Why?

We need more ways to earn points.

I agree

Welcome, Aleida! I agree that it would be nice to have more activities to earn points. The daily article and daily forum posts are easy to keep up with and they add up pretty quickly, though!

Weekend is coming to a close now, and so is the month. Just about time to reconcile the August budget and get the September budget planned. Happy savings to you all!

On conversation of more point-earning activities how does one create a quote format here?: I agree that it would be nice if there were considering the chances of winning a scratch off seem to be low; however, I also understand that SaverLife's main goal is to encourage people to save. Therefore, I am more grateful that there is an option to earn at least some points for activities that do not directly reflect whether a person saved or not.

@Katie P: A bit late to this topic (Friday being payday), but I find it easier for me to simply have my pay direct deposited into an online savings account to drastically minimize any impulse or over-indulgence spending. Of course, the 6-free withdrawls tend to make things a bit complicated for some (like calculating monthly expenses wrong or when I'm thinking of changing to a better "high yield" savings account).

Conversation starter:

How do you reconcile your budget?

For me, I…am slightly ashamed to admit that I just have a vague mental budget right now. If my savings account is better off than it was last time I paid off all monthly expenses, then I have "successfully" managed to stick with my budget.

I do however, want to try kakeibo again, though perhaps this time I'll set it up to where it budgets each paycheck since I can calculate that better than estimating my monthy income. (Bi-weekly pay makes some months have an "extra" check, and I have yet to figure out those months).

I use a spreadsheet to budget. Each income and expense has its own line. I estimate what my paychecks will be for the coming month (I'm a biweekly, hourly employee so I go with the lowest and am pleasantly surprised when it's higher) and I know which months are the 3-check ones. I have an extra line of income for things like SaverLife scratchers (I won last night!). I estimate what my bills will be, going with the highest. I budget in lines for my automatic savings transfers within my accounts (5 categories). I try to fill in amounts as they occur during the month and then near the end I see if there is leftover or not. Then I start all over for the next month, lol. There's nothing wrong with not using an official "budget" but since starting mine, I've doubled the amount that I save each month. Seeing the numbers throughout the month is good motivation to avoid unnecessary spending.

I used to be on a bi-weekly pay schedule. Those 'extra' check months always felt like I was getting a bonus. Now I am on a semi-monthly and I am not a fan. I would rather have a consistent payday rather than on the 1st/15th which can fall on a weekend and push out my time in between checks.

I love budgeting and I do it all the time! I have used just about every type of software. I used excel though when I was a small business. I use YNAB mostly now but just about every other day I write down/reconcile my budget; I use a notebook for work notes everyday and my empty pages in between are filled with budget numbers lol! I feel that if I am constantly thinking about it, its harder to make those impulse choices (like cooking dinner vs ordering dinner) Plus I get a rush of positive feeling when I see all those numbers balancing out.

In general when I am reconciling, before touching savings, I try to reduce 'extraneous' categories. I have two unplanned purchases categories: One for miscellaneous items and one for entertainment items. Since my husband and I both play video games, we tend to spend our 'impulse' money on games, although sometimes its a movie. I found it helpful to keep these items separate from things like house stuff/yard stuff/something really cool we found at Target :).

Now matter how you choose to budget, I find that mindfulness a really important aspect. That's another reason why I have been loving SaverLife. I'm very goal oriented so making it a goal to get all available points each day by reading articles and posting on the forum, and setting up automatic transfers of $5 to savings each Friday, is working really well for me, personally.

@Sarah, what sort of small business? If you don't mind sharing

Yes daily posting seems tedious. But enjoy not having to adhere to rules limiting what counts to earn points!

@Katie P: Thanks for the description of your method. I might have to try my hand at it and see how it goes. Congratulations on the scratcher!

@Sara B: I had always thought that I would prefer semi-monthly over bi-weekly, but I hadn't thought about the day-changes [and potential weekend delays]. As to the two "miscellaneous" categories: I understand that. While I do not game myself, I do have a few pitfalls can not recall the terminology for death-by-a-thousand-cuts through usually "small" category-specific expenses such as office supplies that I have decided to try and track on occasion. Sounds like gaming might be one you and your husband are aware of and monitoring. Smart.

