You may have seen this, but apparently some woman wrote an article on boston.com detailing how she saved $12,000 in three years by simply putting away every five dollar bill that came into her possession. I saw mention of it in the blogosphere, with people pledging to do the same, and I thought, yeah, I could try that. However, three days and $20 stuck in my desk drawer later, it becomes apparent to me that there's a major flaw in this reasoning.
I may not be a financial genius, to say the least, but as far as I can see, the only way you will actually save any money this way is if you also pledge to only go to the ATM once a week, withdraw only a certain set amount of cash, and then never touch your checking account again until the next week. I mean, if that twenty bucks in cash in my drawer means I go to the ATM on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, or that I decide to pay for something with my debit card instead of cash because I'm running low, how the hell am I saving anything? I'm just moving my own money around from one place to another.
Don't you think Suze Orman would be proud of me for figuring that one out my own self?
xoxo
7 comments:
I suspect the only way this $5 bill system works for normal people is if that bill goes directly into a separate bank account right away, where you can't touch it.
I have that BankofAm "keep the change" thing, where they round up every debit card payment to the nearest dollar and stick in your saving's account. That's gained me over $300 over the last couple years, which is certainly something... but turn those pennies into $5 bill roundups instead ("keep the fin"?) and that could actually have grown to significance.
Re: "I suspect the only way this $5 bill system works for normal people is if that bill goes directly into a separate bank account right away, where you can't touch it."
Even that doesn't do anything but move your own money around, and would only work if you're the kind of person who routinely spends every penny in their checking account just because it's there.
At least with the Bank of America thing, they're giving you money that you wouldn't otherwise have.
What about breaking into the houses of all these five buck pledgees, scooping all those fine unmarked bills and depositing them?
Just kidding!! But it does seem plausible, what with all these people announcing on the Web where they're keeping excess folding cash. Not only shifting money around, but potentially shifting it into unexpected hands.
Don't mind me: Indy Mac depositors get to be surly these days :(
Um, just to publicly announce, in case any felons are lurking: I'm moving my $20 out of the desk drawer and hiding it somewhere else to thwart you all. So there. :-)
I have tried saving all my $1 bills. Lasted about a week.
Even sticking them in my big wine bottle with the rest of my change didnt work..I fished them out with a coat hanger cause I needed something and didnt have a checking account at the time.
I do not know how people do this. It sounds great...but isnt easy to put into action.
Can I just say, I paid for my lunch with a twenty today, and got *3* fives back. Maybe when I get $150 in fives in my [not desk] drawer, which should be any day now at this rate, I can feel justified in buying my cute/ugly lamp.
And then, you can figure out a way to hide them in that lamp. They'd be quite safe there, because anyone who messed with a lamp like that would be cursed forever!
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