One of the things I miss most about being employed is the ability to save (oh such a reformed shopper, I am!); so when a lovely reminder that in this season of unemployment I’m still managing some saving came through the post yesterday, I was best pleased! A while ago I forgot to put the £30 a month I’m owed from a flatmate into my new account, over the course of a few months it began to build up and I began to see how wonderful it was that it was in a place where I couldn’t use it during this season of need. That account now has more than £250 in it, and it was music to my ears to see a tangible reminder of its growth.
Saving can feel like a very long road and yet a road we must grow to love walking down, a road that makes us skip with glee towards financial stability, the ability to give and knowing we can achieve those things which are most important to us.
So that I have another tangible reminder, I thought I’d share what I’m saving towards. Some of these may be possible to complete by the end of this year, others may take ten years, but each penny is one gleeful skip towards where I’m headed.
My Savings Plans/Jars/Accounts
:: Purchase a cleft lip & palate surgery for a child in need
:: Buy a well for a community in Africa
:: Adoption account – to fund two adoptions (minimum)
:: Support a children’s hospice (right now they need paint!)
:: Fistula surgery account - to provide an essential operation for a girl in need!
:: Home account – purchasing a house
:: Land account – hoping to find a home with some land but extra fields are a bonus!
:: Livestock fund – goats, hens (preferably ex-battery), animals in need of a home!
:: Spontaneous giving account – to be able to instantly help those in need
:: Volunteering overseas
:: Get rid of plastic fund
:: Child sponsorship – current sponsor children, plus a few more!
:: Health
:: Violin and cello lessons
:: Emergency Fund
:: Car maintenance and repair
:: House maintenance and repair
:: Pensions, ISA’s, SIPP’s oh my!
None of these will be easily achieved in a month, or two or even three, but I truly believe having to work hard and wait for that which we most desire, is a blessing in itself!
What are you saving for? Does the long road bring you glee?
I love some of your categories like Spontaneous giving account. How wonderful is that! I do some spontaneous giving and I don’t have a savings category for it. You’ve just given me an idea for it. One thing I struggle with is having only a few bank accounts and so it is hard to keep things entirely organized. Beyond keeping funds for various needs in jars, do you keep funds in different accounts? If yes, how many? Or do you just keep a note of everything on paper? Right now am saving for a trip overseas and one to the eastern part of Canada beyond my regular missions efforts. It is v. challenging saving any money right now given my shelter costs have gone up and I have no control (strata fees, taxes, repairs).
Joyful I started that because I always found I wanted to give but there wasn’t money, by making sure I have £15/$30 a month in there it means I can always just give as needed!
I’ll do a post about my accounts for you as I think that will better explain it. Look for it in the next week or so :0)
I am ashamed that my first response was your 6th.
Oh Luisa, don’t be too hard on yourself! lol
As you probably read on my blog, we are saving for a deposit on our first home. I am also trying to save a little every month as part of an emergency fund. My emergency fund was meant to start from January, but of course not everything goes to plan! I am hoping to be able to put £50 at the end of this month towards it though!
That’s great Paige!
I currently save for car expense, cat expense, emergency account, holidaying account, and save all my changes. I also try to give at least £50 each month.
Reading your list made me realise that I should be putting others in front of myself more and give more.
Those are great things to save for adn isn’t giving great!!
Right now I’m saving for:
-retirement
-car repairs
-emergency fund
I need to have my home finances in line before I can consider other areas to save for.
I’m considering setting up savings to ensure I have $ aside for home heating fuel, gifts, planned purchases.
I give to charities as I can. In the last 6 years I have done a lot of fundraising for various charities. In particular for Arthritis and for Breast Cancer. I may not be able to give a lot financially, but I have given a lot of my time. I encourage people to fundraise or volunteer. Your time is just as valuable as your money.
Very true Melanie! I have found if I make the giving automatic it just don’t even count the money as there. I love volunteering and you are very right it is as important as financial donations!
Smiled and smiled at your list, it is so you!!!
I’m saving for an emergency fund after learning about them from you and also after reading this I’ll save to give more to charity too!
That’s great Kathryn!
