What are YOU saving for?

Ok, time to spill the beans, what are YOU saving for?? (Comment below readers!)

As I have discussed before, everyone has their own goals, and for most goals you need money to achieve them. Generally speaking the more ambitious the goal, the more moolah you need!

I have spoken about what I am saving for, new windows for my house, a new garage A FREAKIN' DELOREAN! YEAH! And trips all over the world, (Germany is getting ticked off this year!) So I want to know what makes you tick, what makes you get up in the morning and grind IRL to get what you want? Knowing what my readers are trying to achieve will help me write better advice for you!

What is Skimming??

Well, from a workmate's idea, I just made it up! Read on!

One of my workmates (who is a fellow budgeter) told me about his method of budgeting which I had never heard of before, I don’t think it has a name, so I am going to refer to it as

SKIMMING

Basically what he does is check his bank account on a regular basis (perhaps every two days or week) and “skims” the top off the number (for example if he had £22.55 he would skim the £2. 55) and transfers it into his savings account (I LOVE that online banking can allow you to transfer your money between accounts in mere seconds!!) and because you can only withdraw cash from ATMs in increments of £10 (or £5 at some rare bank machines!!) in theory he will never “miss” the money he is skimming off the top! A great effortless way to save money into your savings, by the end of the month you could see potentially massive savings of money, and every little helps!

On that note I will leave you with some advice from my Grandma, which is:

“Squeeze the pennies till the Queen crys for mercy”

Credit cards aren't ALWAYS the Devil!

Another controversial post! Some of you readers may have noticed that I have a tendency to go "against the grain" of accepted financial "wisdom". But its true! Credit cards aren't ALWAYS the devil! (In much the same way that guns aren't necessarily bad either, however they could be used for evil depending on the user)

Recently I made a big ticket purchase, and as some of you may know I save a sum of money each month, and anything after my bills and expenses (Including the sum of money that goes directly into savings!) is ALL MINE TO DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH!! Generally this consists of a few takeaways, maybe going to the cinema or go karting and maybe some DVDs. All relatively inexpensive stuff.

So I put the big ticket purchase on my credit card, which gives me 56 days without incurring ANY INTEREST WHATSOEVER. So that way, I can use any extra money I get from valeting cars, and some of my spare money, to pay off the credit card BEFORE I incur any interest charges, and ON TOP OF THAT INCREDIBLE COOLNESS, I can save the normal amount every month!

So if you check the terms of your credit card, then you CAN make it work FOR you rather than against you!