Hiring Myself: Month 1 = $8311 saved

Three weeks ago I hired myself to find savings in my family's budget and possibly some ways of earning income as well. One of the purposes of this blog was to keep track of the steps I'd taken. I was unsure, however, of exactly how to track my progress. Some things were straightforward; others not so much.

Currently I am tracking my efforts in four areas: General Savings, Coupon Savings, Earnings, and Rebates.

Coupon Savings is pretty straightforward. I'm just recently on this bandwagon so I'm only at about $10 for the three weeks. I considered tracking sale prices on groceries but decided that would be too cumbersome. Coupon savings is easy to track and since I didn't use coupons before and I have some pretty strict rules for myself regarding their use, the number will reflect a true savings.

Rebates are also easy to track. I'm tracking them when they come in, rather than when I apply for them, so I don't have anything to report for the month. I do have a couple outstanding, however.

Earnings this month has consisted of bonuses for opening new bank accounts. I opened ING accounts for myself and my kids, resulting in $75 of new account bonuses and $20 of referral bonuses. This was fun and so easy to do! The interest is also much better than we were earning before. I also am in the process of switching my bricks and mortar bank, which will net me a $50 new account bonus in a couple of months.

I have a few ideas for earnings in the future but I would love ideas on this one. There are only so many bank accounts a person can open, ya know?

General Savings has been the most lucrative category to this point. Here's the breakdown so far:

• Refinanced the House: Annual Savings $1500 (This is a very rough estimate of our interest savings less the impact on our income tax deduction.)


• Surfed high interest rate debt to a 0% credit card: Annual Savings: $4000


• Un-hired the cleaning ladies: Annual Savings: $2000


• Changed banks: Annual Savings: $47 (Our old bank charged bill payment fees and fees to use our debit card.)


• Consolidated cable/phone/internet with one company: Annual Savings: $520 ($30/monthly savings plus one free month)


• Cancelled AOL: Annual Savings: $119 (We're using the free email addresses that come with our high-speed connection.)

I love all of these savings because I only have to make the changes once and the savings will continue to come month after month with no additional effort on my part. I think of them as "passive savings". Sort of the flipside to passive income.

Other savings are one-time in nature and the only thing I have to report on that front is the Father's Day gift that I bought my husband that I had been eyeing for a while. The price was $59 at our local hardware store, but Target had it for $39 last week so I snatched it up. My rule of thumb for "counting" these savings are that it has to be something I was already going to buy. Not something I choose to buy because I thought the price was good.

So far, so good. And, like the first month of weight loss, I'm certain these numbers won't duplicate themselves. But it feels good to be off to a strong start. I'd love to hear others' ideas!