Read about our financial challenge to save $15,000 in 9 months for our forever home.
Today, I’m excited to share our first monthly update!
What we learned:
Saving for something particular is much more motivating than just saving money. I thought we were really good at saving money before, but this has given us a renewed interest in being as careful with our money as possible so that we can save as much as possible. It’s a little like going on a diet. If there’s no beach season or ball in sight, it’s easy to slack off a bit, but when you have that gown in your closet that you have to fit into in four weeks, you’re more likely to hit the gym. Well, at least it’s that way for me!
Obstacles:
January was a low-income month for me since I was receiving payment for services rendered in December. December is actually a slow month for me– and I have fewer working days in December. All of that translated into a disappointing income from the month, so my contribution was not as much as it could have been.
What we saved:
Drumroll, please! During the month of January, we were able to sock away $1,477 for our house fund.
The breakdown:
We put $1,200 aside from our checking and deposited it into savings. (That’s not very exciting, sorry.)
Here’s the exciting part: cash-back credit cards. We decided to roll over points from our credit card and use it as cash to directly deposit into our house fund. That’s $277 bucks that we weren’t using, hadn’t accounted for, and didn’t “work” for. Awesome.
How we did it:
We got serious with our finances in a few ways this month:
- The cash-back credit card. We used the outstanding rewards balance. We charge most of our purchases on this card, which I do not recommend to anyone unless you know that you can pay back your balance each month.
- We cut back on going out to eat. We live in an adorable town with out-of-this-world eateries, so this was a big “sacrifice,” but seeing the numbers was definitely worth it. Oh yeah, and it’s healthier too. Yay!
- January was a low-travel month for us. The weather was kind of gross. We didn’t really go anywhere.
Where we are:
Our first month’s savings of $1,477 puts us that much closer to the goal. Only $13,523 to save!
5 Responses
That’s really good progress! Mac and I are going to tighten the belt on finances soon to pay off my student loans.
Awesome job with the goals! We’ve already been saving money and part of it is for our forever/dream home. We’ll probably get more serious about saving more towards it in the next few years. Can’t wait to see more of your progress throughout the year and props for not going out to eat especially in a town with so many options!
That’s some nice savings for a month. I know I’d never be able to do that, but I’m not saving for a dream home. I know I couldn’t save that much money though because that’s more than I get in a month. Even when I was working full time it would have been hard for my wife and I to save that much. I guess we are just not disciplined enough to do that. So good job on that. I know it takes a lot of will power. I suppose keeping your eye on the final goal and really wanting to get there is a lot of motivation though. At that rate you’ll have enough money in September to begin your dream home, if you so choose. Good luck with that.
Wow! That is a lot to save in 1 month. Great job. My hubby and I are looking to get some savings in place to do some work on our house so I’m excited to follow your progress and pick up some more tips :)