Act as if you spent and turn it into savings

[Easygoinwhale]

Hi all,

I've been a long time lurker of MMM and have picked up many new ways to save and different ideas shared through this wonderful community.  I want to thank everyone for the unbelievable support and knowledge that you have all shared with me.

One idea I would like to share with  all of you is how I like to save the money that I'm expecting to spend.  For example, if I plan to spend $50 on groceries for the week and I come up short and only spend $43, I make a conscious effort to put the $7 into a separate account.  Although the $7 may sound petty and a pain to move over into a different account, I think its necessary that I remove it from my budgeted spend and act as if I spent that money.  This not only saves a little extra cash for the future but also takes away any urge to spend that money on something useless.

Also, I've been doing this with the small raise I got this past December.  I've budgeted my money from my previous salary and every time I'm paid I put the extra money into a separate account.  Every two weeks I'm only putting $19.44 away but over time that number should increase and I hope to continually budget from my initial salary.  This is my way of living below my means even when I'm making more money.

Does anyone else do something similar to this idea? Feel free to share!

[swick]

Welcome to the boards and thanks for sharing!

We do something similar, at the end of every month we take any extra surplus in our budget and make an extra mortgage principal payment. Most of the time it turns into a game to see how much we have at the end of the month to move and it motivates us to think about all those small choices you sometimes don't think about because there is money "in the budget"

[NinetyFour]

I like both of these ideas (from swick and Easygoinwhale).  Basically, the idea is resisting the urge to inflate one's lifestyle as one's income increases.  I will try to incorporate one of these ideas.  Thanks!

[Carrie]

Since annual reviews happen in April, I have scheduled to have the 401k contribution automatically increase by 1% every May.  This past April, there was no increase in salary (!), not even a COL adjustment, but the 1% came out anyway and guess what - we adjusted just fine.  If I take it out ahead of time... I really can't spend it.

We also throw extra at the mortgage, or else I send little bits to our current sinking fund goal. I have no problem transferring little bits from checking into various savings accounts.  :)

[Half-Borg]

I can not "hide" money from me, I'm always aware how much I have somewhere.
What works for me is a spreadsheet on my phone, where I include every purchase (even if it's 9 cent) and a rough estimate what I will spend the remaining month.
In return I get a current and estimated savings rate and I feel good looking at my great savings rate and don't want to bring it down.
66.49% current 64.66% estimated this month :)