Sneaky Ways to Save

I read a post today over at The Wisdom Journal about 17 Sneaky Savings Strategies. It got me to thinking about my own savings plan. While we do have some savings setup, I feel like it isn’t nearly enough.

Right now we have a portion of our pay direct deposited to a savings account at a completely different credit union then the one where our checking account is. We did this because when we have the accounts at the same institution they are linked and it is way too easy to just transfer money back over to checking whenever you “need” it. By making is slightly more difficult to spend the money we are much more conscious of when we are spending our savings.

In addition to the primary savings account, we also have some other automatic transfers setup. First is the transfer to our Christmas Club account. Second is the transfer to the in case we owe taxes account. And third is the transfer to another savings account that is linked to our checking account. This account operates as our overdraft protection account. Each of those transfers is done every pay. In addition to those, we also have a monthly transfer setup to our daughter’s 529 account. I love that these transfers are automatic. This is a great way to make sure that you pay yourself first.

You would think that with all of these automatic transfers going on I would be happy with our savings. Yet, I feel like I should be doing more to save. I think is a result of my worries about where our economy is headed. So I am still constantly looking for ways to tighten our budget and save more money. It seems like all of my cutting back recently has just opened up more spending in other areas and thus my “savings” have been consumed and not truly saved.

My plan right now is to start saving $10 a week every time I don’t get lunch out at work. I use to eat out at least once each week. I have been really good about cutting that out this year although I do still eat out periodically. So I think I will start saving that money for myself. I will start this week and let you know how I do with it when I do my October monthly summary.

Which method will you use to boost your family's savings?