How She Saved $40K in 2 Years

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How She Saved $40K in 2 Years

One of the pleasures of travelling is the people I get to meet. Now that I'm in everybody's home on their TVs, they feel they know me and they'll tell me anything. Let me introduce you to Jane who I met on my recent trip out west. No, Jane isn't her real name, you know that. But her story is fabulous and fits right in with what I've been writing about here.

So Jane walks up to me, her eyes sparkling and a huge smile on her face. "You saved my life" she says very matter-of-factly.

"You exaggerate," said I.

" Only a little," she grins back at me. "Because of you I saved $40,000 in two years so I could buy myself and my daughter a home."

"Wow!" I said, very impressed. "How'd you do it?"

"The first thing I did was quit smoking," said Jane. "I watched you flush that guy's cigarettes down the toilet a bunch of times and then I did it." Smoking a pack a day wasn't good for Jane's health, insurance premiums or wallet. When she quit, she ended up saving just over $7,000 in two years. "The thing is, I opened up a savings account and called it 'Not Smoking' and every week I moved the equivalent of what would have gone up in smoke into the saving. I just couldn't believe how much of my money I'd been wasting on such a bad habit."

What else did Jane do?

She started to carpool with a couple of friends. "Since we were each driving so much less, I saved a lot of money on gas. And I started making my trips really count by doing all my errands at once." Jane took advice she'd read on my blog about making a list to get things done and used it to consolidate her errand trips. "I figure I was saving about $25 a week in gas alone, never mind the maintenance on my car."

Oh, and BTW, when Jane's car payment ended six months into her new savings game, she channeled the money from the car payment into her savings too. "I was spending $372.27 a month on my car loan. So I opened up another account and called it "Car Savings" and ended up with $9,450 in it."

Were there any downsides to her rabid savings plan? Yup, she admitted. There wasn't a lot of going out. And because she took in a student as a roomie, there also wasn't a lot of privacy. Was it worth it? "It sure was. My roommate saved me $400 a month on my rent. And I saved about $270 a month on entertaining myself and Julia at home."

"Let me guess," I said, "another savings account."

"Yes ma'am," said Jane.

"How much?"

"$6,880."

"You're still a long way of $40K" said I.

"Not so long" said Jane. "I did have some help."

"Mom and Dad?" I asked.

"Everyone I know," she said laughing. "I told anyone who would normally give me a present for my birthday or for Christmas to give me $20 instead so that they could help me get the best present ever: a home of my own."

Another account?

Yup.

How much?

"This is a little like cheating though, because I have wonderful parents who really wanted to help. My father had a huge garage sale and sold all the stuff he and mom had been piling up since we were kids and added it to my House Savings account."

How much?

$1,200 in two years. Nice family and friends!

"How'd you come up with the rest?"

"The usual: I only shopped for Julia in second hand stores and didn't buy very much. She's still little and didn't notice anything really. I realized the shopping I'd been doing had been more for me than for her. And I brown-bagged it at work, switched from coffee to tea so I could make it at work myself, and stopped buying books and renting movies. We spend every Saturday morning at the library. It's entertainment and we get to bring home new to us stuff."

"Have you found a home yet?"

"Not quite. I've looked at a few. But I want something with some space so I can go on doing the rental thing. I find that very useful in so many ways."

"Well done," I said.

"Thanks," she smiled. "I couldn't have done it without you."

Actually, she could have, but I was glad to help.