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Savings on the Side

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Have you ever participated in a savings challenge? There are all sorts of variations. It’s a gimmick to get people saving.

I have decided that the $1,100 I will receive from my Self Lender account will be my new emergency fund. And that I am going to keep focusing on paying down debt versus going into savings mode again.

But I do want some additional savings…

Save $5s

The first thing I started doing was saving $5s. Have you heard of this one?


The first time I saw it online, the person had a shoe box full of $5 bills just stacked together. It was pretty inspiring.

While I’m not using a shoe box, I do have my change jar. I know it’s gimmicky but this works for me. I am committed to not spending any $5 bills.

As my friend and I were talking the other day, she suggested another option.

52 Week Challenge

Have you heard of the 52 week challenge? There are a number of variations. Essentially, you start at the beginning of the week, and save the number of dollars based on the week of the year.

For week 1, you save $1. For week 2, you save $2…for week 13, you sav3 $13. You get the point.

Well, she suggested doing the challenge backwards so instead of ending the year with needing to save the most money per week, right around the holidays. You start the year saving $52 and go backwards from there. Make sense?

I don’t know if I can commit to this one right now. But if you are interested, I created 52 week savings to keep me on track if I do.

Tell me what your favorite savings challenge is? I’ve got to say they definitely help keep me motivated.

Making Lists Keeps Me Focused

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Are you a procrastinator? In the past, I would have answered “Absolutely not!” If a task was assigned, I tackled it.

Now…not so much. And I believe it’s tied to the ginormous amount of stress in my life.

While I am taking steps to eliminate some of that stress, much of it is inevitable. Isn’t that the truth for us all?

Procrastination and Stress

A quick search on the internet let me know very quickly that I am no the only person experiencing this phenomenon. And everyone has a suggestion for resolving the issue.  These were some of my favorite resources:

  • Does Procrastination Cause Stress? And Vice Versa? I love, love, love her suggestions for dealing with it! Her solutions include: managing or rather your time better, staying in the moment and accepting that stress is part of life. It’s normal.
  • The Procrastination Problem I appreciate how this writer broke down the different types of procrastination. It is not the same for everyone. And it was eye opening to see that addressing the root causes, moving forward can help with a sense of achievement and self confidence, definitely something I need to work on.
  • Procrastination: Wasting Our Time and Increasing Our Anxiety We all know that waiting until the last minute causes an unnecessarily high amount of stress. Even for those of us that think we work well under pressure. The first recommendation in this article is where I started to address this issue for myself…Lists.

Making Lists

Making lists has always been my thing. I make to do list, gratitude lists, prayer lists, chore lists, grocery lists…you get the point. You could find lists for just about everything going on in my life. It keeps me sane and organized.

While I typically have my lists on my phone in different apps like Asana or on the whiteboards in our kitchen, there is definitely something to be said or hand-written lists.

money making task list

My current motivational list – Make Money!

I have found that I am much more productive and less likely to waste my work time if I have a Money Making Task list front and center when I sit down at my desk. These are all client tasks that I can do and make some money.

Since I am hyper focused on my finances and supporting my kids, this incentivizes me to get to work. Rather than checking things on Facebook or browsing the internet based on random dreams or thoughts.

Making a new list every night as I wrap up work, keeps it fresh and starts my work day focused on making money.

What tools or processes do you use when stress overcomes you or you find yourself procrastinating?