How I Saved Money for Everything I Wanted and More! - A Savings Plan That Works!

#savings #savingsplan #money #budgeting #excel

I always wondered how those saved ‘X’ per week or month plans were supposed to work for everyone! They always sound great but not everyone can save a fixed amount every week or the ones that suggest you slowly build up the amount you save, even I can’t save the amount they have set for some weeks! As much as I love saving money, I enjoy spending it more! If you want to know where all my money goes - home and my horse Using this plan, I was able to get my first apartment four months after I turned 18! I’m even currently using this plan to afford a seven day cruise, a new car, and to move into a new apartment all before the start of 2020!

The basics

Define what your weekly vs monthly fixed costs are. This will change how you lay out this cost saving “formula”. Whether you get paid weekly, bi-weekly, or even per diem will affect this as well. Since I get paid bi-weekly, I have two double my weekly expenses and divide my monthly expenses in half.

Once you define what your expenses are and how often you need to pay them, remember to bring it all to the current amount to match your pay schedule. I always list them by weekly expenses then monthly expenses so it's easier for me to catch where I may have made a mistake.

Getting Into Details

Be sure you include everything in your list from groceries to electronic bill to your gas. The number affiliated doesn’t have to be precise, a ballpark number should do fine. I find it easiest to round up so I’m careful. I’d rather be excited by the money still left at the end of the week than dreadfully pull the money back out of my savings account.

Set up all of your expenses in a line and begin to subtract them from your pay. The remaining balance will leave you with your “play money/savings”! If you’re savvy with excel I recommend using sheets on google docs since they have an app that allows me to review my budget on the go!

Having the formulas in the spreadsheet help me stay more organized and allow me to make quick changes. Since I own a horse it’s important for me to be able to make changes on the fly since I never know what random thing he’ll break or lose on me.(In the past month it’s been the latch on not just his new lead rope but also on his new halter, and he lost his tail bag.)

Of Course That’s Not All

You can’t just expect to get the fullest out of this without monitoring your spending! Over time I realized I didn’t need to spend so much money on groceries as I was spending. I also realized I was being overly generous with my gas budget but forgot I’m a Dunkin Donuts coffee addict which makes it pretty much a fixed expense for me.

You can’t save money without trial and error. Don’t put yourself down if you need to transfer money out of your savings a few times. It’s easy to feel like you’ve been knocked down and to reach your goal is so far. I’ve gone through phases of saving all my money and spending all my money. What I try to do when I want to shop is actually shop for things to keep myself more organized by getting things like this.

After I feel as though I have a good grasp on how much I really need to spend a week, I create another spreadsheet that breaks down every pay period with how much is saved and a column next to it with a running total. The running total allows you to easily see how much you have saved or even add a column to remove money as you reach goals for what you’re trying to save for! That’s what I’ve done to keep myself on track with my cruise coming up this September. (Get ready for vacation envy! I’ll bring you guys with me)

And there you have it! A personalized savings plan just for you! Doing it this way also lets you see what months of the year have an extra paycheck if you’re lucky! As previously stated using excel helps you to manipulate that weeks plan to save more or spend more! You have to treat yourself sometimes!

If you’re not excel savvy - sign up for weekly emails now and send me a message to get a free template with the formulas spelled out for you!