That got me to thinking.  What would you tell your ten-years-younger self?  There are a whole lot of things I would tell myself during my freshman year of college, and of course, not all of them would relate to money.  One of them would probably be “Hey, go talk to those loud girls on the other end of the hallway, because they’re going to be your best friends.  Don’t wait til May to be their friend.  Do it now.  Oh, and ditch the boyfriend now.  Trust me.”

But in terms of finances, I was pretty smart ten years ago.  Well, I wasn’t dumb at least.  I had a credit card, but I always paid it off. That was the smart part.  The less smart part was that I wasn’t really saving money.  I had a small on-campus job all through college, and for the most part, I spent what I made.  That was my fun money.  I had a savings account that my parents had set up for me as a child, where I put half of all my birthday and Christmas money, so I thought I was set.  I certainly didn’t have any thoughts about retirement.  I should have been saving, even just a tenth of what I earned.  I would have ended up with a small cushion to get me started when I graduated.  It wouldn’t have been much, but something is better than nothing.

What about you?  What would you tell your ten-years-younger self?  I was in college.  Maybe you were in your first job, or well seated in your third job.  Maybe you were in your 40′s and maybe you were 10.  But what do you wish you knew ten years ago?

One financial planner interviewed said “Pinching pennies is the most emotionally draining way to save.”  I don’t know that I agree.  I suppose you are cutting out little things and making sacrifices and not seeing a huge amount of savings, and for some people, that can be tough.  Penny pinching can be time consuming.  It can require lots of planning ahead before grocery shopping and giving up your daily latte.  But it does add up.  Maybe not in the first day, but the money does accumulate.

For example, I bring my coffee every day.  If I bought regular coffee, it would probably cost $2 a day (but I would likely splurge on lattes sometimes).  Now, that doesn’t mean I save $2 a day because I’m still buying coffee.  I buy coffee that costs around $7 a bag.  Let’s say I get 20 days out of that bag.  That means that in 20 days, I’ve saved over $30.  Sure, it’s not a lot, but it adds up.  Try it yourself with one of your regular expenses.   Or you can just check out this coffee calculator.

Do you save clipping coupons?  Yes, if you use them on products you normally buy.  Sure, it takes time.  But again, those little things add up.

Now sure, it would be “faster” to save by getting rid of a second family car or moving into a smaller home, but not everyone has the ability to take those steps.  But if you can, why not go for it?   And if you’re looking to buy something expensive, do your research and make sure you’re buying the best you can get for your money. Shop around.

And hey, splurge on that $4 latte every so often.  You deserve a little fun, after all.

How about you?  Are you a penny pincher or do you choose to save in bigger ways?

What likely happened was that she was expecting to get a bill in the mail and nothing ever appeared.  I know that in previous years, I didn’t even think about my car registration until the bill appeared.  Then I knew it was time to take care of it.  This year, I’m prepared and expecting the bill soon, as my registration expires in September.    If I don’t see something by mid-August, I will be making some phone calls.

My friend could have avoided her problem by simply writing the date in a planner and making a note to check the status of her registration about a month or so before the expiration.  There are many options for planners – you can go the paper route, you can have a handheld device, you can have a calendar on your computer, or one online.  There are probably others options as well.   I’ve tried them all and always come back to the paper method, but that’s just me.  A lot of the online calendar services will send you reminders by text or e-mail, which is great for people who forget to check their planners.

A lot of people just pay their bills when prompted.  I get an e-mail when my cell phone bill is due.  Other bills arrive in the mail.  For the most part, I know when these are coming, so I recognize when they’re late, but if my life suddenly got busy, it would be very easy to not realize that my credit card bill never appeared and needs to be paid immediately.  And missing a bill just leads to added expenses – late fees or worse – service shutoff.  Or damage to your car from a negligent towing company.

So save yourself those added expenses.  Get a planner.  Make a spreadsheet.  Check out the calendar option on your computer.  Check out an online service like Google Calendar or Remember The Milk.  Don’t let yourself forget a bill and then regret it later.

But I do this with things other than food. My gym membership costs me $60 a month. If I use it 20 times a month, it costs me $3 each workout. Not terrible, especially on the days when I take a class. But if I suddenly only use it 15 times a month, each workout costs me $4. Even though I pay the same amount either way, I feel like I’m getting a better deal if I force myself to use the gym as many times as possible each month.

The (free) running log I use allows you to enter in your running shoes and then track the mileage on those shoes. For those of you who aren’t runners, this is important because unfortunately, shoes do have a mileage life, usually somewhere from 300-500 miles, though it can be less. You know that your shoes are starting to wear out when your joints start to hurt, but it’s always good to have some sort of an idea of where you are in terms of shoe mileage. This site also lets you put in the purchase price and then tracks how much the shoes cost you per mile. It’s fun to watch that number go down. Right now, I’m rotating two pairs of running shoes and they have cost me 57 cents per mile and 39 cents per mile and still have a number of miles left on them. Combine that with my average running pace, and well, those shoes have lasted a long time. Definitely worth the price.

Since signing up for Netflix, I have also signed up for FeedFlix (also free). You link this site to your Netflix account, tell it which plan you’re on, and it tells you all sorts of stats about your Netflix account, including how long you typically keep movies, how much you pay per movie, and how that compares to other Netflix users. Sure, you could figure out your price per movie by yourself, but why do the math when there’s a site out there to do it for you with just a few clicks. Since I’ve just started using Netflix, this is a good way for me to decide whether or not it’s really worth the cost.

Sometimes, if you sit down and figure out just how much you’re paying for something, you realize just how worthwhile it really is, and other times, you realize that you’re spending way more than you thought and this great deal isn’t such a great deal after all.

To ensure she doesn’t spend any of the 75% that she has saved, she opened up a 6 month CD with that savings.  This way, she has a fixed date when she can finally buy the computer (provided she has saved the other 25%) and she won’t blow the money elsewhere. 

I know some people put money into CDs for Christmas spending, but I’ve never really put much thought into doing it for a big planned purchase.  As part of a bigger savings account, like a vacation fund or a car fund, sure, and a computer is not exactly a small expense, but I thought it was an interesting way to save.

I’m not sure it’s something I would do, but it definitely makes sense for her.  Interest rates aren’t great, so she won’t make a whole lot on her savings, but it will be safe from her, and she’ll get to watch it grow.  Who knows, maybe it will help her work on her savings and convince her to open some more CDs in order to continue to build her nest egg.

What do you think?  Good way to save for a big purchase or overkill?

Well, it’s become a penny jar.  Sure, it’s got other change in it, but a number of people have just started dropping their pennies in after lunch because they don’t want to carry all that “useless” change around.

I’ve decided to start an experiment.  I’m going to see how much money ends up in this jar by the end of the year.  It’s unguarded, so someone could come in and take a handful of pennies  (or the whole jar).  But it’s also out in the open for anyone to drop their change in.  No one’s asked me what I’m going to do with it – in fact, I haven’t said that it’s for anything other than shared vending machine change. 

I’m wondering how many pennies are going to be in the jar by the end of the year.  As I don’t feel like it’s my money, I’ll either use the money to buy candy or something for the office or maybe just exchange it for nickels and dimes and help out the vending machine change scroungers.

They’re only pennies, but they add up.  I don’t use that much cash in my life and I still see my change jar slowly filling.  Of course, I end up dumping that into a Coinstar machine and getting Amazon.com gift certificates a couple of times a year.  This time, I’m going to see what we can manage to save.