I keep my mind on my money and my money on my mind

I mentioned yesterday that I would be sharing with you guys some of my savings tips.

I know everybody has things that work for them, but these are my habits.

1. I don't know about you guys and your banking institutions, but at my credit union, you can have multiple savings "shares" on one account. If you have that option, USE IT. I mean it. I have multiple little savings accounts for everything... gas money, horse expenses, gifts/holidays, gym expenses, etc. If you're anything like me, you MUST put money aside for things or else you will be a week away from pay day, and your horse needs shoes or your car needs gas and you don't have any fracking money. This really blows. So I learned a long time ago that if I hope to have money for these things, you can bet your sweet ass I hafta be planning ahead.

2. Hold on to your ones and change. I don't use a lot of cash. But when I do, any ones or coins I get go directly into my secret squirrel stash, if you will. This particular stash goes towards my (hopefully) future wedding. It's not a lot, but every couple months I end up with $50-$100 going into my Fairy Tale savings. And at the rate I'm going (hello? 7 years and no sign of a ring in site?) I should have approximately $35,000 saved up. Ha.

3. Holy shit balls girls, DON'T use your credit cards if you can't pay it off with your next paycheck. So many young ladies, not unlike ourselves, end up in this cycle where we get credit cards, rack up the clothes/jewelry/purses/trips and then pay a measly $100 on them at payday. This will not work. Keep your credit balances under 25% of your limit and not only will your wallet be happier, but your credit score will be too!!!

4. Keep your money out of sight. I opened an account at a completely different credit union than where I work/bank. I didn't open a checking with it. I wanted it to stay separate from my regular accounts so it isn't as easy for me to access. If I need it, it's there. But I usually don't NEED it, so it's easy enough to avoid spending it.

4. Hi. Let me introduce you to a site that my IT manager at work showed me today (hiiii Geoff! In case you're blog stalking me right now). It's called Save Up and it basically rewards you for putting money in your savings accounts or paying on your bills. Pretty much you link your accounts up (I trust Geoff to not trick me into giving my banking information out to a scam site) and it knows whenever you make a payment or deposit and it rewards you with these credits. With these credits, you get to enter yourself into drawings for things like vacations, new bedroom sets, cash into your savings accounts, or even in the $2 million "lottery" (for those of us that didn't win the mega millions).

If you wanna join, go check it out here.

Anyways, I hope these tips have helped some of you guys or at least given you some ideas of things that might help you reach your financial goals.