2010 Savings Challenge!

[VivaciousJewelz]

Even though I'm a month late, I want to start a 2010 challenge.

This is not a thread about "saving money" in the sense that we use coupons to save money. This is about actually setting aside money (specific dollar amounts) for savings, whether you put it in a savings account or cut a hole in your mattress.

My target amount is $5000 for the year.

Does anyone want to join me for a savings goal? You can want to save any amount for any reason (i.e. $1000 to go on vacation, $5000 to go back to school, etc), but I need people to help keep me accountable and remind me of why I am saving!

[Snookibear]

Oh my goodness - congratulations!

[lauramama2]

First off congrats!!!

I will jump in with you. Our finances stink but I NEED to save for our home owners insurance and Property taxes this year so we don't have to deal with it all at once again this year. I need to put away $100/month for that.

I also need to put $100/month away for getting my stepson down here. We haven't figured out yet whether it will be April or July, but either way I want to put away $100/month all year for that purpose only taking from it for his visits.

On top of that I want to put away $100/month for emergency's. I am so sick of not having an emergency fund. Its not like the emergency's don't come if you aren't prepared!

So that is $300/month. If I can stick to my new shopping budget it should be doable! I'm gonna need butt kicking too though

Plus I would like to stick away $3000 of our tax return and KEEP IT THERE We will see how that goes.

So from Feb-Dec the goal is to save $6600 total minus my stepsons travel (probably $600) so I am going to set my goal total at $6000 by Dec 31st.

Do you think that's confusing enough lol.

[nateNnatsmommy]

Julie, this is perfect! I've already set/started my goal - in my siggy.

I really want to move to a bigger house soon. We've got about 50% equity in our house now, but it needs alot of work done on it. Right now we're paying for 50% of the fix up costs out of our current savings, and the other 50% is coming out of my paychecks. DH is contractor by trade, but a SAHD right now, so we're usiing this time for him to do all of the work.

So, my savings goal is to replace the money we're taking from savings, and to start to build up even more that will hopefully be a downpayment on a new house.

My goal for the year is $12,696.40. So far this year I have socked away $3,248.71. We should be getting our tax return soon, and it's alot - this will all go into savings also (I didn't adjust very well when Dh stopped working )

Thanks for this Julie, it's nice to share this goal with others!!!

[MoneySavinDiva]

I don't have a huge goal. We are planning on putting our tax refund and 1st time homebuyers tax credit into savings, which will give us a nice padding -- and has freed up our "extra" money from paychecks to go towards my other goal of getting hubs' Harley paid off by December (that's a hefty goal in and of itself). But I would really like to still contribute to our savings each month...so for right now I'm going to shoot for $50 a month into savings.

Looking forward to working towards our goals together and keeping each other on track

[jenrose]

Ya know what, I think I NEED to do this. DH has a huge spending habit so for me to actually get a savings built up I have to do it without him knowing it's there. Luckily we have seperate bank accounts. I will however have to start small. So my goal will be to just start by putting $50 a month into savings and not tell DH. I only work part time and the $$ will have to be out of my checks so thus the reason it is so small. But every little bit helps right.

[MoneySavinDiva]

Originally Posted by jenrose Ya know what, I think I NEED to do this. DH has a huge spending habit so for me to actually get a savings built up I have to do it without him knowing it's there. Luckily we have seperate bank accounts. I will however have to start small. So my goal will be to just start by putting $50 a month into savings and not tell DH. I only work part time and the $$ will have to be out of my checks so thus the reason it is so small. But every little bit helps right.

This just cracks me up! The things we have to hide from our dh's to get somewhere financially I feel your pain girl...my hubs is a huge spender too!

[jenrose]

Originally Posted by MoneySavinDiva This just cracks me up! The things we have to hide from our dh's to get somewhere financially I feel your pain girl...my hubs is a huge spender too!

I coupon so he can play! He always finds such GOOD DEALS that he couldn't possibly pass one up.

[nateNnatsmommy]

What are your DHs's spending weaknesses?

[jenrose]

Originally Posted by nateNnatsmommy What are your DHs's spending weaknesses?

That would be a book.

But his big thing is he buys Snowmobiles, trailers and quads when someone is selling them for dirt cheap then either resells them or parts them out to make money on them. The problem with this is he takes money off a line of credit to fund them and sometimes it is several months before he actually sells them.

He also goes snowmobiling often (every weekend on a good snow year but not that much this year since the snow pack is low) and in the Summer we take a few quad trips. Plus he takes leftovers to work for lunch then goes out to eat instead. Also has to have lots of cool accessories to add to his sled and quad.

He also has an obsession with 0% financing so we have payments to make every month that we may not be paying interest on but we still have the payment to make every month.

I could go on but you get the idea.

Wow, I wasn't trying to turn this into a DH vent.