I have talked many times about the envelope system and saving money that way for different things. The two big things I save for with my envelopes are vacation and Christmas. I put a certain dollar amount each pay period into my envelopes for vacation and Christmas/Birthdays. This is an amount that I budget for each month and it has no effect on my bill paying at all. We never even know that it is there so there is no tempt to spend that money on something else. Saving is like anything else, it must become a habit if you are going to be good at it and we want to be good at it.
I saw on Facebook that someone has already posted that there are only 48 weeks till Christmas 2015. Yikes!! Are you serious, someone is really already in that countdown? If you start saving now, $20 a week by Christmas you would have $960 cash. Wouldn't it be great to have that kind of money to help pay for Christmas? I know, I love being able to pay cash for gifts. I use my Christmas money for birthdays too.
Let us think about vacations. The first time we paid cash for our vacation I was so excited, I could not believe I had actually done it. Not only had we paid for our room but we paid for our meals and for a few other activities while we were at the beach. It was great knowing that we would not be paying for the beach fun for the next several months on a credit card. The other thing that is also important to remember is that every time you use your credit card you are opening yourself up for theft. I must veer off course here for a moment. While participating in the Dave Ramsey class one of the couples mentioned how their credit card number was stolen while they were on vacation at Myrtle Beach. They said they had traced it back to a restaurant in Myrtle Beach. Luckily the gentleman was a police officer and had some contacts in Myrtle Beach, they helped him track down the crook. They traced it back to their waiter at this one restaurant and when they found him he had a note pad with several credit card numbers in it that he had planned to use. He had used their card to buy new tires for his car. This is why I always say cash is better especially when you are on vacation. We use only cash for restaurants, it keeps our eating out under control. Now, back to saving for vacation, we have roughly 23 weeks till vacation time starts. If you save $40 a week for 23 weeks you have $920 to put toward your vacation. Depending on how you vacation, that may not cover everything but it will sure put a dent in it. What if you start funding your vacation envelope as soon as you get back from vacation? You would then have roughly 52 weeks to save for the next vacation. Let's do some math, $40 times 52 weeks is $2080 toward your next vacation. Seems pretty simple, right?
How are you going to pay for Christmas and vacation this year? I am still funding our envelopes, and have I said lately how much I love the envelope system. You do not have to have a fancy envelope to start saving, I grabbed some plain white envelopes to get started. Here's to vacation not following you home and not paying for Christmas for months afterward. Good Luck!!
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