guestpost by Jessica of The Debt Princess
I am not a saver.
Never have been, unfortunately.
I tried to save so many times over the years but I'd never get farther then a couple hundred dollars before I needed the money to pay bills (or do whatever it is I did with all my money back in those days). I never really understand the value behind having a savings account when I had so much debt.
Clearly I was uneducated.
I spent my money paying off credit card purchases that were almost completely impulse purchases. I loved the feeling I got from a new purchase. Shopping at the mall was fun for me, fueled by credit cards and a high brought on by impulse purchases.
That is no longer the case and now, I no longer shop on impulse. I'm happy to say that I have become a saver!
And I am a saver because of ImpulseSave.
I started using ImpulseSave about two months ago with fairly low expectations. It was a low expectation on my ability to actually save any money. I set up a goal and a very small automatic deposit and promptly began thinking of ways that I could save on impulse.
What I found was that I liked ImpulseSaving so much more than impulse buying. When I thought about eating out but decided to go home instead, I would ImpulseSave the amount of money that I would have paid to the restaurant. When I resisted extra purchases at Target, I would transfer the amount of money for the item I thought about purchasing to ImpulseSave.
Two surprising things happened: I didn't notice the money leaving my account and I didn't think about the savings account as something that I could dip into when I got close to my final dollars!
I have since created two new goals in my ImpulseSave account. First, I am saving 20% of my income for next year's taxes. Every time I get paid for a freelance writing gig or a sponsored post, I ImpulseSave the 20%. Next year, I won't have any trouble paying my tax bill because I will have it all set aside in my ImpulseSave account.
I am also saving money for a vacation that I hope to take next spring with my children. I have wanted to take them to Walt Disney World for years but it always felt like it was out of reach. It doesn't feel that way anymore!
With ImpulseSave, I am happily a saver for the first time in my life!
