Friday, May 11, 2007

Saving for a rainy day

Today was good. Rather serendipitous, actually. For the past little while, well, pretty much since I started paying my own way, finances have been tight. I've always earned enough to cover my bills and, every so often, enough money to spend on things that I'd like. But I never seemed to get caught up on my savings goals.

Well, today I received an unexpected windfall in the form of my paycheck from my old job. I didn't realize that they would actually pay me out for the vacation time I had accrued. Needless to say, I was ecstatic and put the lot of it in savings.

One of my big goals is to support myself while also putting money away every month. As I look for an apartment, that's going to be crucial because things always cost more than I think they will. I have a talent for underestimating costs, well, maybe it's more of a curse. I also have a habit of buying things when I probably shouldn't. For higher-priced items I'm really good about holding off and saving up, but when it comes to the little things each day, sometimes I'm not so good about denying myself. But it does come in phases. I can go months without spending much, but then when the bug hits, it's hard to stop it.

So the point of this rambling is that my goal is to be better about saving money and start thinking about the future, instead of living paycheck to paycheck. That's the goal, now I have to figure a way to stick to it.

2 comments:

  1. I've never really learned how to save properly. The longest I've ever gone without spending the small amount of money I make (babysitting) is four or five weeks.

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  2. Self-support isn't that hard. It's the putting money on the side that's hell. Especially when Banana Republic finally opens up its branch in Indonesia after so long.

    It's great reading your blog, and I'll stop by more often if you don't mind :)

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