The Ways We Save 7

A Money Day Parenting on a Budget: Today & To...

The Ways We Save 7

Anything you do that has you using your money in ways that benefit you more makes you clever! Are you listening to me Patricia?

Well, I probably won't have the most heart-warming, or clever saving strategy, but I've never been more proud of myself for following through with this and I am about the enjoy the rewards of my saving very soon, so I am at the peak of my excitement and would love to share it with you! After all, your advice has really been what has helped me achieve all of this.

It all started towards the end of last summer. My husband and I had moved into a brand new home on an acre lot the previous fall. Leading up the move, we had suspended our 'extra' debt payments, using the money instead to enhance the house we were trying to sell (it worked!) and then for moving costs. We planned to restart the extra payments once we were settled in the new place; however, it was about 8 months later and we had only partially gotten back on track (thank goodness this letter isn't about looking after your budget while buying a home, or else I wouldn't have much to brag about…but we all make mistakes right?). So it was near the end of summer and I had 3 goals in mind: 1) We needed to get back on track and finish getting the rest of our debt paid off ASAP (1 student loan, 1 student line of credit and 1 miscellaneous line of credit that had been paid off and then spent a couple of times), 2) Looking at this acre of land I owned that was inhabited by mostly weeds and a bit grass, I longed for a nice landscaped yard with an interlocking stone walkway up to the front door (may seem trivial for some, but this was my dream…whatever floats your boat right?), 3) My husband had a business trip to Italy planned for the following Spring, I love to travel and HAD to travel with him or else I would be miserable.

I employed 2 strategies: 1) I decided to make more money. I already work full-time in health care, specifically in public health, but I really wanted to put my clinical health care skills to work, so I took sought out an opportunity to work for a long-term care home on a contract basis…as a contractor I get paid for a set amount of hours each month and I make my own schedule (so I work a few evenings and a few weekends a month). Since we both already had well-paying full-time jobs, this income was all 'extra'.

2) I tried to use our 2 lines of credit as our own personal 'manulife-one' style accounts. First I calculated how much extra money we had available to use as extra debt payments and how much we could save per month for each of my 'planned spending' goals. I divided all of this money between our 2 lines of credit and put large extra payments on each of them every month. I also looked at our bank accounts at the beginning of each month and transferred all the money that was left over from the previous month into the lines of credit (we obviously cut back on 'life' where we could to end up having a bit of money left at the end of each month, but we didn't deny ourselves too much). Christmas was a very small event, and our tax refunds went directly onto the LOC's.

So, by the beginning of this month (April 2011), we totally paid of both LOC's ($16,543.43 in total). The money I would have paid on the LOC's in May and June is now allocated to my Italy trip and my landscaping: $7500 total! I have set aside some additional $$ from my monthly budget to go towards some more of the landscaping over the course of the summer if needed. I'll be leaving for Italy on May 20th to accompany my husband for 2 weeks, and I've already started looking into some landscapers. It's so amazing to actually see the end result of all my hard work!

What happens after June you ask? Well, the debt is not finished yet. I am planning to tackle my husband's student loan and increase the payments so that it is paid off by April of next year (we chose to save this debt for last because we get the interest back at tax time). I'm definitely committing to not using the LOC's anymore. I'm also going to use some of the extra money to bump up our emergency savings and start putting money aside for a vacation in Fall 2012…so that my husband can actually go on a real trip, not just a business trip Obviously, I will be keeping my extra job…planning to keep it at least a few more years until I'm ready to start a family.