beginner’s guide to savings

Part 7:  Save for the Future The Future.  Big.  Undefined. Non-immediate.  Nebulous.  Scary.  If you’re anything like me, saving for this vague entity known as “the future,” is the hardest part of all.  After all food, clothing, vacations, housing, and yes, even shoes are all real.   They are tangible and immediate.  Saving on–or for–those things affects us right now. (Before we go any further, if you are new to my blog or missed out on the last six weeks, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) Saving for far-off things like retirement or college or putting money aside for an emergency fund is ... read more

Part 6: Save on the Special Things Vacations.  Birthdays.  Holidays.  We know they’re coming and yet it is so easy to blow our budgets just because “it’s a special occasion.”  If you’re still with me after all this time, you should be starting to feel pretty good about your budget.  After all, you’ve been able to make a distinction between your wants and needs, you’ve set a budget for yourself and hopefully found ways to save some money on the big things (like housing & insurance), the necessary things (like utilities & groceries), & even the fun things (like shoes!) (Before we go any further, if you are new to ... read more

Part 5: Save on the Fun Things Finally, a topic that we actually WANT to think about.  Or maybe that’s just me.  Saving on the all the things we MUST spend money on–important as it may be–is, well, somewhat tedious, to say the least. (Before we go any further, if you are new to my blog or missed out on the last four weeks, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) If we’re being perfectly honest, which of these two scenarios would make you do the happy dance: a.) You were able to negotiate a .3 percentage point drop in your mortgage rate b.) ... read more

Part 4: Save on the Necessary Things If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that getting your financial life in order is hard work!  I wish I could say it will be a cakewalk from now on, but alas, there is still much to be done.  Don’t let that discourage you or make you give up.  If you are feeling overwhelmed (a perfectly normal reaction), the just stop, take a deep breath, and give yourself a break.  Wait a week or two to pick up where you started.  This series will be here for you when you’re ready.  I promise you CAN do this, and ... read more

Part 3: Save on the Big Things After spending the last week sorting out your budget and then recording all your purchases, you hopefully now have a fairly clear idea of where your money is going.  Over the next 6 weeks be sure to keep those worksheets handy–you will need to adjust your amounts as we work to lower expenses in the various categories.  Be sure to also continue recording all your purchases in the expense tracking worksheet too! (If you are new to my blog or missed out on the last two weeks, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) This week we ... read more

Part Two: Create a Budget It’s been a week.  How’s that no-spending thing going? Well, here’s the good news:  You can start spending money again.  Of course the bad news is that after today’s assignment, you might not want to. Hopefully last week’s exercise started you thinking about the reasons WHY you’re spending and also got you to start making a serious distinction between the things you want and the things you need. (If you are new to my blog or missed out last week, you might want to start at Week 1: Stop Spending before starting this week’s assignment!) Before we go any further, I want to make a ... read more

Welcome to The LWSL Beginner’s Guide to Savings. My goal for this series is to guide you (and myself–yes, I’ll be following my own advice) through a series of assignments intended to put you on sounder financial footing.  Basically it is eight weeks to a better budget. If you’ve already read & followed my last series, the LWSL Beginner’s Guide to Coupons, then the format of this series will be familiar to you.  (And if you haven’t already read the BGTC, you might want to start there.)  Each week we will tackle one specific area to work on and then complete assignments related to that segment of our financial life. ... read more