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Thursday, February 5, 2015

How I trick myself into saving money

If you read my last blog post, you know that I've recently been really, really trying to contribute to my savings each month. It's HARD! There are SO MANY other things I'd rather be doing with my money i.e. go to Texas & Colorado every weekend so I can hang out with my best friends, treat myself to a massage every time I'm stressed (aka everyday), buy a million more clothes/shoes/bags to break my closet bar-thing (that happened. twice.) But I know, I know, it's important to save my money. And I know I will thank myself later. 

I really do try to abide by the rule that once I put a dollar in my savings account, that dollar will absolutely NOT come back out unless 1) I am putting it towards a well thought-out investment in my future (like a home! or a ... k prob just a home) or 2) something super dramatic has happened and that dollar is actually critical to my or my loved ones' survival. But because I take not touching my savings account so seriously; I find myself contributing less than I know I could and frankly SHOULD each month. But what if all my shoes get stolen out of my closet and I have to buy new ones!? This is the type of question I ask myself each time I prepare to click the "transfer funds" button. Completely ridiculous? Yes. Does it prevent me from saving less money than I should? 100% people. 

This is where the best thing that has ever happened to me comes in. Ok, well, it's probably a top 30 best thing that has ever happened to me. I'd like to introduce you to DIGIT! It is so so so so SO great you guys. All you do is sign up here. Seriously.. that's it. ​Essentially it analyzes your spending habits (you connect it with your bank account) and it secretly takes a dollar here, a dollar there, and puts it into savings for you. ALL WITHOUT YOU KNOWING! For example, last week I didn't do anything that I wouldn't normally do in terms of spending (dinners, happy hours, grocery shopping, spin classes etc.) and ended up with the same amount of money leftover I typically do after paying bills and such in the first week of any month. I figured Digit just hadn't finished analyzing my spending habits yet, and hadn't kicked in yet. But I decided to text it anyways (that's all you do to see your balance - see my screen shot below!) and it had saved me $30. IN A WEEK. Imagine if it did that for me every week - that would be $1,500 of extra savings for me per year. That I didn't even KNOW I saved. Pretty cool, huh? Anyways.... go check it out for yourself! You can thank me later (: 

Sign up here: https://digit.co/r/WyVhM