Women in Red Savers 2017

[seriousthistime]

WANT TO JOIN THE WOMEN IN RED SAVERS (WIRS)?
Hello and welcome to the Women in Red Savers (WIRS) group! We are a supportive community group that celebrates reaching the personal savings goals of the WIRS members, whether we are women or men, currently “in the red” or “in the black.” This thread will give you basic information what our group is about, so please read all of the information provided below and then start posting!

The purpose of the Savers group is to empower our members to take financial control of their lives by setting, tracking and achieving savings goals. If you're interested in a community of support, motivation, and inspiration, then this is the place for you.

As one part of the Women In Red, the Savers focus on encouraging members to save, no matter what your level of savings knowledge is. You may be starting on your first Emergency Fund or maxing out your retirement. It doesn’t matter to us, as long as you keep doing it. We feel that positive encouragement and motivation will help all of us to learn better savings habits, and accomplish those savings goals.

A key part of saving is learning to incorporate savings into your daily routine – many of our members are also member of the No Spend threads or the Women In Red Racers. Savings is an integral part of paying off debt and changing your lifestyle, so no matter where you are in the process, this is the right place for you to be!

The WIRS - Women in Red Savers group is a TINY little sub-group of the larger Women in Red community because we are seeking the common WIR goal: Taking Total Financial Control! The same support, encouragement, motivation…and yes, sometimes “tough love” provided by the WIR is applied towards savings goals as well! And because the support and encouragement from a group with similar goals also serves to provide a sense of accountability in meeting our individual goals, what better way to approach this than promoting our own Savers group!!

You may use a tag line as you desire BUT for me to be able to keep track and post updates please make sure and include the start & goal such as:

Username / Update date / Current amount saved you may follow that in parenthesis any manner you wish-Some suggestions are:

UserName 5/3/12 $8,500 ($0 1/1/12 / Goal=$16,000)

UserName 5/3/12 $8,500 (Start=$0 / Goal=$16,000)

There are some Savers that prefer to have massive multi-year goals that don't have an annual goal in mind so they could just do the basics like this, if they wanted to (not logging ★ progress).

UserName 5/3/12 $38,572 (Start=$24,369)

We are hoping everyone has a prosperous 2017. Please feel free to invite others to join us!!!

[seriousthistime]

HOW TO JOIN THE WOMEN IN RED SAVERS (and work to increase your Savings):

Read this entire page of info!!!!!
Sign in with the username you created.
Post a message in the RESPONSE BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE and a list of the savings categories and goals you want to track (more info about this below).

After you post your list of accounts, you are officially a member of the Women in Red Savers! The list of members is updated approximately once a month, so if your name doesn't show up right away, please be patient! ALL the people working on this board are volunteers and they will get you added to the list as soon as possible.

UPDATING
So, now that you know a little about the group, here are the "rules" that we have adapted so that it's easy to keep track of everyone.

The list shows the date of each person's most recent update, her/his current savings balance, her/his starting date, her/his starting savings balance, page number is optional.

Like this: UserName: 5/1/12 $4,978 (1/1/12 $0, WIRS2)

The original starting amount and date is listed in parenthesis. The WIRS# is the page number the original post was listed on - it will be different for everyone. The current date and savings amount are listed next to your name. You choose which accounts you want to list and can add accounts later.

You can do the (parentheses) part how you want, goal amount, starting debt its ok to already have money "saved" See above post

To join, post your list of accounts, goals and any previous amounts saved. (Please do not list any debts here; you can get motivation that by joining the WIRRacers.)

A few instructions on posting and working with your table:  To update, you can quote your most recent past post, update the numbers, and repost.  To remove the info so you don't have quote within quote within quote, you will see that at the bottom of the white box as you are posting, there are two buttons: Visual and BBCode.  Click on BBCode.  You will see the code for your post. At the very bottom, you will see the word quote, in brackets.  Delete that, brackets and all.  At the very top, you will see something similar, but it's a long line starting with a bracket, the word quote, and other stuff, ending with another bracket.  Delete that whole line.  If you have a heading on the first line (I have Update, for example) it will run together with your heading. If you hit Enter on your keyboard a few times to move your heading down a line or two, you can easily distinguish between the code and your heading.

