The Big Reveal: Why I am Saving on a Shoestring

I told you all on Friday about a new feature here called Saving on a Shoestring.  (Read all about it here.  I’d love you to join me!)

In quick summary, Wes and I have decided to begin setting aside a small percentage of our income toward a future reward. Our goal is to be inspired to work even harder to stick to our budget because if we don’t, we won’t have this money to set aside!

So…are you ready for the Big Reveal?! As I mentioned earlier, the reward we are working toward is SO FUN that it is going to take 2 1/2 years to reach!  Ok…I can’t hold it in any longer.  Here it is:

{Squeeeeee!}

Wes and I went on a cruise on our honeymoon and I have announced many times that it’s my dream in life to go on another.  It suddenly hit me that:

1. This may never happen if I don’t start being intentional about setting money aside.
2. Our 10 year anniversary is in June of 2012.

That gives us 2 1/2 years to set money aside.  30 months. Perfect.

I just did the math from our savings over the past month.

Folks, we are 5% of the way there. (By the way, take note of my cash register in the top left.  Isn’t that fun?)

I’ve set our savings goal pretty high so we don’t have to worry about prices.  But who knows what deals I might dig up?!

On Friday, I encouraged you to consider whether you might want to join me in Saving on a Shoestring. Is there a reward that will motivate you to stick to your budget? Why not consider taking some time to figure out what you could do to help yourself reach that goal.

As I said earlier, be creative! If you don’t have extra income, there are plenty of other ways to save up such as saving ‘free money’, putting change in a coin jar at the end of the day, or setting aside the extra money from your grocery budget at the end of the month!  (Talk about motivation to clip those coupons!)

If you think you’d like to join me in this venture of Saving on a Shoestring, leave a comment or link up below!  Then come back at the end of each month when we share our updates on how our savings are coming along.  This is going to be FUN!  I can’t wait to hear your ideas!

(By the way, you can join up with us at any time.  Take some time to look at your budget and figure it out!)

ATTENTION BLOGGERS: If you are a blogger and would like the HTML code for the Saving on a Shoestring button, leave a comment and let me know.  If you have a WordPress blog and would like to use the Cha-Ching Ticker (Cash Register in the left sidebar), e-mail me and I will send you the file.