One thing I’ve learned over the past few months is the true meaning of saving. For once I actually have a separate savings account with money in it. In the not too distant past, saving money on an item or bill wouldn’t necessarily mean that the amount saved would go into a savings account. Usually, it would mean I’d be able to pay my bills on time because I reduced the total amount due. This isn’t to say that now every time I save money on groceries or a phone bill, that saved amount immediately goes into my savings account. Sometimes it does, most of the time it just means I can juggle the money we do have and make sure everything is paid on time.
How We Did It
My husband and I have been working very hard this past year making an effort to put money away in a savings account. I thought we had been able to do this because my husband brought in a new client and our income had increased. However, thanks to QuickBooks, I was able to look at last year’s income at this time versus this year’s and, to my amazement, it’s the same! I was flabbergasted that we made the same amount, yet spent quite a bit less. When I compared my charts I noticed we saved money on eating out less, not spending money fixing up our rental home (a big savings for us), reducing our credit card debt, and reducing the operating cost of my husband’s business.
I’m sure there are other areas where we have saved or where we could save more, but this is a really good start. What I recognized was that we really were putting our ‘savings’ into our ‘savings account’, not just reorganizing our finances and juggling to pay bills. This is a huge improvement on our part.
How Others View Our Savings
Another reason we have been able to save money is that we have said no to various activities and travel. Sometimes we think friends and relatives understand, other times we realize they don’t get it. The other day, a friend asked if we’d like to go to a Blues Festival, the total entry cost for both of us would be $300. We declined, explaining that we didn’t want to spend our $300 that way. We prefer to put that amount in our savings account. Our friend said, “Oh, I’m broke too.”
We thought, “That’s not what we just said.” Of course, we didn’t go into detail explaining how we’re saving for a house, this person already knows our plan. It was interesting that how she felt about money reflected how she interpreted what we said. We are realizing that only a few people really understand our goal. Most people we know, due to their own financial situation, interpret what we say differently than how we explain it. This is probably leading to some hurt feelings, but we can’t give in or we’ll never be home owners.