And bankergurl has recently informed us of any easy way to add or delete columns or rows on our tables: 
"if you have your chart, and then you right click on it with your mouse, it will give you options to add, move, delete columns or rows." 


We earn smileys to represent how much we've saved and roses in celebration of meeting annual goals! It may seem silly, but once you start getting smileys and roses, you will see how great they are!
The smiley list is as follows:
$50= $100= $500= $1,000= $5,000= $10,000= $25,000= $50,000= $75,000= and $100,000=
Roses: per goal reached, = 10 's [10 goals reached]
Stars: 1 for each 25% goal; at 100%

We do not give out negative smileys if your savings goes down instead of up. This is for two reasons: 1) this board is all about being positive and supportive of each other, and 2) the whole point of savings is to use the money when it¡¦s needed. You may save for a year to pay for an expense but once paid, that money is gone. However, saving that money ahead of time kept you from going into debt, panicking over the payment or stealing from other accounts. That is a major accomplishment! Because we are a community and we talk about these kinds of savings issues, we want you to give us the update about using your savings but it¡¦s your choice how to present your totals. (Some of us find it easier to just track our contributions here and keep track of expenditures on our own.)

We hope that your participation in the WIRSavers group brings you the same feelings of empowerment and success that each of us has found. So? What are you waiting for? Join us!

Savers who have not posted anything - progress - comment - in 3 months will be removed from the list but will be on the master list.
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[seriousthistime]

Copying this from the 2014/15/16 threads:

Round-up of savings ideas:

Lately, we have been kicking around some ideas for ways to save. Some people are very methodical, and others need tricks and motivation. Some of us like both.

See replies #339, #348, #353, #358, and $360 in the Savers 2014 thread.

First, there is the weekly savings challenge. The idea is that for the first week of the year, you save $1, second week you save $2, then the third week you save $3, and so on up to $52 on the last week of the year. You end up with $1,378. This is a great way to build up an EF.

Variations:
Reverse weekly challenge: Start with $52 on the first week, $51 on the second week, $50 on the third week, and so on. You end up with the same $1,378, but it builds more quickly.

Bump-up weekly challenge: Instead of starting with $1 on the first week, start with a few dollars more than that, and increase by $1 each week. So maybe start with $5 the first week, $6 the second week, $7 the third week, and so on.

Maximum-tackle weekly challenge: Make a list of weeks from 1 to 52. Each week, select an amount from $1 to $52 that you can manage that week. If it's $1, cross that off the list, and put it in savings. If it's $52, cross that off and put it in savings. Once it's crossed off, it's done and you have to select from the other amounts in future weeks. This gives you more flexibility during the more challenging weeks of the year.

Plateau weekly challenge: Start with the straight weekly challenge ($1, $2, $3...) and if it becomes too much to put in an ever-increasing amount, STOP increasing but continue to put in the last amount you were able to make. So if you had to stop at week 20, with $20, continue to put in $20 for the rest of the year.

There are a few non-weekly challenges we've been discussing.

Random cash challenge: If you find cash in pockets, floating around in your purse, in your laundry room, and basically any place other than your wallet, it goes into a pot to be added to your savings.

Specific denomination challenge: Choose a denomination that you want to save. It could be $10, $5, $1, quarters, dimes, all coins, etc. You get the idea. At the end of each day, if you have any of that denomination in your purse, wallet, backpack, or wherever you keep your money, it goes into a pot to be added to your savings.

[seriousthistime]

And here's another helpful post from the 2014 thread, courtesy of bankergurl (hoping she doesn't mind my reposting it here ...) [Note: she didn't mind last year, so let's hope she doesn't mind this year either...!]


Hi Ladies! Hope everyone on the savings board is doing well!

