52 Week Money Challenge
Thanks to this beautiful weather we've been having lately, I've been in the spring cleaning mode and have been plowing through my room and closet and getting rid of stuff left and right! I've been packing up a lot of my winter clothes, and organizing everything that I can.... which is where the point of this post comes in!
I love to save my money, and am constantly thinking up different ideas to do with my spare jingle and dollars. In the past, I have put away $10 a week, so that when Christmas time rolled around, I would not be over stressed by all the expensive costs of gifts, decorations, dinners and traveling. I was recently inspired by the Stuck at Home Mom blog to try the "52 Week Money Challenge". It's really simple.. all you do is...
For every week of the year, you save that much in dollars.
So for Week 1, you save $1... Week 17, you save $17... and so on...
Get it? So by Week 52, you will have around $1,378.00 if you stick with it!
However, since I am using this for Christmas expenses, I will obviously have to dip into mine earlier, however I will continue to contribute the weekly amount! (I also realize it's May, so this may not be very helpful to you right now - unless you jump on board now, or take $171.00 and start from this week)
All you need is a pretty jar!
I made these spreadsheets on Excel to help me keep track of everything.
Right on track! $153.00 saved so far!
Time to take on WEEK 18, $18.00!
EDIT: I have provided a link to Google Docs with the template here!
If you're looking to help your kid earn an extra $344.50, you can upload the template that uses quarters here!
Now obviously if I actually do complete this challenge, I'm not going to be needing all $1,378.00 for Christmas (I better not be!). I will put the excess money in either savings, charity, a jar of change, or maybe go on a little spending binge for myself ;)
I will try to keep you updated on my savings efforts!! (:
and NOW.. for a fun savings story.
I currently use, own and operate an ancient 2007/08 Macbook. Yes, yes... the big old white brick that they don't even make anymore! I've had this thing since I was a sophomore in high school, and it has never ever let me down! I've never had a virus, it still runs relatively fast and it's never blown up or crashed on me! I was really hoping that this antique would last me another two years... however I think it's past it's prime. The ONLY problem that I have had with it (other than it weighing a bajillion pounds) didn't start occurring until last October. The problem? It ran out of memory on its hard drive. I know, I know... that can barely be considered a problem and all you computer savvy readers out there are probably like "Kaylie, just buy an external hard drive thing". Yea, nope. I'm using this silly "problem" as an excuse to upgrade. Currently, I have all my documents stored on jump drives because my computer literally won't let me save one more thing on it... and if it were to crash, all of my photos and music would be goners =/
So my reasons from upgrading from this...
to this...
are...
1) New, clean, fresh hard drive
2) A more updated system
3) Lighter computer
4) A teeny, tiny bit faster
I realize those are the most pathetic reasons you have probably ever heard as to why someone would want to update their computer, but I've been looking for a reason to upgrade for awhile now... so when the opportunity presents itself... snatch it! ;)
Anyways... now that I'm done boring you concerning a day in the life of my computer, I will continue with the point of my story...
In October, when my computer started yelling at me for saving stuff, I decided I was going to buy a new one! I didn't want to dip into my savings because I'm keeping that money for more important emergencies like "I need a new car", "I need a house", or "I need to pay off some student loans"! My goal was to save $50.00 a week until mid May, and by then I would have enough to upgrade!
WELL... ladies and gentlemen... it is almost mid May, and so far I have $1,350.00 saved up! That's only three weeks away from my goal! Sometime this summer, I will be able to treat myself to some new technology! My sisters both have them, and they love them... and my current Macbaby has been awesome for the past 5 years, so I'm pretty confident with the purchase.
Feel free to share any of your own ambitious, accomplished or proud "saving money" stories!!
--Kaylie
http://www.lifeasyouliveit.blogspot.com/2013/04/52-week-money-challenge.html