We've always put money into savings knowing that part is for our future, part is for emergencies, part is for fun. But we often find that we feel guilty taking money out of savings for a vacation, new furniture,
To ease our self-imposed guilt, we established two envelopes that are strictly for savings: our Vacation and House (furniture and repairs) envelopes and make small monthly deposits to both envelopes. While we're big fans of earning interest, these funds are small enough right now that we're not worried about missing out on even smaller interest rates. But as they grow (and for safety reasons) we will consider putting them in small savings accounts that we'll attach a no-guilt clause to.
We've been concentrating on the vacation fund this year since we aren't tied down by bambinos and want to see as much of the world as we can before we are. Since we so carefully budgeted ever penny of our salaries into our envelopes, any money that is gifted, bonused or found is totally extra. And Mr. B had the fabulous idea of contributing all of that extra money to our vacay fund.
We love adding to our vacay fund and laughing about how far we could go with each addition. Right now we're sitting on the funds for a 2 night stay at the Super 8 about 200 miles from town and dinner at the Sizzler. Pack your bags, baby!
What about you guys? Do you suffer from savings withdrawal guilt? Do you budget specifically for vacations or do you use your savings for whatever strikes your fancy? Should Mr. B and I establish another envelope specifically for therapy when we do need to withdraw from savings again? Sound off!
Oh my gosh - I totally have guilt about spending our savings, and I also just put money that I get for gifts into savings! My hubby is really good at spending giftcards and other money that he gets, so maybe someday he'll bring me over to the dark side? :)
ReplyDeleteIt is hard for me to spend savings on a vacation also! I hate drawing it out of savings, I want to use only our checking account money for vacations. Well last year we did just that...and I figured out I wasn't happy with our vacation. We took two small trips only going 3 hours away for a weekend and it wasn't at all good enough for vacation. So this year I am making us spend some money for our own good!
ReplyDeleteI am with you! I don't like withdrawing from savings account! And I even agree with you that I don't like moving money between two savings accounts either!
ReplyDeleteAlthough we are frugal, I really don't have any problems spending money on travels. We don't travel extravagantly, but rather on budget so we can go on 2-3 vacations a year.
When we are at home, we rarely eat out and really watch our pennies, though.
I don't get anxiety about withdrawing from savings, but I'm not a born saver. Hubs is.
ReplyDeleteSo, we have separate savings for different things - one is for long-term savings that eventually goes into an IRA or CD. We automatically save a certain amount each month that is for long-term savings. That's no touch - mainly for retirement and a safety net.
We save all bonuses and overtime as extra income instead of spending it. This really adds up quickly, esp. at the end of the year and when Ryan's traveling.
We split it in half and put half in vacation fund savings and half in the long-term savings.
Then, pretty much everything else goes into a high-yield checking. So far, it's worked for us to have a no-touch and okay-to-touch savings. Although, the okay-to-touch is only for vacations at this point. Everything else is covered in our budget, primarily. If we want a home item, we have to save for a few months out of our home budget.
Well at our house we do everything together including spending. We believe in living paycheck to paycheck and making sure every last drop of cash is spent by the end of the month. I think this stems from the fact that we were always taught to clean our plates. "every last drop" our moms would say along with a little finger wave. We're happy this way - nothing to account for and a real balanced budget at the end of the month.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog and had to laugh because I feel the exact same way as you. I decided to transfer money from ING Direct (at 1.85% interest) to FNBO Direct (at 2.6% interest) today after considering it for a few weeks. I don't know why it makes me nervous, but it does. Before I did it, though, I had to calculate how long it would need to be in the higher yielding account to make up for the loss of interest during the transfer. Good luck with your savings (and eventual spending, too!).
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