How I did it: I've been working since I was 13 years old, and never have I ever saved money. Well, with the exception of saving up a few hundred bucks to buy an iPod and a laptop and stuff like that for myself, but to me that's still spending. Now, I'm saving more money! For the past 3 or 4 months, I've been putting a chunk of every paycheck straight into my savings account. It's amazing how fast you can accumulate a couple grand if you commit yourself to it! Now I'm on my way to having enough of a nest egg saved to move to Massachusetts for grad school and still have money in my savings. My credit card balances are kept VERY low, and they'll soon be paid off, so I've only got my student loans to worry about now. I just sat down, created a budget, and now I'm (95%) sticking to it. Don't be too hard on yourselves, though. It's almost impossible to stick to it 100% ALL of the time. :)

Lessons & tips: Realize that you're going to have to spend money sometimes and don't get yourself stressed over it. Just accept it as an unavoidable thing and move on. Sometimes, it's okay to have fun and go to a concert or take a trip to a mall, but BUDGET for it so you don't blow all your money in one night! I budgeted $100-$150 a paycheck to be "fun bucks." Everything else is either a bill, or to my savings account. Try doing it that way so that you don't feel guilty about buying a new pair of jeans every now and again.

Resources: Numbers (the Mac version of Excel for you Windows people out there) to make the budget

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Mar 29, 2011, 05:50AM PDT | 0 comments | 7 cheers