I was with the WIRS waaaaay back in 2005 and off and on since then. I put small amounts in savings very frequently and ended up feeling like I was either "over-updating" or not tracking accurately on here, which prompted me to start my own savings blog in 2009. If you would like to read my blog, the link is on the bottom of my post. If there one thing I am good at in life....it is saving money. I don't make much (about $35K a year), but I can pinch a penny (or coupon...or rebate) as hard as anyone I know! I (sadly) got divorced this year. After the divorce my savings was down to $17K. That was just about 4 months ago...since then I went up to $27K! And that is on one income! I have had some major bills since then (car repairs, insurance bills etc.) and am now at $24K, but still pretty darn good if you ask me, for a single 30 y/o with no debt other then mortgage. Some people take the word "cheap" as as insult, but you can call me cheap all day long and I will accept it proudly!

I am a HUGE believer in nickel and diming your savings. You do no need a $100 to save money, you don't need $10, you don't even need $1. All you need is 1 red cent to start. Through it in a jar. You started!

Here are my personal favorite ways to save:

Save all of your change, once a month take it to the bank and deposit it into savings. Do not use a Coin Star or anything else that charges you to turn in your change, nearly
all banks have a coin machine and will process it for free if you have an account there.

When you get your monthly or quarterly interest in your savings accounts, add a deposit to get that amount to at least the next $5 amount, or even try for the next even $100 amount if it's not too far away. So if after your interest goes in your new balance is $379.18, deposit another $20.82 to get to that $400 mark. It might not seem like much, but I am sure I have saved at least another $1000 by doing this every month.

When you make a savings deposit, do the same thing as with the interest, round it up to the next $5, or even $100 mark (depending on what the amount is). So if I got a rebate for $12.00, I deposit $15 or $20 into saving.

Put all rebates, bonuses, tax returns, gift money (unless for a specific gift), found money (on the ground, in your car, in the washer, etc.), rummage sale or online selling, recycling money, and any and all other "extra/surprise/not standard" funds into savings. You survived without them before, you don't need them now!

This is an oldie, but a goodie. Set up an automatic savings plan. It doesn't have to be a lot. If you can only start with $5, then start with $5. Then next month try to move it to $10, whatever amount you start with, just try to keep moving it up, no matter how slowly or gradually. Try to set it up for every paycheck, that way you know the money will be in your account on payday, and it will already be transferred and gone before you even have a chance to miss it!

There will (of course) when you have to take money out of savings. Sometimes this will be for a planned purchase. Sometimes this will be for an emergency or an unexpected expense. That is ok! That is what your savings is for! Do not get discouraged. If you have to take $100 out of savings today for a car repair, but tomorrow you find $5 in an old Christmas card...you still put that $5 in savings. The old notion of "slow and steady wins the race" is completely true of savings. Just keep making those deposits no matter how big or small and they WILL add up!

[seriousthistime]

PLEASE NOTE:  

This thread is now open for you to start posting goals and ideas for 2017.  The 2016 Savers thread is still open for you to post your final updates for 2016.  

When the smilies and shoutouts for 2016 are done, that thread will be locked.  So please hurry and get your 2016 updates done by the afternoon of January 3, and post them in the 2016 thread.  

Successful saving in 2017, Savers!  Let the savings begin!  

[megaptera]

STILL no savings goals yet, since we're still flying through our current savings.  House progress is coming along, but I hate to guess when it will be finished. Once we move into it, and sell the current place, I can set some definite goals. We are going to try to max retirement contributions again this year.



We just need to get through the next few months.



Happy New Year everyone, and good luck with all goals!

[movinonup]

movinonup 01/02/2017 $0.00 (Goal $25,325.95)

	Saved	Goal	% Saved	Periods Completed
Monthly Challenge	$0	$780.00	0%	0/12
Weekly Challenge	$0	$1,378.00	0%	0/52
Daily Challenge	$0	$667.95	0%	0/365
Skiing	$0	$2,500.00	0%
House Addition	$0	$20,000.00	0%
Total	$0	$25,325.95	0%

I have increased my Skiing savings goal by $500 based on what I spent this year.  My house addition is going to happen this year, I hope.  I am definitely going to borrow money for it.  I am hoping to have $20,000 in funds available from my salary rather than pulling from current savings.  

-movinonup

[chiver78]

count me in for 2017! I had to abandon my calendar savings last year, and I'm still pissed off about it. but this will go hand-in-hand with my new year's resolution to worry more about me and less about other people's bad decisions - the reason I had to abandon last year was to bail someone else out. that's not happening again. 

