It's a bit of a mind game I play with myself. Rather like those of you who set your alarm clock ahead a few minutes to 'trick' yourself into getting a few extra , moments of rest in the mornings. I never did understand that one, but if it works, hey? why not.
I do much the same thing with 3 of my monthly bills: my landline, my cell phone bill and my satellite bill.
I know, I know, there are many of you who have gotten rid of your landline, or your satellite/cable. I would be game for the former - jury is still out on the latter. The kink in that hose is DH, who fights it tooth and nail. He is not exactly on board the 'understanding your money' train. I have to pick my battles.
Anyhoo....back to the messing with my own mind.
I overpay those bills each month by a few dollars. The satellite bill is fairly constant, except for it's too frequent price hikes. The other two bills have their base price and then can increase if there are long distance calls made on either. By budgeting this little overpaying, it gives me a bit of self created cushion so that the odd call here or there doesnt' throw my budget out of whack. Currently, we do not make enough LD calls to merit the use of adding that 'package' onto our regular bills.
So I over pay by a couple dollars and a small surplus gets created. Should a month come with LD charges, then no worries. Like, say the month where DS1 was being wooed by all those US colleges. Those calls came in to him either on his cell or on the house phone. It added up, but there was room.
So at the end of the calendar year I skim off this self created surprlus and voila! It becomes a snowflake. A very nice snowflake.
So after those three bills were paid today, $120 was skimmed off and made a lovely snowflake that went to the bank and was added onto what I am saving for my TFSA.
I know there are a lot of big ways folks have trimmed their budget to create more cash flow. Here is a smaller way I am trying to make change.
Not Much Working Out Monday
3 hours ago
6 comments:
wow. that's an awesome idea. I do something like that but differently. I've told my company to deduct savings from my pay cheque. I don't even think of those as part of my savings goal.
I think this is brilliant. Fabulous idea!
Just joined the PF world, but have been a long time reader of yours! Just wanted to comment that this is something that my mom always did and it has always helped her out! Especially here in AZ when some A/C bills are $4-500 in the summer for just her and my dad (and they keep the house pretty warm!)
Once upon a time, I used to have a cell phone bill that I had paid double on once so there was always a credit. That way if something came up I could always pay less (or zero) on my cell phone bill. That was a long time ago. I like your method but I don't see it happening. With having debt and needed to bulk up savings, the money sitting on bills aren't paying down interest or earning interest. It certainly provides some peace of mind :)
I know that game because I play it too!
Thanks everyone.
Pear - great idea. If you don't see it first, you don't miss it.
Thanks Dana!
Financiall free - welcome to the PF world. Having visited your lovely state twice and nearly melted, I can appreciate the need for those ACs, even if they come with evil bills.
Morgaine, I thought about sending it straight to mortgage. I can only do it in increments of $100, which would have been about October through this delayed savings. darn. I see other folks out there who are able to send any little bits in for the mortgage.
Jane - good to known I am not the only one :-)
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