the zen of saving

The last couple months have felt like we are on cruise control with Project Money. We have some savings deposits set up using automatic transfers, we continue to monitor our budget in Summit’s Climbr® and make tweaks to both as needed. We analyze and discuss these things to ensure we are in agreement and understand what’s going on with our money and where it’s going. At the end of the month, we go through everything and figure out how much of our “extra” income can now be transferred into our savings beyond the automatic transfers we have established. At this point, we have been feeling like a well-oiled machine and we just need to stay the course.

That was until we had a little chat with our coach Nic. He has always been a huge supporter of how we have been doing things and enjoys celebrating in our successes, but he did point out that there is a sense of randomness with how we save money. At the end of the month it is a guessing game of what the exact total will be of our savings. There are times we are pleasantly surprised at what we saved and there are times we feel a little let down because it was less than anticipated. Nic has challenged us to change up the script a bit and asked us to set up a system of intentional saving.

Instead of seeing what’s leftover and saving that amount, we are going to work with the system we have in place and (once again) tweak it. We are going to set a specific savings goal to help create a more regular savings plan, and we will know exactly how much money we have put away at the end of each month. Are we a little anxious about this? Yep, because it is another change in planning our finances and how we spend money. We feel like we have already dialed in our spending, but there are definitely areas where we could still do better; a potential to save more and meet savings goals sooner. Maybe our “joyful spending” needs a shift or lunch money gets a bit leaner. Regardless, there is more comfort in knowing exactly how much money we will save each month and less discomfort wondering where it all went.

So Nic…challenged accepted! We are going to take a look at things this week, dial in our budget and set a goal for some intentional savings.