Today I am joining several other personal finance bloggers in a $100 cash giveaway! The giveaway entry form appears at the bottom of this post. You may enter multiple times for many different chances at winning!
**If you don’t mind, please make the WhatMommyDoes Twitter entry option your first stopping point!**
The giveaway’s theme is “Finances in the New Year.” To kick off the new year, I am going to challenge myself and YOU to be better about saving money. If you are interested in joining me, please read on for more information, comment below, and enter the contest afterwards. You just might win $100 cash to jump start your 2013 savings goals!
77 Days of Saving Challenge ~ Spend Less, Save More, Enjoy Life
I normally don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I figure if it’s important enough to resolve to do on January 1st, it’s important enough to do immediately, instead of waiting on an arbitrary start date.
Maybe it’s my way of taking the easy way out. I’m certainly not perfect at anything! :-0
But this year I’m coming around…I feel like making a New Year’s resolution to better myself. It’s going to be a year of enjoying life. My resolution has three parts.
Three New Year’s Resolutions for 2013
The first thing I am going to learn to do is stick to my budget for more than a month or two at a time. I chose this because I sometimes get stressed out about money, and the last thing I want to do is worry about that.
The second thing I’m going to do is learn new things. Among other things, I want to learn how to use my digital SLR camera, and I want to learn more about picking stock investments. I also want to learn how to cook a ton of new meals so we can have even more variety for dinner. Finally, I want to learn how to be on time every where I go so I don’t make my 5 year old constantly late for elementary school in the fall. :=O
The third thing I am going to do is enjoy my kids. This is the first year in quite some time that I won’t be pregnant and miserable. Now that all three of my little ones are here (and we don’t plan on having any more), I can begin to enjoy them without raging hormones getting in the way!
Thoughts on Money and Happiness
Some of the things on my list are obviously personal items that not everyone can identify with. But I figure everyone can identify with the first goal – to stick to a budget. That includes living on less, saving more, finding ways to have fun on a dime, etc. And, really, all of that ties back into enjoying life because I have always found that money doesn’t equal happiness.
Money makes my life easier, but not more joyful. Spending time with friends and family is what truly makes me happy.
I don’t have a timetable for learning new things and enjoying my kids. I find that you can’t force something like enjoying your family, and I don’t want to stress myself out by putting deadlines on new things to learn. Those will just be overall goals for 2013.
The Actual Challenge: 77 Days of Saving
What I can challenge myself to is to do one thing each day to save money or spend less. And because 7 is my lucky number, why not make it 77 days of saving?! That will get me over my usual hump of giving up on a budget after a couple months at most. 77 days is 11 weeks, or almost 3 months. If I can stick with this for that long, my new ways will certainly become habit.
How will I save? I’m going to start with things from my Ultimate List of Ways to Save Money. This list is already at 98 ways to save, and I plan on adding more in the coming weeks. Even if I only chose items from this list, I have more than enough ideas to last for 77 days!
Because I’m a creature of habit, I expect many days I will simply repeat the same ways to save. For instance, on Days 3, 8, 15, and 24, I might eat leftovers for dinner instead of making something new. That will totally count. Anything big or small that helps me toward my goal of sticking to a budget and saving more in the new year will count.
Over the next 77 days, I imagine I’ll also haggle at a yard sale, do a pantry challenge, eat what’s in season, shop during a triple coupons promotion, plan meals around the grocery store sales flyer, use printable coupons, and shop for clothes at a consignment store. I’m also planning on cancelling our cable subscription and hosting a potluck.
Any time I create savings, I plan on ImpulseSaving the difference.
Join me in 77 Days of Saving!
I would love for you to join me in 77 Days of Saving. It can be as specific as you want or you can just follow the general guidelines of looking for ways to save however you can. You can do a different thing each day or the same thing every day.
It doesn’t matter how you make this challenge your own – the point is that you create a long-lasting habit and feel the accomplishment of doing something good for your finances in 2013.
Even if you just want to commit to putting $2 a day in a coffee can to save up $144 in 77 days, that’s cool! Choose whatever works for YOU.
If you want to join me, just comment below with your thoughts on how you will tackle this challenge. No worries if you don’t see this post on New Year’s Day – this will be a fluid challenge that anyone can start at any time in 2013. In fact, as long as you start it by October 16, 2013, you have time to save for 77 days in 2013. :=)
If you want to check in periodically to let everyone know how you are doing, feel free to do so! I would love to highlight some extraordinarily simple or extravagant savings plans at the conclusion of the 77 days.
If you need some help sticking with the challenge, feel free to contact me. I’m here to help!
Cheers!
If you are a blogger who would like to get in on the challenge, feel free to write about the challenge and link back to this original post. I’m working on a badge as we speak.
Now for a chance to win $100!!
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jefferson @SeeDebtRun says
i love your goals.. especially that you included “learn new things”.. both are excellent thoughts.. we all have to continue to grow as people and continue to let life be an adventure (especially as parents)..
i also love that you included “enjoy my kids” on your list.. with life’s frantic pace and all of the demands of parenthood.. you should always take time to enjoy your kids for what they are..
Lena says
Thanks, Jefferson! Sometimes I have to force myself to slow down and just watch my kids play instead of trying to cram in activity after activity. I made it one of my official goals because it’s so important that I don’t miss this time with them.
krantcents says
I have always made savings a priority! Saving and investing helped me reach financial freedom.
Lena says
I hope to be like you one day! 🙂
Angela W says
We plan not eating out except during special events/situations.
Lena says
Wow, that takes a lot of dedication! I keep telling my husband we should forgo random weekly dinners out and save up for monthly super nice restaurant dates. 😉
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter says
I love how balanced your goals are. We really need to set goals for all aspects of our lives to have healthy lives. Best of luck.
Kylie says
We got several gift cards for restaurants and bought one for ourselves where they give you extra for doing so during holiday promotion. We have enough to go out once a month his year so we plan not to spend any extra eating out! Added bonus to keep us on track losing weight too!
Lena says
Yeah, I am always really tempted to buy restaurant gift cards due to those deals! What a good idea to do that and plan your eating out ahead of time.
We’re currently going on a month-long no-eating-out plan unless we somehow can squeeze it out of our grocery budget. We’ve just been spending too much money lately and need to get back on track!
Kim@Eyesonthedollar says
We have been very focused on debt payoff and it’s hard sometimes to decide how much to save and how much to pay toward debt. If plans go as I hope, we could have student loans paid off in the next few months, and I’ll have plenty of time to do the 77 day challenge. An unexpected bonus for us is that our daughter’s full day kindergarten, which did cost $100/month, is now fully funded through a new grant, so we’ll be able to save or use that money toward debt.
Lena says
That’s wonderful, Kim! I keep counting down the days until I no longer have two preschool tuitions ($195 per month each). When my oldest goes to Kindergarten this fall, we will only have one in preschool for that whole year. Then we’ll be back up to two tuitions for a year, then back down again. 🙂