I typically number my weeks on Saturdays, so I guess I'll be throwing my $1 in the hat next weekend. unless I decide between now and then to do the reverse thing. we'll see. the fun starts in a few days

[seriousthistime]

I want to put some instructions here, because it comes up from time to time.  

How do you quote your post from the previous month so you can edit without doing a table over and over each month?

Here is one way.  

1.  Find your most recent update that you want to edit.  Go to your profile, and click on the "View this member's recent posts."  It will pull up your recent posts in reverse date order (i.e., most recent at the top).  Scroll down until you find the most recent post you want to edit (Savers, Racers, something else).

2.  Click the "Quote" button in the upper right corner of that post. A new "Reply" box opens, and it shows your post within a quote box.   You have all seen what a quote box looks like.  

3.  Underneath the white Reply box, just above "Post Quick Reply" and "Spellcheck" there are two buttons: Visual and BBCode. Visual is the default.  Click on BBCode and you will see a jumble of stuff you don't understand. The important stuff is at the bottom, and the top.

4. At the bottom, you should see the word "quote" in brackets. Delete that, brackets and all. At the top is another bracketed line. It will start with "quote timestamp" and ends with your screen name in quotation marks. Delete that line, brackets and all.

5. Click out of BBCode and back to Visual. You should have a post with no reference to the fact that it is a quote. Then you can edit that post to your heart's content, and post it.

6. To more easily find the parts that should be deleted, I hit "return" a few times on my quoted post, before my first line, and add a few lines at the end of my post. This clearly shows the top and bottom lines you need to delete.


Does anyone have another way?

[seriousthistime]

Bear with me, folks.  In the process of trying to show you an example of the code, I am quoting myself.  This really does work...

ETA:  Ahh, success!

[seriousthistime]

2017 Savings

	2017 Goal	Added	1/3/2017	% Saved	Roses
Gifts	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Travel	$  2,000	$0	$0	0%
EF increase	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Weekly Savings	$  2,078	$0	$0	0%
Moving	$  2,000	$0	$0	0%
Sweep Fund	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Total	$13,878	$0	$0	0%

Seriousthistime, $0, 1/3/2017 (Goal $13,878)

I'm thinking each category seems realistic, but when I look at the total, I wonder what am I thinking?

Well, this will be a stretch goal for sure.  

[seriousthistime]

Jan 2, 2017 14:00:07 GMT -5 movinonup said:

movinonup 01/02/2017 $0.00 (Goal $25,325.95)

	Saved	Goal	% Saved	Periods Completed
Monthly Challenge	$0	$780.00	0%	0/12
Weekly Challenge	$0	$1,378.00	0%	0/52
Daily Challenge	$0	$667.95	0%	0/365
Skiing	$0	$2,500.00	0%
House Addition	$0	$20,000.00	0%
Total	$0	$25,325.95	0%

I have increased my Skiing savings goal by $500 based on what I spent this year.  My house addition is going to happen this year, I hope.  I am definitely going to borrow money for it.  I am hoping to have $20,000 in funds available from my salary rather than pulling from current savings.  

-movinonup

movingonup, will you explain your monthly and daily challenges and the logic behind them?  They seem interesting, and a good way for people to start if the weekly challenge seems too daunting. 

[forwardwego]

2017 Goals 

2017 FUND	Beginning	Present	Goal	% Met	$$ Needed
EF Bridge	5000	5000	10000	50	5000
Veh XF	500	500	1500	33	1000
Med XF	500	500	1500	33	1000
Rental Margin	1005	1005	10000	10	8995
DD invest/gift	3600	3600	5000	72	1400
Rusty J Boxer Pt2	1510	1510	2000	75	490
Weekly Challenge*	50	50	2000	2	1950
TOTALS	12165	12165	32000	38	19835

*$50 base + (sum of $12 thru $63) = $2000

12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41
42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51
52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61
62	63

[forwardwego]

Jan 2, 2017 15:41:48 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

2017 Savings

	2017 Goal	Added	1/3/2017	% Saved	Roses
Gifts	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Travel	$  2,000	$0	$0	0%
EF increase	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Weekly Savings	$  2,078	$0	$0	0%
Moving	$  2,000	$0	$0	0%
Sweep Fund	$  2,600	$0	$0	0%
Total	$13,878	$0	$0	0%

Seriousthistime, $0, 1/3/2017 (Goal $13,878)

I'm thinking each category seems realistic, but when I look at the total, I wonder what am I thinking?

