By News 4 New York Reporter Roseanne Colletti
Pay yourself first! It’s the cardinal rule of creating a budget.
Before you factor in the mortgage or rent, car payment and insurance, food and entertainment and the rest, set aside a fixed amount of each paycheck for savings. This is above and beyond what may already go directly into your 401K pre-tax.
Depending on your income level, isolate $10, $20, $50 or $100 each week cash and periodically transfer into a savings account with the highest interest rate you can find. Can’t do it by the week, drop a dollar into a glass jar each and every day. Grow this into your emergency fund and try not to tap for at least a year. It seems like peanuts in the beginning, but $100 a week will grow to over $5,000 for the year, even $10 a week becomes $520 for the year, and that dollar a day adds up to $365 — make that $366 for leap years.
None of this is likely to make you a candidate for the “Fortune 500″ list, but it is money in the bank that can become a comfortable cushion.
Tips On Daily Ways To Save:
– Put all loose change in a large can or jar, once a month deposit in bank
– Take lunch to work two days each week and put cash in cookie jar. Once a month deposit the money in the bank
– Reduce your cell phone use and make non-emergency family calls at night.
– Give up extra phone service options on your house phone — use an inexpensive answering machine instead
– Turn off lights when they are not in use.
– Lower the temperature of the hot water heater
– Learn to do simple sewing repairs such as hems and buttons yourself
– Buy in bulk, but only when it makes sense.
– Avoid prepared foods, cook in quantity and freeze.
