Last month at Wachovia Bank the teller asked me if I wanted to open a free savings account that would have $1.00 deposited into it each time I used my debit card.  I thought, “what a great idea” and asked her to email me info about it.  “How can they do that?” galpal Sally Carmany asked me.  What they do is deduct $1.00 extra per debit card transaction, and that $1.00 goes into your savings account.  I still thought that was a cool idea.  Tricking yourself into saving your own money.

I decided not to do it, since I didn’t need another bank account, but I liked the idea.  I like the idea of saving money in general, but I wasn’t always that way.  For years I lived paycheck to paycheck and the only way I saved was by claiming zero on my W-2 at work so they would withhold the most taxes, so at the end of the year I’d always get a refund.  I dressed competitively at the law offices I worked at.  What I spent on clothes and shoes in the 70’s and 80’s could have been a downpayment on a house. But I never thought of that until years later.  An episode of Sex And The City had that theme, much to the chagrin of Carrie who so loved the $600 Manolo Blahnick shoes.  She could have made a down payment on a home instead of having a closet full of designer shoes. On some level, I could relate.

When I bought my home – Uncle Jimmy built it for me in 1984 – my extra dollars began going into home projects rather than wearing current fashions.  The fact that I was building equity in real estate didn’t play into it.  I was merely nesting and building my home.  Even now I am not a big spender.  I buy whatever I want, but I don’t want much.  Even now.

Then twice this week I was going to eat lunch out and later choose to stay in instead. I thought, “if I transferred from  my checking to my savings account every time I chose to eat IN, I would build up a nice fat kitty.”  So twice this week I’ve transferred to my savings account the amount the lunches would have cost me. And I did the same with The Farmer’s Almanac I didn’t buy, but read online instead.

I figure I’ll do this each time I decide to buy something, then don’t buy it.  It will be like paying myself for saving money.

And I’m not talking here about stopping your flow of cash into the economy.  I’m not saying don’t go out for lunch.  I’m not saying there’s not enough and you have to hedge against a fear of lack.  I’m just saying, when you catch yourself having made a decision to make a purchase, large or small, and you decide against it, transfer that amount into your savings account.

If you stop buying cigarettes or alcohol, put that amount in your savings account every week. If you read the newspaper online, put the amount of a subscription in your savings account.  It’s the little things that add up to surprise you later in life.  Make them good surprises.

LEARN FREE: The Secret2Dollars. No cost, no kidding.
An easy money saving experiment for 2014