Well, this will be a stretch goal for sure.  

That's how I feel too about my goals. Am I nuts 

[forwardwego]

It's good to see everybody here so far on the 2017. Really looking forward to the rest of the 2016 gang and newbies too.   Could be I'm partial but I  the savers thread most  

[movinonup]

Jan 2, 2017 15:44:49 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

movingonup, will you explain your monthly and daily challenges and the logic behind them?  They seem interesting, and a good way for people to start if the weekly challenge seems too daunting. 

seriousthistime I just modeled the monthly and daily challenges on the weekly challenge, which someone else started.  For the monthly challenge, I save $10 for January, $20 for February, ... $120 for December.  The daily challenge starts at $0.01 on January 1 and increases by $0.01 each day until saving $3.65 ($3.66 in Leap Years) on December 31.  The challenges provide a way for me to have a savings goal without setting specific purpose for the savings.  I don't actually save in order.  If I have $120 on January 14, I may put that into my WIRS account and check of December on my monthly challenge spreadsheet.

-movinonup 

[Deleted]

I promised myself I wasn't going to do this again this year because it stressed me out, but here I am.   

Because of the way I budget (a month ahead), I have January's total already.  December was a 3 paycheck month plus I received some money for Christmas, so I was able to hit it hard right out of the gate.

Fund	Goal	Current	Needed	% Complete
2018 Roth	$5500	$200	$5300	3.64%
Pr. High School	$3800	$600	$3200	15.79%
Replacement Car	$3600	$0	$3600	0.00%
House Maint	$2600	$100	$2500	3.85%
College	$2400	$200	$2200	8.33%
Vacation	$2000	$0	$2000	0.00%
Kids Activities	$1000	$100	$900	10.00%
Car Maint	$1000	$75	$925	7.50%
Christmas	$1000	$50	$950	5.00%
Philmont	$500	$50	$450	10.00%
Total	$23,400	$1,375	$22,025	5.88%

edit:  I got too excited and put that I'd contributed to vacation already. 

[snapdragon]

Snapdragon 01/03/17 --- $ 6626.91 / $ 10,000 -- update

Car/House $ 1143.19 / $1500

Savings $ 2182.06 / $4000

Travel $ 3301.66 / $4500

New Totals $ 6626.91 / $10,000




My goals are the same from last year for right now. 

[azucena]

I'd like to save $10,000 to my down payment account by 3/31. Part of this will include my bonus which is paid in March but that number is up in the air. Then, I'm going to rethink my savings goals after we move. 

Goal $0/$10,000 by March 31

I don't mind being left out of the smiley and updates because I've set it up differently. I just like the accountability of posting here.

[TheHaitian]

TheHaitian - 01/01/17 : $0.00 -----> $42,500

Account	Account Goal	Account Balance	Spent Money	Total Saved	Difference	% Goal
Savings	9,250.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	9,250.00	0.00%
Car Fund	2,500.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	2,500.00	0.00%
C - Retirement	18,000.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	18,000.00	0.00%
S - Retirement	6,000.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	6,000.00	0.00%
HSA Account	6,750.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	6,750.00	0.00%
TOTAL	42,500.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	42,500.00	0.00%

[Jaguar]

Onward and upward 2017 New Saving Year here I am, WOO HOO!

Saving Funds	Goals	Current	% Saved	Woo Hoo
Gateway Voyage CDs	$705.00	$705.00	100%
Moving Fund	$2,300	$0	0.00%	?
Apple Air 2	$1,275	$0	0.00%	?
Moving Fund 2	$1,500	$0	0.00%	?
GRAND TOTAL	$5,780	$705.00	12.2%	?

