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Saving Money

That's right, I have a small solution to help little people save money- and it works! Keep in mind it is a slow process but it WORKS. I promise. It worked for me.

I was living from paycheck to paycheck and many of my checks were spoken for before I even worked the hours! I had no savings what so ever. If something went wrong (say- I needed to fix the breaks on my car) I was in HUGE trouble because I simply did not have any extra money! Life was a financial nightmare.

I wanted a savings, like when I was a teenager, but I was too stingy about it because most banks have a minimum of $200 or $300 and if you don't have that balance you have to pay a small fee. I was not about to let them have my hard earned money!

Well here is my solution- get over it (I will explain in a monent). I tried and tried, and could never save that much money on my own to bring into the bank, because face it- $20 is a lot of stinkin money- much less $200! No amount of money lasted in my house, even if I hid it from myself!

So I sucked it up and went to my bank and opened up a savings. I tried to scrape up a little bit of cash, I couldn't even set it up with even an amount of $20. I just coudn't part with it. I had mouths to feed!

**these days a lot of banks even have those "open an account with us and we'll deposite $50 (or $100) coupons"

So I started direct depositing (it is easier if you direct deposit, if not then you MUST remember to automatically do it when you cash your check)- no joke $5 into my savings. I communicated to my bank and they waived the fee for being under the minimum (you could also put the account in a child's name to get past this fee if you choose- I didn't want to I wanted MY account). Turns out they didn't waive the minmum some "error" but I just sucked it up and took it. I NEEDED the savings.

The $5 dollars was easy to part with per check. I didn't miss it at all. Yeah it would take FOREVER to build up your savings (and it did), but hey- that is an extra $5 you are NOT spending. It DOES build up. After a few weeks I bumped it up to $10, then another few weeks I bumped my amount to $15, and so on. I made a goal to reach $50 per check to put into my savings.

It really did work. It took a long time for the amount of money in my savings to really feel like I had a coushin- but when I saw my first $100 I was so proud of myself! When my car DID need some work and I took the $300 out of my savings to pay for it- that felt WONDERFUL.

Stick to it. Remember you can't save $1000 overnight! if $1000 is your goal, then set a reasonable goal and work at it. You will get there. Be patient. Don't be discouraged if you have to 'dip into the savings' for something. That is what it is there for!