Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The "pay yourself" concept

Hello everyone, today is my first official blog where I will explain a concept that is going to help me save some money and hopefully help you. This concept is called the "pay yourself " concept. How many of us have found ourselves paying other people for services that we can do ourselves. I will be the first one to stand up because I've been doing this since college, and now I think about the thousands of dollars that I could have saved if only I would have done those services for myself. Yes many of us have already adapted this concept partially not knowing it, however the twist to this whole concept would be you seeing the money.
This weekend I was planning on getting a
1. pedicure $30
2. Car wash and detailing $15
3.Dry cleaners $20
4. Dinner $20 (It's friday)
5. Facial $ 15

This all totals up to $ 100. This is $100 dollars that I would be paying people to do a job for me that I clearly can do for myself. Now here is the catch, instead of just doing these services myself and just saying ok I saved some money, I would actually take the money out and pay myself for these services. For example, on Saturday I'm going to do my own pedicure, so I'm going to take this money out, put it in my "pay myself," envelope and make a promise not to touch this money until I can put it into my savings account. Next, I have water at my house a rag and a small broom in my house, so that means I can wash my car and clean the inside of it. Now let's be smart, let's not go crazy running up our water bill just to save $15 dollars. I've seen people work miracles with just a bucket of water. So this Saturday I will be paying myself for this car wash. I also had a few work clothes that I would take to the dry cleaning. I'm not going to take it there anymore. I will wash them myself and iron them myself and that's just some more money for me. Now we know that some clothes can only be dry cleaned, so if you have to take it to the dry cleaners that's fine too. But next time, think twice and see if you can do it yourself. Now the next thing on my list is dinner for 20 dollars. I know some of you probably just had a heart attack, but I would only do this once a week, but now that I'm trying to save some money, I'm going to stay in and make my own food. The last thing on my list is a facial. I love facials, but I refuse now to pay $15 for it. I will look up online how to do home facials, and I'm sure that will work out fine.
Many of you are now saying that this would take up to much time, time that you don't have. However, if you think about it, time indeed is money, and this is the money you could be saving with Geico. Oops sorry, that darn commercial. This isn't an advertisement for Geico, I promise. However doing the services yourself could be the money that you could have in your "pay yourself account." How many of us sleep in Saturdays, or go to sleep late on Fridays. Find the time to do these things for yourself, and save some money. I just thought of this concept last week and I'm going to apply it this weekend. I will update you on the follow through. I will make a promise to do each of these and not give in to paying people for things that I could do for myself. I hope this is helpful to many of you. Like I said before , "I'm cheap," but "I'm just trying to save some money." The next blog is going to be on coupons, I never used them before, but I will see how it can help me save some money. Hope to hear from you guys. Thanks.

I'm just trying to save some money

Hello everyone!

My name is Nancy and I am cheap! No, I know what you are thinking, not cheap in that way, but cheap in the way that I am living. Like the title says, I'm just trying to save some money. Like I always tell my friends when they find me trying to bargain, or not spending money, I tell them "Times are hard," and "I need to save money." . However, let me say that I have not always been this way. I've always been a big spender. I spent money I didn't have causing me to have all types of debt, and now I'm slowly trying to recover from those financial difficulties. I'm in my mid-twenties, I live at home and I don't have one penny in my savings account. I know its bad, but that's why I'm trying to do something about it now. This blog is to follow my journey into saving money and the way that I do it. I hope everyone else comes on this journey with me, and tell there story on they came from nothing to saving a few bucks. Every day, I will give my story on how I saved money and how much I'm saving. Hopefully, everyone else will tell there story too. My next blog will be on a new way that I found that I can save money and it is called the "pay yourself" concept. Please read my next blog to find out how the "pay yourself," concept can help you save money.