Savings Snowball Update

It's Friday!! Love Fridays!

I've updated my side bars and am pleased to say that I'm right on track.

Below is an image I've taken from my savings snowball tracking spreadsheet (from late September on).  Today I transfered about $50 from my Christmas fund (b/c I already hit that goal) to my emergency fund, that combined with next pay days big deposit I'll have reached my goal of $1,000 in my e-fund before 2010!

You can see that I'm also on track to reach my RRSP goal for 2009 as well!

Planning For the Future

I had a great conversation with my mom last week and thought I would share some of it.  I told her that with my new saving plan in place I would be able to reach my 2009 goals by the end of the year and still have about $1,300 left over.  I was panicking because this money wasn't allotted - it doesn't have a plan!  We talked about increasing my entertainment/clothes jar allotment, putting it in my emergency fund, putting it in an RRSP, or using it to help pay down my student loans.

Mom thinks I should increase my entertainment fund a bit, and use the rest in RRSP's or my Emerg fund.  I'm wondering what you all think?  What would you do with it?

Here are some exciting excel spreadsheets to help illustrate my options.

This shows the 'left over' money I'll have for each pay period until the end of the year including the money I'll use to help reach my goals.  Right now I'll have about $1,300.

As you can see it's not very consistent and has huge ups and downs.

I should also mention that my bi-weekly budget for variable expenses continues to be $300.

Here is my current savings snowball plan to reach my 2009 goals:

So... what should I do with that extra money?!  I know it's not a lot, but I'd really like to figure out a plan for it.  After this weekend, I'm leaning towards increasing my entertainment fund - but I'd love to hear what you folks think.

Savings Snowball

I have read a lot about the debt snowball technique. Dave Ramsey appears to beleive that you should pay down your debt with the smallest amount owing and work your way to the largest amount owing, thus giving yourself a mental boost in acheiving some small goals quickly . Gail Vaz Oxlade appears to beleive that you should pay down your debt with the greatest interest rate first, so that your debt costs you the least amount of money in the long run.

Whichever way you pay your debt, we (PF bloggers everywhere) GET that the snowball techniques works very well.

For those who dont know, click HERE for Wikipedia's definition of a Debt Snowball

Has anyone considered a savings snowball?!

Once my credit card is paid off, which will be in the next 8 weeks, I want to reach my savings goals as quickly as possible. I want to do this to have peace of mind, and to be able to seriously consider amalgamating my and Jordan's finances together, in whichever way winds up working best for us.

Above and beyond the house fund contributions, I figure I will have about $500/month to put towards the various savings goals I have. This is what I came up with for my savings snowball, what do you think?

I may change the details a bit, but I wanted to put this out as an idea.

By the end of next year (2010), I will have saved and paid for two christmases, met my E-fund goal, and met my first tier RRSP goal (if I follow this plan) & be ready to join finances with Jordan (unless we find a way to reach our goals together, before then).

Have you ever tried a savings snowball? Do you think their are phycological benefits to trying to reach your smallest savings goal first, and then building your way to the largest savings goal?