You can read parts 1 and 2 of this series here.
When I was younger, my parents gave me a set of three envelopes and a little notebook. One envelope was for saving, one for spending, and the other for giving. The little notebook was meant to be my method of keeping track of my cash flow. My parents would hand me my allowance in one dollar bills and I would dutifully separate them into each corresponding envelope.
Those three little envelopes were one of the best things that my parents ever did to teach me about finances. At that point, something was instilled in me that said, “Saving money is good.” I took great delight in finding ways to make that savings envelope grow fatter than the other two.
That isn’t to say that I’ve always made the choice to save. There were times that saving money wasn’t even an option. But thanks to Wes’s upbringing and mine, we both realized that there was great value in saving money.
{I’ll admit, we did blow a good chunk of our tax return the first year of our marriage on a TV. To be fair, our first TV was from the dark ages. We felt that was good enough reason to take our little spending spree.}
After that first year, however, we hit harder times financially. We began to realize that it might be wise to set aside any extra income for the future, rather than spend it immediately.
Which leads me to the next letter in this series on BASIC lay-off survival prep:
B-Budget
A-Apartment
S-Saving
I-
C-
The year that Wes was laid off was 2008–the year of the stimulus check. Wes was laid off in April and we had just received our money from our tax refund and stimulus check. Little did we know how thankful we would be that we did not run out to spend this nice chunk of money on anything frivolous. It gave us just the cushion that we needed to get through the next lean months.
We also grew very grateful for our budget during this season. Our car repair fund saved the day as both of our cars decided to break down during Wes’s unemployment.
And now, as we approach purchasing our first home, we are even more grateful that we have steadily been setting aside money through the years. We recently moved to an area where houses cost about twice as much as what we are used to. If we hadn’t been slowly and steadily saving money toward our first down payment for the past 7 years, buying a house would not even be an option.
How about you? Have you learned the value of saving money? How? Do you have any tips on how to set aside money even when your budget is tight?
Coming up next in the series: I is for Investing.