Heavenly Homemakers

Wish you could actually save your cash instead of spending it? I love this helpful tip from Tasha!

Simple Way to Actually Save Your Cash

by Tasha Hackett

There goes that “B” word again. That budget is a fantastic thing. If only I were disciplined enough to keep to a budget! Even after all these years, I’m still not super great at keeping one. If I want to buy a book for myself, and I do so love buying books for myself, I will usually buy it if there is money in the bank. My secret Pay-Off-Debt or Save-Up-Cash plan is simple:

Put the cookie jar on a higher shelf.

If you like to eat cookies and you’re sitting next to a jar of them, you are much more likely to eat them. If you take that cookie jar, place it up on a high shelf with a door that locks, it’s going to be a lot more work to get a cookie. Oh, you can still have one. But you’re not going to be able to sneak one as you walk through the kitchen on the way to the laundry room. You with me?

How badly do you want a cookie?

Just imagine! You have to go all the way to your underwear drawer to find the keyring with all the little keys, and then get a ladder and set it up, climb the ladder, carefully open the door, remove the jar, etc. I do like cookies. But I’m also a little bit lazy. So I don’t eat so many that way. And I surely don’t have kids asking for one all the time because not only is the cookie jar a lot harder to get to, but the kids don’t see it sitting there on the counter full of cookies! Not only does it have cookies in it, but it gets more put in every payday! (Because, in case you’ve forgotten I am talking about saving cash and not cookies. How silly to put cookies in a locked cupboard. Cookies are meant to be eaten… especially on the way through the kitchen to the laundry room. Especially these Super Soft Chocolate Cookies and Giant Breakfast Cookies and Sweet and Simple Cranberry Cookies.)

Saving cash is better than saving cookies.

Please don’t save the cookies. Eat them! You get a cookie! You get a cookie! Everyone gets a cookie! But the cash, we should be saving up some of it so we can buy the things we need. Like a new-to-us 1997 Buick, or a huge trampoline for the kids to work out some of their energy before they come back in for more cookies OR even possibly the down payment for the construction loan for the house we’re going to build next spring. (Yay!!!!!!)

No, I don’t lock my money in a cupboard.

I don’t have hoards of cash in my house. And if I did, I wouldn’t have just told you where it was. Sheesh. Simmer down, folks. But here’s the secret plan. You ready for it? Bank Transfer.

I actively take the money out of one bank and I electronically transfer it into another bank. Are you scratching your head wondering how this is helpful? Bank #1 is easy to access. I have a checkbook to Bank #1, I have a debit card for Bank #1, I have automatic payments and subscriptions, Paypal, and electronic payroll deposits go into Bank #1. The other account is difficult to get to: No check-books or debit cards. If I want money from Bank #2 I have to walk into the bank and request cash or transfer the money to Bank #1. (Warning: This is a terrible long-term savings plan. This is for funds you wish to access within a year.)

Here’s how we stash cash fast.

(Say that 10 times. I bet you can’t. I tried, I made it to four.)

Work (If we are paying debt or saving, we work some extra and hustle.)

Get paid

Deposit money into Bank #1

Budget for what is needed: Bills, Food, Gas, Clothes, School, etc.

Anything extra, no matter how meager, immediately transfer from Bank #1 to Bank #2

Congratulations! You just put the cookies out of reach

Repeat forever and ever amen. (Or until the cookie jar is full.)

Buy the thing with the cookies, I mean cash

In conclusion, stash the cash before rather than later. If I have an extra $5 hanging around, it will turn into a cookie and I will eat it.

How do you save money? Am I the only one who has to lock up the cookies on a higher shelf?

Laura’s friend Tasha Hackett is a book writing, dress sewing, fitness coaching, instagramming, homeschooling mama of four. Whew! Sometimes she tries to do it all and then remembers she’d rather rest on a blanket in the grass and read picture books to her kids. When she’s not guest blogging here she can be found sneaking cookies instead of folding laundry, sewing instead of cleaning, writing instead of cooking, and reading aloud instead of teaching math.