How do you find the pennies?

[The Wizard of BC]

I also drop all my pocket change in a "piggy bank". It's shaped like a moose though. In Canada we have $1.00 and $2.00 coins. It adds up pretty quickly.

My wife also has a place she keeps her change so there is no swapping. She can use hers for what ever she wants and I do the same.

I've managed to pay for a Tank in just a few months.

[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.

[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

[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.


.

[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.

[Bugbear]

What was it Carnegie used to say that his mother used to say? Mind the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves...

* Andrew Carnegie that is. *

[JRB]

Like many other folks in the U.S. I'm unemployed at the moment due to a layoff. Fortunately, my wife has a very good job that is taking care of us (along with my supplemental unemployment insurance). That being said, I haven't been able to spend much money on kilts etc. for several months. However, Ebay has been good to me lately. I found and won an auction for an 8yd., 16oz. Lochcarron Maple Leaf tartan kilt for only $180.00. I've also found a number of Harris tweed sport coats at ridiculously low cost both on this forum and at local thrift stores. Being out of work has made me into a master cheapskate!

[Woodsheal]

With regards to reenactment stuff, guns, swords, and kilts, I tend to "rotate my stock." When I want a new item, I sell an older item that I've owned and enjoyed for awhile. This works well, as these types of goodies don't really lose their value over time....

[beloitpiper]

I only purchase kilts and kilt-related stuff from the money I make from piping. I charge $150 a gig, so it adds up! It also motivates me to keep piping. If I want a new kilt or sporran or what ever, I have to get out there and play.

No piping = no kilts.