errands “south of the border,” I make sure to top off the tank while I’m there. Ditto if errands take me in the direction of Sam’s Club. Gas Buddy fills in the rest of the time.
My total was $127.36 $59.15 of that I detailed in an earlier post.
In addition, I earned $13.62 in coupons. $3 savings at the pump for using Kroger fuel points. (earned for buying a Lowe’s gift card) Another $1.59 at Lowes for using our Veteran’s discount .I also traded in $25 from survey site Point Club which went from PayPal straight to savings
AND we were walking our Grand dogs early one morning after a rain. In the street almost in front of our house was soggy paper. I bent to scoop it up and trash it when I discovered a Taco Bell gift card still on hang tag. I called the 800 number when I got home and yep it had $25 on it! Now I admit I never would have purchased a taco bell gift card BUT I am putting the money in savings because we probably would have spent that much over the next couple of months at some fast food place and guess we will just eat Taco bell instead of our preferred brands. And I did try to find owner who most surely lived close but was unable using neighborhood newsletter . Ann
Don’t know that I have a total, but like a few other people, I stayed out of the stores during the challenge period. I think that this is the first summer that I have spent less than $10 total on clothing-I bought 3 T-shirts (sorely needed) by using sale prices, Kohl’s cash and Yes to You scrip. More recently, we went on a cruise vacation (not frugal, although the cruise was half price because we were re-routed from our original Cuba itinerary to another) and used restaurant gift cards that I had squirreled away for many of our meals. Instead of paying for hotels, we used timeshare points pre-cruise for accommodations. Post-cruise, we used accumulated hotel points to stay at the swanky St. Regis in the Miami Beach area for 2 nights for free-and and we were upgraded to a suite with 2 balconies after mentioning that it was our anniversary :). While we “spent” points, I count not spending cash as a win.
Staying out of the stores — and away from online shopping sites — is pretty crucial.
Congrats on all the points usage. I, too, believe that not spending cash is a win.