Piggy Banking and Transformation Through Blogging
EDITED: To include a link about the Lenten piggy bank.
Oink! Oink!
I still have my Lenten piggy bank, and for most of the year, it’s empty. For some reason, this year, I decided to throw small bills in there and much to my surprise, sometimes I have a nice stash of about $40. It always sort of surprises me how much is in there when I bother to count it up.
When I am running out the door to go somewhere and I don’t have enough time to hit the ATM, I will reach into my piggy bank and grab some money out. Saves me time and usually saves me money because I don’t use a non-network ATM or charge dinner. $40 is more than plenty for dinner and movie.
The other night, I decided to count it up and found out I had $30 in it. I pulled out half because I was running low on cash for the week and consolidated the rest into larger bills. ($1’s for $5’s, not so large, eh?) I ‘topped off’ my wallet, which is good because I needed $10 to park at a downtown parking garage while I went to the theater. I would have been caught short if I hadn’t done that.
This blog has really transformed me. I don’t think I would be using cash as often as I do without realizing through blogging that cash is king. My experiments during Lent to save some petty cash around the house has turned into a small habit of tossing money into the piggy bank all year. It’s helping me avoid using credit for buying food, which cannot be returned or resold. Heck, even just withdrawing wads of cash in $100’s instead of $20’s has left me with small bills to toss into the bank. That’s a major change for me because I never used to pull out that much money at once. It was always twenty here and twenty there.
What about you? Have you changed your small habits with blogging? Can you point concretely to something that’s different about you since you started your involvement reading or writing a PF Blog? Has it stuck with you?
Deena wrote:
Blogging has definitely changed my habits. I question my purchases now and really cut spending. I used to spend a lot more on groceries and little things. Now, I really watch my grocery spending.
I have been spending a lot on scrapbooking, but since I’m selling some of my projects, I’m almost breaking even.
Posted on 14-Dec-07 at 5:51 pm | Permalink
Mrs. Micah wrote:
I definitely think about buying groceries or date nights a lot more. Plus, I use our change jar for stamp buying. I don’t know if that’s relevant, but it was a great discovery.
Posted on 14-Dec-07 at 6:25 pm | Permalink
amaranta wrote:
what does pulling out a bigger sum do?
Posted on 14-Dec-07 at 8:23 pm | Permalink
y wrote:
From reading other blogs I started tracking my spending which I never did before. I also started setting a certain amount for groceries a month instead of just shopping whenever I was out of food
Posted on 15-Dec-07 at 10:06 am | Permalink
E.C. wrote:
What exactly is a Lenten Piggybank? Were you supposed to save money during Lent?
Posted on 15-Dec-07 at 11:36 am | Permalink
mapgirl wrote:
Amaranta - By pulling out bigger sums of cash, I don’t use my credit cards as much.
EC - I edited the post to include a link about the bank. You can also click Lent in the categories to read all the posts, and not just the one from 2007.
Posted on 15-Dec-07 at 5:06 pm | Permalink
Grace wrote:
Blogging, for me, has been an eye-opener. I’ve never paid this much attention to my income and outgo, much less my retirement and net worth.
Best of all, it acts an inhibiting factor–if I spend, I have to blog about it. And then my long-dormant Catholic guilt springs into action–it prevents me from lying and is the source of much anguish. Easier emotionally (and cheaper, financially) just not to spend.
Posted on 17-Dec-07 at 2:07 pm | Permalink