Jaguar - 3/1/2017 - $705 - [NEW GOAL - $5780] =


This saving session is for my moving out fund. I wanted to get on the books for 2017 and you'll notice that the trip is off, yeah moving is way more important. The CDs cost me more than I planned, but I had the money so I have them now. I had to make adult decisions about saving for the trip, so having and doing the CDs will help me with that.

[Jaguar]

I'm beyond flipping happy, I just done my whole budget for 2017 and it's looking so good, in fact I'll be able to get the Apple Air 2 next January and I'll be able to start Kundalini Yoga in the Spring of 2018 and I'll have all my moving funds done by then as well. So my race will be completed in the late Spring 2018 and I'll be moving then as well.

[finnime]

Finnime - 1/3/2017            $0.00   [ $2,230 ]

	Saved	Goal	% Saved	Periods Completed
Weekly Challenge	$0	$1,378	0%	0/52
Daily Challenge	0	$954.20	0%	0/365
Total    EF	$0	$2,230	0%

Goal is to accrue an emergency fund, of which very embarrassingly I have $0.  Plan to save using weekly challenge and also a daily challenge of .10 / day plus the total from the week before. I want to get over $2,000.

[Jaguar]

Well it looks like after July 2018 all I'll be saving for is a EF and that's an awesome thing. Any extra money from now to then goes into the Apple Air 2 or Kundalini Yoga fund. I've got both budgeted for, but if extra money comes in maybe I'll do both a wee bit earlier.

It's looking real sweet for me.

[shanendoah]

shanendoah: 1/4/2017 $0 (Goal: $480)

I've been conflicted about whether or not to come back here. We are in the process of going back into debt, and there's a part of me that wants to use every penny we have to work on preventing that. At the same time, the legal fees are the legal fees, and a few dollars a month aren't going to make that big of an impact. The fact that our EF is down to $1300 and our second car needs transmission work makes me really paranoid about our savings.
So, I'm here. I am fine going into debt for the legal fees, but I don't want to be back in debt for vet bills or car maintenance, so, here I am. My goal is $40/month. It's not much, but it's something. I am going to set up my account so $20 auto transfers with each paycheck on the 10th and 25th each month. This matches an amount that I had been putting on my University ID for random spending on campus. Instead, I'll be saving it.

[forwardwego]

Update 1/6/17 $13003

2017 FUND	Beginning	Present	Goal	% Met	$$ Needed
EF Bridge	5000	5060	10000	50	4940
Veh XF	500	500	1500	33	1000
Med XF	500	500	1500	33	1000
Rental Margin	1005	1690	10000	16	8310
DD invest/gift	3600	3610	5000	72	1390
Rusty J Boxer Pt2	1510	1530	2000	76	470
Weekly Challenge*	50	113	2000	5	1887
TOTALS	12165	13003	32000	40	18997

*$50 base + (sum of $12 thru $63) = $2000

12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41
42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51
52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61
62	63

[seriousthistime]

Nice start, forwardwego!

[finnime]

Finnime - 1/7/2017            $1.50   [ $2,230 ]

	Saved	Goal	% Saved	Periods Completed
Weekly Challenge	$1	$1,378	0%	01/52
Daily Challenge	.50	$954.20	0%	5/365
Total    EF	$1.50	$2,230	0%

Well, it's a start. DS22 has graduated and is starting his job in NYC this month, so am helping him get going. Hence no EF.

[snapdragon]

Snapdragon 01/09/17 --- $ 7226.91 / $ 10,000 -- update

Car/House $ 1343.19 / $1500

Savings $ 2382.06 / $4000

Travel $ 3501.66 / $4500

New Totals $ 7226.91 / $10,000



So thankful that I am trying to get a good start on this. I realized the following over the past week:

My waterheater was installed when I moved into my place over 10 years ago. That was over $700 back than.

My car has been on trouble sites for the transmission and Ford has not been willing to do a recall and every once in a while the tranny shudders, etc. Sites were saying round $1800. 

I need to re-arrange my place and brighten it up. Who knows how much.

[nikiz628]

Hello Savers!!
forwardwego invited me over from WIRR to "play" here! I am excited to focus on saving this year now that we have won our first race and are student loan debt free!   I am getting all my info together and will be posting it shortly!