You are such a generous person, thank you again for reminding me that I need to work on my giving.
I’m currently saving for a trip home, a move (possibly double rent for a month), and ensuring that my emergency fund is solid in case I end up unemployed in the next couple of months.
More long term I am saving for a house down payment, and a potential dream holiday with some friends in 2012.
I don’t feel generous, I feel like I’m trying to learn to be!
Great goals, and where is the dream holiday? Sounds lovely!
great list! mine (so far…)
* house/moving
* car (repairs, and to buy a new one in a few years)
* travel (visiting friends, holidays)
* “general” (this is to cover clothes, new glasses, hair-cuts etc…)
listed like that I feel so selfish! I do give directly out of my income, but I like your idea of saving to give something substantial (like the cleft palette surgery) i love that idea!!
I hope you get the chance Rachel, I think it is lovely know you’ve literally transformed a life AND that you are giving a kid a chance!
I am rubbish at saving. Although I do have an ING account where I save different ‘pots’ for Christmas, Road Tax, holidays etc. Always end up raiding them to feed the overdraft though.
Good list – I *need* to do more giving. I sponsor a Worldvision child, but aside from that it’s very ad hoc. Your list is making me ponder…..
isn’t world vision great? I really find the automatic payments help me so much!
I am saving to buy a home … preferably an old spacious farm house with some extra land around it. I am saving for the day when I get married. I am saving for having a child. I am saving to pay back my student loans. I am hoping to at some point have enough to split a portion off into an emergency fund.
I’ve recently been considering some very part-time work just to have an extra $100 (US) into the savings … and I’ve already decided that all my extra money from babysitting will go there. For my credit card debt, I’ve started a jar that all my spare cash/change goes into.
Great list Karen!
oops meant to say an extra $100/week lol
lol well that’s good!
We are saving for:
-debt payoff (we are just waiting on money for our car to clear, then we have 2 student loans to pay off)
-midwife fees
-trip to Chicago–a very late honeymoon!
-remodeling costs
Soon we will start saving for:
-adoption fees
-reserves to move to somewhere warmer in a few years
Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed by it all!
ooooh that’s wonderful! Sounds like we have some very similar goals
What great savings ideas! I love the idea of saving for surgeries for needy people overseas as well as saving for some farm animals! You’re full of great and inspiring ideas
lol why thank you!
You have such a huge heart and it’s great to see how easily you express it. At this time we’re not really saving, just paying off debts. We will though begin a savings account for moving/living expenses as we get closer to the transition out of the military.
Lifetime goals will require financial planning however, so constantly those are in the mind of how to get there. Lots of little steps and much to pay off before we get to some of those though.
Thank you for your kind words! Little steps are so important!
I get so overwhelmed when I think of all I have to save for, it scares me. Often I lay (lie?) awake at night tabulating what I have, how much I’ll need, and how I’ll ever get there. I have been funding an emergency fund-when that is finished in about 6 months I’ll be VERY relieved. Right now the biggies are a potential adoption fund, a new (used) car fund, and retirement, and a college fund for future children. My parents weren’t able to help me at all with college so I’d like to be able to do that for my kids.
It’s very difficult not to feel like it’s never enough but with these huge expenses ahead of me…ack! I need to concentrate on how I’m so lucky that I don’t have debt, that I have these funds at least started, and that I am lucky to have what I have. Honestly if it weren’t for retirement I’d be OK-saving for that on top of everything else makes things quite tight.
Thank you for your wonderful blog, it has been an inspiration to both my daughter and myself. I recently found out about KIVA and thought that you may like it too, http://www.kiva.org/
My very simple garden blog is simply to show our small steps to being more sustainable, which is, of course also more frugal.
I know that you are also committed to Fair Trade and thought you might like to see another simple blog – http://fairtradewa.blogspot.com/
Thank you once again for the wonderful thoughts and photos which appear on your beautiful blog.
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Your list is so very inspirational. I think many of us get caught up in our own lives. Like someone else said some of your lower items are at my top. One of my favorite self-help authors tries to teach in his book that our first reaction should be “how may I serve?” (or give) rather than what’s in it for me. A valuable lesson.