How do you find the pennies?

[Tetley]

I'm single with no dependants except for a cat, have no debts because over the years I have refused to borrow any more than I had to and repaid that as soon as was humanly possible. I pay off my credit card bill in full every month having not spent more in the month than I have available to cover the bill. I keep my household accounts up to date every week so I know exactly how much I have at any one time to spend. I make sure that as much as I can afford every month goes into a savings account before anything else gets paid off. I sit down at the beginning of the year and work out a budget for the coming year and try to stick to it. When I buy something I try to get the best quality I can at the best price.

My ex-wife is an accountant and trained me well, can you not tell

Mark

[Rex_Tremende]

$475 in about....8 months. That's all pocket change. Every time I broke a dollar, i threw the change in a jar. Your change REALLY adds up! BTW, I'm also single and live 12 miles from my job...so that helps too

I had saved up somewhere around that much in loose change too, and every day thought to myself, "Self, go put that in the bank." Then one day someone broke in to my house and relieved me of that concern forevermore.

The trick to saving up what you need for anything you don't plan to finance (and for some things you do for which a down payment is required), is to establish goals, create a budget, actively manage it, and be willing to reevaluate your plan as new needs emerge and milestones are met.

Sometimes it helps to get professional advice on setting realistic or stretch goals, or to open appropriate instruments for saving and moving money around. But also simple tools can help. In 2001 (or thereabouts), I realized that I was deeper in debt that I wanted to be and my future with my employer at the time was in doubt, so I simply started watching how I was spending money using an ordinary spreadsheet and its chart functions. I also made a plan to allocate a portion of my income to paying down debt every month so that I would have paid it all off, except for the mortgage, in 18 months.

In doing this, I created good habits that have served me well in tougher times since then, so that now, when I feel the urge to splurge on kilts and kilt stuff, I have the discipline to set my priorities and not spend beyond my abilities.

Regards,
Rex.

[Atlanta Kiltie]

I had saved up somewhere around that much in loose change too, and every day thought to myself, "Self, go put that in the bank." Then one day someone broke in to my house and relieved me of that concern forevermore.

The trick to saving up what you need for anything you don't plan to finance (and for some things you do for which a down payment is required), is to establish goals, create a budget, actively manage it, and be willing to reevaluate your plan as new needs emerge and milestones are met.

Sometimes it helps to get professional advice on setting realistic or stretch goals, or to open appropriate instruments for saving and moving money around. But also simple tools can help. In 2001 (or thereabouts), I realized that I was deeper in debt that I wanted to be and my future with my employer at the time was in doubt, so I simply started watching how I was spending money using an ordinary spreadsheet and its chart functions. I also made a plan to allocate a portion of my income to paying down debt every month so that I would have paid it all off, except for the mortgage, in 18 months.

In doing this, I created good habits that have served me well in tougher times since then, so that now, when I feel the urge to splurge on kilts and kilt stuff, I have the discipline to set my priorities and not spend beyond my abilities.

Regards,
Rex.

Rex has hit the nail on the head. It is how I save for things to support this habit. Bagpipes are next. I am a certified credit counselor and preach this stuff all day long. If you need help managing your money, contact a non profit credit counseling agency, they will teach you this stuff for free. Or you can give me $500 and I will teach you how to do it for free.

[Jock Scot]

Dead easy! Just wear one tartan and then you only need to replace your hose once in a while.It helps with your cash flow and stops your kilt attire from shrinking too, if you don't eat!

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . if you don't eat!

Marvelous, Jock, hilarious even! Many thanks for the laugh.

Seriously, in my experience it has always been possible to live on no more than 2/3 of my income, even at 75 cents per hour. It has not always been pleasant but it has always been possible. There is a three-legged stool metaphor here: earn, save, invest; and of course, work like hell.

There are thousands of books and articles on managing personal finances, most of which contain at least some useful ideas. You have to decide for yourself which ideas will help you. I can offer only the following general guidelines:

1. Be patient. Avoid get-rich-quick schemes; some of them may enrich others, but if you have any ethics or morality they won't enrich you.

2. Borrow to invest when the expectation of gain is attractive, but never borrow to consume. Even extreme emergency consumption needs should be financed from savings, not from borrowing.

3. Live economically, even after your savings can both meet the requirements of point 2 and provide funds for investing.

4. Never let yourself be persuaded that any opportunity is so great ot so fleeting that you must seize it without thorough research. Life will always be full of opportunities, most of which will go wanting for someone with the vision and the resources to capitalize upon them.

5. Charging expenses to a credit card which you pay off in full and on time every month is not borrowing. Anything you do with a credit card that incurs a service charge is borrowing, and it's very expensive borrowing at that.


.

[hospitaller]

I make and sell CDs containing WWII Replica paperwork for Reenactors.

At $25 a pop, all I need to sell is maybe 2-3 and that's a new SWK kilt right there, or a kilt pin, or hose, etc.

So technically...I'm not actually paying for anything, it all comes from that CD sales money.

[Spc. Scott]

I volunteer at my American Legion post by tending bar there. No actual pay but you get all your tips. It may take a few weeks but it really does add up.

[Bugbear]

I don't worry about the money side of things untill after I know exactly what I want and need in every detail. The way usually opens up at that point.

Right now, I am watching things going on and have put buying plans on hold for a little while. That is just focus of priority and not long term planning.

Jock Scot has a point that I like; I don't feel the need for several kilts.

[Dr Mac]

Like Jock Scot, owning one kilt can have its advantages (!)

[Phogfan86]

I'm lucky in that I have a second job that's more like a great hobby that I get paid for. A lot of it goes to pay for unexpected stuff -- I'm married with two kids, so we have a lot of unexpected stuff. But I can usually set some aside and without too much effort, in a couple months, I'll have enough for a SWK or SportKilt.