Frugal is my middle name this year. I have a lot of big goals that require big bucks to fulfill and that means saving money. Now that I’ve figured out how to calculate my savings I can really work to achieve my goals. If you are mathematically challenged like myself and need to figure out how to calculate your savings click here. {Ehow is an amazing thing!}
I have been reading up on different blogs and websites and have been learning a lot of tips that although I’ve been couponing over this past year…I’m learning more and more every day! I’ve blogged before that I am not an extreme couponer. I’m about to become a little more extreme. Frankly, I have to bring more money into the house and/or keep more money in our house. Couponing is the answer to that problem.
What am I saving for? I’m saving for a few things primarily…
- buying a house. Primarily I want to have a small down payment, closing costs and moving costs saved up. I’m aggressively working towards this goal because I want to be moved before the new school year which is August. The target goal is approx $6000+.
- paying for our vacation. We’re renting a beach house this summer for a week. We’re doing it with my mom and this is our first year having to really contribute. But this is also our first year staying for a whole week. We need it. It’s something for us to look forward to as a family. Our share in the actual cost of the beach house will be less than $750. But I also want to have plenty of spending money for shopping and going out. {There’s an outlet mall and I really wanna buy a Coach bag!}
- Christmas fund. This I mentioned in a previous post, but it’s basically an account I have set up with my bank to put money into an account to save money for Christmas. This holiday season, not only do I want to have more than enough money for gifts but for Black Friday shopping I’m planning on getting a new washer/dryer set. I realistically plan to have approx $1000 saved by October.
- extra-curricular activities. My daughter is getting older and this year I want her to get involved in an activity. Activities cost money and I don’t want it to be a burden on us. Plus the hubby and I need to go out more together and also events as a family. We need to have a fun fund! I haven’t come up with a dollar amount yet, but that’s because I haven’t done the research on some of the related costs yet.
- Of course tax season is upon us and that’s gonna help pad my savings tremendously. We’re used to having to dig ourselves out of a hole at tax time and I’ve often shopped away the rest. Not this year. We’re not in a big hole to dig out of this year so that’s good. We don’t have any big ticket item to purchase this year. The past few years we’ve bought furniture with our tax refund. The majority of my share of the refund will be put into savings.
- Also thanks to the tax refund, I won’t have a need to keep touching my savings. I already have an amount from my paychecks to go directly into savings…but it’s not helping when I keep dipping into my savings.
- Couponing it up. With this first month of the year I’m going to look at my purchases and how much I’ve spent. With that info I am going to come up with a realistic grocery and drugstore budget. So for example if I say that I will allow myself to spend $80 a week on groceries and one week I come in at $60 and the next at $70…that’s $30 that has gone into savings. Not $30 extra that I have to spend. Also with couponing, is getting better use out of my resources to make my dollars stretch as far as possible.
- Stockpiling. I got started with this concept last year but this year I’m taking it to a whole new level.
- Menu planning.
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