Saving a Little Cash

I was going to write about the difference between men and women today. But I got sidetracked and, besides, it can be summed up quite easily...

Men are simple, women are complex.

Let's just leave it at that.

Instead, I want to offer you something. There is something we do in this household that maybe a lot of you do yourselves. (Other than that, get your minds out of the gutter... or the bedroom) We toss our spare change into a coffee can we keep in the closet. Then, about once every month or so, we (and by "we", I mean Faye) take the accumulated change to our credit union where they happily (presumably) count it up for us and exchange it for paper money or it deposit it in our meager account. It has gotten (or is that "got"?) to the point where I carry no coins at all unless I am expecting to pay cash and then I pick up a nickle, a couple of dimes, a quarter, and 4 pennies* off the top of my dresser. Every so often, I clear all but a few coins (including 4 pennies) off that dresser and toss it all in that coffee can.

By the way, I swear by credit unions. I used to swear by savings and loan institutions but that was before the debacle back in the 80's. If you have a credit union near you (and you do), join it. Before they, too, are ruined by greed and government regulation (or lack thereof) and mergers.

Back to my offering. My nephew, who shall remain nameless at this point, sent me a book by one Neil Boortz. If you know who he is, please ignore it for the moment. Who he is is unimportant. It's what he wrote in one chapter of that book that I want to talk about.

The Dollar Bill Savings Program.

It's simple. It is just like that change in the coffee can thing except the can weighs less and is worth more. You come home at the end of the day and put your extra dollar bills in the can and then forget about them. But there is a bit more to it. During the day, you use nothing smaller than a $5 bill to pay for stuff. When you get change, you stick the singles in a different pocket (or part of your purse if you are of that persuasion) than the usual one. When you get home, the dollar bills get stuck in that can, or in a shoe box, or whatever you have designated as the storage.

Boortz suggests you wait until the end your second month before emptying the depository and then monthly after that. This is to show you how much that adds up.

I like this idea.

There is another thing I like to do and that is have a "cash stash." I started doing this while living in San Diego. It worked two ways. One was I would put away $20 in my dresser drawer each payday. Just take a $20 bill (or two $10's) and stuff it under my semi-neatly folded underwear on payday (which was Thursdays at the time) when I got home. When I started doing direct deposit, I would withdraw my weekly cash on the way home and do it.

Later, I began sticking a $50 or $100 in a odd place in my wallet before heading to Las Vegas. This meant, no matter what happened in Vegas (which stayed in Vegas along with most of my money), I would still have gas money to drive home on or taxi money for when I got off the plane. Being slightly frugal, even in Vegas, I usually found I didn't need that "stash" to help me get home. But it would come in handy at other times. Like for that new golf club...

* The four pennies means I do not have to get any additional pennies in change.