Hello dear reader,

I hope your working on setting up your journal and having some fun with it.

In my last post I talked about goals, and how better to follow that than to talk about trackers. For me when setting up my journal I create my calenders for my year ahead, then write out my goals and next comes trackers.

For me saving is a big deal, my boyfriend and I are saving for a home and so tracking our progress is very important for us.

What I have for you today are ideas of things to save for, as well as some fun ways to save, and some simple options. I also have some ideas for tracking bills and spending habits.

First up I listed some of those common savings goals, those things that are bigger that we need to work for.

I used my stencils to give you some ideas of a fun way to track your savings, give a value to each image and it becomes almost a secret code only you know how much each image means.

Think about what you want to save for:

Do you have car insurance you have the option to pay for the year, or every six months? Is it cheaper than paying monthly? Its one thing we do and I track how much we have saved towards our 6 month payment.

Do you have pets you need to save for vet visits?
Are you wanting to remodel your home?
What about starting a business?
Think about holidays, vacations, Christmas and Birthdays?

Think ahead and try and set aside money for these things, so you don’t struggle last minute.

Some very simple ideas for savings here. A graph or bar chart, makes it easy to fill in as you go, and is simple and linear. I have used these in the past and find them very easy to use.

I added a few other ideas too as you can see, a few fun but simple ideas here, a banner, again using a stencil, and I drew Mr. Piggy, because what did we have as children to save our pennies, a piggy bank.

I hope you like these ideas for tracking your savings. I’m sure your wondering where you’re going to save this money, you can’t have that many savings accounts. Well my advice, and what works for me, is that my larger savings goals do have savings accounts, connected to my checking account at my second bank. I have my primary bank account, where my paycheck goes, and I have automatic transfers set from my primary bank, as well as my boyfriend’s, to our secondary bank and then that transfer is split with automatic transfers to our savings accounts s1, s2 ,and s3. Setting up automatic transfers has worked for me, I know its going to be done and I budget for it.

For those smaller savings goals there are options for you, one of which is mason jars; I’ve spray painted primer and then used chalk paint to individualize each jar and conceal its contents, and what you do is to pull out cash and deposit into your jars each paycheck. You can use piggy banks, they come in so many styles now its easy and fun to fill them, or even drawers in your jewelry box.
We have a goofy bank… Guess what goes in him, savings for Disneyland.
The other thing that helps keep me on track is my bill tracker.

I created this tracker for a friend when setting up her journal a couple of yours ago.

I listed all of our bills, wrote down their due date and entered them into my chart in order of those due first down to the last bill each month. Because bill amounts do change, I track how much we pay each month, filling it in when the bill gets paid.

I also track our incomes here as well as my 401k and credit scores

Writing down and figuring out your budget can also be an eye opener to what you are spending your money on and can help you cut back on some unnecessary expenses.

I also like to see how much we each spend each month on groceries, gas, as well as other things each month.

I hope these ideas help you.

Here are some of my savings trackers

As always, please feel free to comment with any questions, I love to hear from you.

Here are the links for the stencils that I have

Stencils, 24 pack 4×7″

Stencils, 12 pack 4×7″

And if your interested in some thin tipped pens to use try these

Fineliner pens, 24 pack

I use all of these in my journal and love how well they work.