Focus On 'Can,' Not 'Should'

Yesterday Gather Little By Little invited everyone to share their Money Saving Tip(s). I always love it when I find things like this, as sometimes I struggle to find a topic of my own. As saving money is one of my favorite things to do, I've decided to participate in this "project" by sharing my favorite "money saving tip."

Well, my tip really isn't about the saving of money in and of itself, it's more about the mentality behind it. One of the most daunting things when it comes to saving money is the sheer amount of savings you'll want to have. Even a baby emergency fund of $1,000 is a lot of money, especially for those just starting to turn things around financially and having little to no previous savings to begin with. It's really easy to get overwhelmed and quit before you get a plan going.

Instead, just start without a set goal. Or, if the amount is too much for you, set a smaller mini-goal. I myself was a bit daunted by the $1,000 emergency fund and decided to shoot for just half that. While I eventually want to work up to a full six months' worth of expenses, saving up towards the $500 mini-goal allows me to feel accomplished, not overwhelmed. I can add a tiny bit of money and still see a significant amount of progress, reinforcing the fact that little amounts add up to big differences. (Also a key in the snowflake mentality.)

Another place to get hung up is when you're doing what you can, but not what you feel you should be doing. It's important to not let this bother you. So what if you start saving with only five dollars a week? It may or may not be more than you saved last week, but what's good is that it's what you can afford to save. There's no point in stretching too thin, putting more than you can into savings and then having to take money back out. Don't let what you should do stop you from what you can do; you'll eventually get to where you "should be" by doing what you can now.

The easiest way to start this is by determining a set amount you can save out of each paycheck. You should have some idea of what you can have taken out every time without having to adjust it; take this amount and set it up to be automatically deducted and put into a separate savings account. Depending on how disciplined you are, this can be either your local bank or an online bank. As long as this amount is what you can save, leave it alone. If you come up with more in any given month, great! You can always add more to your account, but try to avoid spending it on anything other than what you're saving for.

After a few weeks, you may even adjust to having less money with each check. You may even go as far as to enjoy saving, finding more and more things to save for. The best way to save money is to develop a good savings mentality, starting with knowing that "can" is always better than "should."