@Katie I actually had two: I was a consulting professional in my field (Geology) and my husband and I ran an alfalfa hay farm. Our main source of income was my consulting work and we supplemented that with the profit from the hay farm. It was my first time running any sort of business and I learned a lot! I am a numbers person, so I actually enjoyed doing my taxes, balancing the ledger, etc. My consulting work was easy enough to track. The hay farm gave me a bit of a learning curve just as far as the massive amounts coming in (and going out) and learning what was tax deductible and what was not. The biggest expense we had was probably our health insurance, being self insured in a non-competitive market and even with ACA we still paid a bunch (three times the mortgage on our tiny rural farmhouse) but I could deduct a portion off of our taxable income for it, so that helped some. We hung on for a few years before I got a really great offer from a company I consulted for. We moved back to where we had moved from ( a higher cost city) but our expenses are pretty much stayed the same. Instead of a cheap mortgage and a high premium on our insurance, now we have an employer sponsored plan and a larger mortgage payment. Although I really, really miss our property we had for the space (we lived on 20+ acres, farmed an adjacent larger property), the larger mortgage payment here is an investment in an asset that I think will pad our retirement nicely. We gained a ton of equity with the recent bubble and I hoping we keep some when things start to deflate. Only time will tell though.

The whole thing was a fun experience and I enjoyed every minute of it even when it was stressful. I know we were pretty lucky starting a business and staying in the black.

@Kristen O I feel the death by a thousand cuts for me is the in-app/in-game loot box purchases (it's ONLY 99 cents!). Easy to do, but when you realize you've done it 10 times total throughout three different games…its starts to add up fast lol!

I’m going to start posting to earn points

@Alexandra G. Welcome. Glad to have you.

@Sarah, that's a really exciting story! I've never done anything outside of working for a big company. I hope to one day, for the experience and learning more about how that works. I can imagine it would be helpful to have help from other people who have experience and advice.

How come i join the rave but i dont win

@Jethro P. I am assuming by "rave" you meant "Race to 100".

It's virtually the same principle of the scratchers. When you save at least $100 on a Race to 100 month, you are entered into a drawing to win one of several cash prizes. How many is written in the race to 100 Terms and Conditions.

Only those eligible for the drawing, live in the United States [some restrictions apply for territories and a potentially a few states depending on individual state's law) have the possibility of winning. However, it is not guaranteed to have a $100 match simply for saving >=$100. The chance is there, and the consollation prize is the amount you were able to save during the month.

Anyone receive notice on SaverLife's "Financial Freedom" savings account? I just received a pop-up for it when I logged in today…but though it mentioned "prizes" and "encouragement to save before you spend" it did not mention anything about a potential APY savings interest rate.

Any thoughts about SaverLife potentially hosting their own savings account? (Anyone have more information that I do?)

@Katie P. It certainly was an adventure!! But worth the stress for how much I learned about taxes and finances.

@Kristen O. I received the email and signed up for the alerts. I currently keep my savings in an online ALLY account. I am wondering if they will match the percentage yield (0.5%) I get and what the incentives to save would be. It would have to be a high yield account to give me incentive to switch from ALLY, even if there is the potential to 'win'. I know with ALLY I am guaranteed that rate unless ALLY lowers it again (which they have done several times, but they are still on of the highest). I wonder if one of the large corporate sponsors will be backing the account and how it would be accessed (web/app?). I do think it is a good move for SaverLife to encourage more people to save.

I'm looking forward to more information on the SaverLife savings account, too. I want to get my 12 year old daughter started with an account now that she's picking up money here and there, so she can start learning the basics. I wonder if they'll have an option for under 18 accounts, like a custodian account or something along those lines. The incentives would work well to keep her interested.

agreed

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and finding new/interesting ways to save and earn!

They don't give me a points on reading the article

You all are amazing!! It took me a while to catch up but I'm grateful for the insight from each of your experiences.

Hi Christina!!

Arlan, no worries. SaverLife usually delivers points at the next login, if not the next time you click to another tab. Good luck!!

didn't get article points yesterday

It wasn't showing my points for yesterday's article either, no matter how many times I went back to it. But like Candice said, when I looked at my points history today, it shows the 15 for reading the article yesterday. Sometimes it takes a while but hang in there!

My points are always wonky and I haven't been able to use them so I have a bunch banked :) I feel for who ever has to handle the tech problems of this website; it can't be easy. I once imagined a career in tech for myself, but I just did not have the patience to work with code. Rocks were a lot easier lol.

Points will usually show up later though. I had everything that I had done over the month show up all in the same day.