I love saving money. I like spending it, too, usually on travel, but I love saving it even more so. If you ask my family, they would say I am a tight-wad. If you ask me, I'm merely frugal and generally choose not to spend my money on things that most other people spend their money on. I'm not much of a shopper, so I don't enjoy spending money on clothes, or shoes, or purses, or things like that. I quit buying books for the most part, and instead make extensive use of the public library. I'm not a coffee drinker, so I'm not kissing my dollars goodbye every day on a mocha latte. Heck, I'm not even a good gift-giver, so I don't even really spend that much money on buying things for other people. I'm just not a fan usually of buying "stuff". When you live in 350 feet square feet, there really isn't space to acquire much "stuff".
But traveling? There's my weakness. Overseas, domestic, fly, drive, spring, summer, fall, winter - wherever, whenever, whatever mode of transportation is most efficient.
About a year ago, when I began planning a return trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I took a look at how much I planned on spending versus how much I needed to save. I figured if I saved my tax return, the money I made from house/pet-sitting, and any extra money I had from mileage reimbursement from work, I could save a tidy sum. I would, of course, save some money from my regular paycheck in addition to all of that, but I knew I would need to still set aside a few extra dollars.
It is at this point I got a little bit of a hare-brained idea. I asked myself, "I wonder how much I could save if I didn't spend any $1 bills I got back in change?" That's a bit of a strange idea, I realize. But I decided to give it a whirl and see what happened.
So, the deal was anytime I paid cash for something (which is what I do for all day-to-day spending) and got $1 bills in return, I would set those aside in a jar in my closet. I started in late December 2015, and by mid-January 2016, I had saved about $80, all in one dollar bills. By May, I had almost hit the $400 mark.
After awhile it became a game of sorts, a self-imposed challenge. I occasionally would need $1s to catch the bus around town, and I thought the bus driver was going to have to pry the bills out of my hand, I hated parting with the ones so much. I would sometimes intentionally pay for a purchase with a certain amount of $10s or $20s just so I could get more dollar bills back in change. I was now on a mission. And I just kept watching the amount slowly grow. As I got a certain amount set aside, I'd run to the bank and deposit it into my travel account. Fifty dollars here, forty dollars there, maybe a hundred dollars on the rare occasion. It would maybe take me a month or two, but I'd eventually getting around to saving a small sum. I would jot down how much money I deposited and when, so I at least had a basic ledger to track my savings.
I was loving my new plan and was having a ton of fun with the game. Maybe it was a long, slow way of saving money, but it was working for me.
Do you know how much money I saved by the time I went to Jackson last September?
Almost $600.
Think about that - $600 in less than 10 months! Just by not spending one dollar bills!
I was gone for two weeks and that amount paid for all of my meals and souvenir money. It was a fabulous way to just slowly and methodically set money aside and then use that money to splurge on travel plans.
The game continues to this day. As I save up a certain amount of $1 bills, I deposit them into my travel account. Save, deposit, save, deposit. Watch it add up.
But what about you? What's your mad money savings plan? Maybe give my $1 bill challenge a try, and see if you can save $700 in one dollar bills in 12 months.
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