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”

The truth about budgets

This is a post I have been putting off for a VERY long time, because it acknowledges something that I don't (and I don't think anyone) wants to think about too hard, but here goes:
I set aside money in my budget for doing FUN THINGS

There, I said it/typed it. The painful truth is that because I am a human I NEED to do fun things, and give myself  "a break" at least once in a while. For me this could be anything from buying a takeaway (takeout for my american readers) to buying a comic book or going to the cinema (Just went to see man of steel, its AWESOME!) but the point is, If I didn't do these small relatively cheap things, then I would pretty much wind up in a lunatic asylum, "all work and no play make onemanmade a very crazy boy!"

When I first started budgeting I took it wayyyyy too seriously, I took literally every penny that I had spare after paying my mandatory outgoings, and put it into my savings account, about halfway through the month I had to take the "extra" (after saving a decent amount) out and just spent it all on stuff I didn't even need, just because I had to relieve the tension and the pressure of saving so much and not giving myself any slack to play with.

So my advice to you readers is, use your budget to pay your mandatory outgoings and savings, but try to set a little aside (it could be £20 a month just to let yourself buy a takeaway/takeout and a dvd or magazine) just so you don't go nuts!

P.S The reason I don't like thinking about the fact that I need to have fun with money sometimes is that I know that it puts me a little further away than I potentially could be to my goals, but it does mean I will be a happier person when I do reach my goals, and appreciate them more because I haven't had to give up my life to achieve them.