Loose Change

I save money every place I can find. Growing up my parents taught us the value of money and showed us how to save it for the future.

Then I got married and had two children. It seemed impossible to put any money aside. My ex found many ways to spend money we didn't have. I don't throw all the blame on him when things were good I went a little overboard myself at times. When times were bad they were bleak and hopeless.

I made a promise to myself to never be destitute and penniless again. Now I have quite a few strategies I use with my limited income to accomplish that. They are all mind tricks. For example I recently bought a new phone. After three years my other one had a multitude of issues. Instead of buying it as soon as I found the one I wanted I waited until payday and bought it. Yes, I could have bought it when I saw it but that would have meant digging into my savings. In order to save money I set it aside and forget I have it. So waiting for payday meant it came out of my paycheck and gave me less spending money for the pay period. 

Other mind tricks I play are stashing chunks money into places that I can't touch or are very difficult to get too meaning I can't easily access them. Another trick I have is dropping my spare into a jar change which sometimes includes bills. The jar trick works well

for me. I just dumped my jar and counted the money so I could hide the chunk into one of my not convenient places. That stack of dollars looks pretty good but it was mostly ones. 

Since I actually rolled all the change myself I had extra that wasn't enough to roll. I dropped that back into the jar until next year and took my bucket o'money (I placed it in a small bucket) and stashed it in phase two a place that isn't convenient. A place I forget about.

Those are some of my nifty money tips. Feel free to share any strange ways you have found to put money aside.