Thrifty Thursday - Weekly Savings Jar

Saving money is always a good idea. But when its only January 7^th, its even better. You’ve got a WHOLE year to get your shit together! Start NOW!

If you’ve been a long-time reader, you may remember several similar posts with money-saving or spending-cutting ideas, but I think this one is worth reposting. The 52 week money saving challenge has been all over the internet for years, and there is a reason. It is such an easy way to put away a few dollars at a time without thinking about it, and you end up with a significant chunk at the end of the year. The real key is doing something with that money at the end of the year rather than just keeping it in your kid’s Color-Me-Mine Spiderman bank disaster treasure.  Last year, I contributed the contents of our jar toward finishing funding my IRA for the year, for example.

This year we are starting one for Trent and one for Emily separately, and I am so excited! The first several months are fairly easy, but once the weekly amount starts to increase you have to really start thinking about where to cut things. It becomes easy, though. Mama gets one less glass of wine at lunch or bypasses the dollar spot at Target that week. You use one slice of colby jack on the kids’ grilled cheese sandwiches instead of two. You get the idea. As you get toward the later part of the year, the savings jar becomes habit and it is much easier to find ways to cut your unnecessary spending for the sake of making your weekly contribution.

Don’t be afraid to cut the amounts in half or even double them to fit your lifestyle and budget. This is simply a guide and helps hold you accountable to putting a little something extra away regularly. If you follow the guide exactly, you'll end up with $1378 in your jar at the end of 52 weeks, but you can also make a different savings goal if there is a specific amount you have in mind or if you are simply planning to have weeks where you put more away.

Happy Saving!