Mind games, I play them

But only with myself. 😉

I learned long ago that I am the kind of person that needs to trick myself in order to not spend money.  Savings is a line item in my budget and requires me to transfer the money out of my regular bank account in order for the money to remain saved.

I refinanced my mortgage a few years ago and went with a new lender.  This meant a new change to me as I would now be responsible for paying my property taxes myself.  So I did what any smart person would do, I took the yearly amount and divided it by 26 and started to put that amount away every pay-day.  I also did this with my life insurance yearly payment.

After the first year, I had money left over after I paying my bills.

A light bulb went off.

The next year and all following years, I rounded the bi-weekly amount up.  This resulted in a bigger surplus.  I don’t record the total amount of this account anywhere in my budget spreadsheet.  The money in this account is not included in my net worth.  It is money I have hidden from myself.  It is becoming a secret emergency fund.

Mind games, I play them. 😉

In light of the great blackout of 2003 and more recently the effects of Hurricane Sandy, I have gotten a little more serious about increasing the secret stash of cash hidden in my home.  This stash is not record anywhere but would be used if I don’t have access to an ATM in a real emergency situation.  I need to think more about how much I would like to have on hand.  Right now I am leaning towards a grand total of $593.00 broken down like this:

1 x $100
2 x $50
5 x $20
10 x $10
20 x $5
25 x $2
25 x $1
40 x $0.25
50 x $0.10
40 x $0.05
100 x $0.01

I think this would give me the ability to make exact change for most items I would need to purchase in the short-term.

Mind games, I play them. 😉

My latest trick is to figure out what I have to spend weekly and then reduce that amount by a percentage or dollar amount.  I then walk around thinking I only have the smaller amount to last me through the week and try to stick by it.  The money that isn’t spent goes towards my debt.  It is a bit challenging but in light of my most recent weekly spending report, I think it’s paying off.

Mind games, I play them. 😉

What about you?  Are there any tricks that you use to keep yourself from spending money or to increase your savings?