There's More Than One Way to Save Money!

If you thought the only way you could save money was by having it in the bank, hold on to your hats.  Vicky, the originator of the Vicky Challenge, has a tried and true way that will make you stop, think and say ... 'I can do that!'

(The picture is of the beautiful hydrangea I was gifted  Saturday for speaking at a ladies day event!  It's beautiful and I can't wait to get it planted outside!  Right now it's adding a bit of beauty to our hearth!)

Over to Vicky ...

Our Savings Journey......

It was a cold and dark day, haha just kidding, but just in case it becomes a book I thought it should start out like one. No, really for anyone who chooses to read this I am not one to pull a tissue from my behind and call it a homemade hanky, but I do believe that knowing others have climbed the same hills as we have can be very comforting to say the least. 

Annabel posted the Vicky Challenge and you can read more of what it's about there, but there is a little more to the story that Patsy has asked that I share so here goes! 

When we decided I would quit working I wanted and needed to save as much as I had made while working. The jobs I worked weren't high paying anyway. I budgeted and changed this and that and more of this and that, but just to be sure the things we were doing was worth it that was when I started keeping track of our savings. And the savings have always been very much worth it and worth the effort we put into it. And some people just give you a lot of flack or think you don't contribute to the household at all if you don't have a paycheck on paper. So keeping tabs was a throwback for having a paycheck. It worked well for us because we paid off $16K worth of debt the first year. The snowball method is a good tool for this. 

However, where my husband worked they were always offering different things like seminars and workshops, etc. so when a financial workshop came around we were excited to go. Well....

The gentleman we had was really good at telling us how much we needed to save and that we needed to pay off the rest of the debt, but now how. So this poor man I put him through the wringer! He said that since I didn't work I added no value to the financial aspect of our marriage and suggested my husband work at least 20 hours of overtime each week to make up the difference. He didn't account for the taxes on this. So I told him what efforts I made. For example I saved 4 thousand dollars that year using coupons. And that was just from coupons. His answer was that wasn't really saving. If we are blessed with things I count that in my savings again he said that's not saving. And I have had this told to me several times because most really only count dollars and cents in terms of the paycheck and bank savings account. To this gentleman having a $20 gold piece put up for emergencies was so wise, but my 20 bottles of dish soap that I got free didn't count for nothing even though I only paid the tax on them and had enough dish soap that wouldn't come out of the budget for a long time. At tax time things are worth something if you have given them away, but to receive them it's worth nothing? That makes no sense to me. And on and on we went back and forth. So after 3 sessions with this gentleman and his budget planning for us it was basically do without. Nope, people want alternatives and deprivation should be a last resort or a choice as far as I am concerned. I had my budget ready to go and my list of all the ways we save and how much this has saved us, how much debt we paid off, the debt that still needed to be paid off and how much we wanted to add to our savings and how much we had in savings. Needless to say he had to agree that my way was better! And it shows my value in the home which many homemakers don't get credit for. 

The reason it worked so well for us was because by my keeping track of how much we saved on everything we challenged ourselves to find more ways to save and look at things differently. 

There are people like the financial guy who believe that the bank account is the only thing there is. If we would always go by that then there are times we would have looked destitute, but were not, that nothing is a savings if it's not cash in the bank and that the numbers are not correct or true. Hmm? So this is how I explained it to the expert.

For one I have done all of the numbers and I can tell you in any given week based on the numbers if it's cheaper for me to make a boxed cake or one from scratch, make or buy coffee creamer, noodles, etc. I can budget gas down to the dime based on cost and how much I will be driving, I have a pantry that we could live off of for at least 2 years without buying anything unless I wanted to by fresh things, so yes, I know the numbers and what I need to factor in. 

Also since everyone's debts, incomes and needs are different that would also reflect cash in the bank savings. Lifestyle is a factor also. I have never paid anyone to clean so I never count cleaning my own house, but it is a savings if you do regardless. We do count the cost of labor that we save by not paying anyone to do repairs and such because we know so many that will write that check and never even try.  There have been a few things we did pay for in the past and it wasn't cheap! 

Another fact by keeping track and challenging ourselves to find more ways to save we did in fact have a higher savings and lower cost of living and the extra that was in the bank paid debts so the bank account didn't look massive at the end of the month, but one by one the debts were getting paid off at a quicker rate because there was extra to add to the payments. And 2 examples of this would be the hubs wanted a new tv. I budgeted $150 for a tv. That was it and he had to find one within that price range or wait. He was driving and someone had set a really nice tv on the side of the road, it worked great! After a few months it was still working really well so I paid an extra $150 on a debt payment. The second is with the cost of fuel oil we spent $400-$600 a month during the cold months. We purchased a wood burner and the neighbor has a tree service so get wood free no cost there. I didn't count it as a savings the first year, but it more than paid for itself the first year with us no longer having to buy fuel oil. I deduct the cost of the gas and oil it takes to split the wood, but now we have the extra in the bank each winter that used to be spent on fuel oil. So it shows! 

Do we spend money? We most certainly, do who doesn't, but using whatever resources we have to our advantage, getting the most bang for our buck and sometimes just waiting and it seems like the thing you were waiting for you get blessed with. They say count your blessings and I do because if I am blessed with something that I was going to buy the money is still in the bank and that = Cash savings! 

And to finish, I don't always have time to add to my savings book each day so I keep a basket that I will put savings on a piece of paper in the basket or receipts in the baskets and catch up when I have more time. To see how well you can do for me is exciting and challenges me to find even more ways to bring costs down and keep as many of my pennies as I can. I know this isn't for everybody and don't expect it to be so. I have been the single mom working two jobs, and the partner that works full time or part time and the stay at home person, but for someone to say you have no value or the snooty ‘oh you don't work attitudes’ from people I can say, ‘oh really?!’

XOXO

Vicky

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Until tomorrow!

Patsi 

Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

A Working Pantry

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

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