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Monthly Savings Challenge
I should have started this before, but I figure better late than never.
Earlier I had posted about my intentions to do a limited spend February. Is anyone else interested in joining me on a February savings challenge? Perhaps we can make it a monthly thing? I figure we can share some money-saving tips and encourage ourselves to stay on track.
My goal for February is to save $2000. So far this month I've been cooking with groceries that we already have at home and I've used a number of gift cards that we had around the house for purchases. I get paid every 2nd Wednesday so I feel like I should be on track to make a nice payment to my savings next Wednesday.
I need some encouragement to stay on track so if anyone else is intersted in joining this thread then I'd love the company 
Re: Monthly Savings Challenge
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
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Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
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Welcome everyone! What do you find is the best way to achieve these goals? Do you have an automatic transfer to your savings account, or do you transfer money at random times throughout the month?
I've always moved the money myself on my payday. Usually when I get paid I will pay off my credit card and then I look at what auto payments are going to be coming out (mortgage comes out that night) and I calculate a cushion amount I like in the chequing account. I then allocate the remainder to my savings. I'm wondering if I should do this differently and adjust my cushion instead of adjusting the savings amounts.
I'd love to hear what works for other people!
Right now, I have $350/month direct deposited from my paychecks into the savings account ($175 per pay period). So the 2 months that I get paid 3 times that month, I actually deposit $525 into savings!
I would like to contribut more to savings, but right now, we have somethings we need to pay off. So my focus is paying off the credit card - we use the credit card for everything and pay it off each month. However, we've had some unexpected expenses that was put on the card. We're still paying it off in full right now, but I think this month I'll have to take some from savings to pay it off. I'm working on paying his car loan off, as well as the loan my parents gave us to get a fence. After those are paid off, we'll be able to reassess how much is going into savings/retirement.
TTC since June 2012
Hi! We have $450 a month transferred out into a savings, but it's purpose is to pay all the semi annual/annual bills: property taxes, life ins, auto ins, home owners ins, HOA dues. What I do is go in twice a month (15th and 30th). I add up all the money I have saved on coupons and transfer it over. When I book a wedding or sell something on craigslist, I transfer it right away so I don't forget.
I would like to join.
We haven't been going out to eat. Make sure to sure we bring lunches to work. Pay with a cc that we cash back, just make sure you pay off the balance in full.
I pretty much do the same thing you do- when I get paid, I transfer to my savings, pay off the cc (that's where all my auto payments come out) and then see what's left in the checking. If there's more than I think it necessary (hasn't happened in a while...), I'll transfer more to the savings.
My only suggestion for you would be to adjust your cushion amount instead of adjusting your savings. Savings is like a "bill"- pay that first and then live with what you have left. Mentally, it's easier for me to say "ok, I have X amount left for the next two weeks" as opposed to "ok, I'll try not to go overboard and see what we have left in two weeks to put into the savings."
I found that an area where we can cut back is with grocery shopping. Meal planning is a must for us as well, but have you looked around for different places to grocery shop? We found a great little produce market where we can get a weeks worth of produce (we get 3-4 vegetarian meals/week, so we eat a lot of produce) for a fourth of the cost that we would have paid at a chain grocery store. It's worth looking around.