Making the most out of gift cards.

Did you get a walmart gift card? Instead of spending it on grown up toys, like dvd players, new clothes, and what have you, spend it on groceries and other necisseties. Then pull out the money you would have NORMALLY spent on these things out of  your bank account and put it into your savings!

Did  you get one for a store that you wouldn't normally buy things like necessities? Well, instead of using it for you, use it when you have to buy a gift for someone else this year, Don't spend more on them then you usually would. THEN pull that money out of your bank account and put it into savings!

Did you get one for fast food? Same concept! Use it for fast food, but then pull the money you would have normally spent and put it into savings!

They say gift cards are as good as cash. It's true! And you don't have to waste that cash on things you don't need. :) When you have saved enough money for your home, you can thank your friends and realitives for thier gift cards! :D

This might not sound fun, and you may think, "My friends and family. gave me gift cards so I could get me something FUN! not so I could put the money away and not do anything with it." Well I say, What could be more fun then purchasing your first home? Keep your eye on the BIG gift. The gift that will keep giving the rest of your life if you want to, a home. YOUR HOME! :)

A few days after

So it's been a few days after Christmas, and that Christmas money is burning a HOLE in your pocket the size of the Grand Canyon.

Here are a few tips to help you remain in control of that money, so you don't have to learn the hard way that its easier to fall, then it is to fly. ;)    (Easier to spend, then to save)

1. If you haven't already, get the money OUT of your Wallet or Purse. You don't want it readily availble when you leave your house.

2. Don't put it in your car. Cars are fairly easy to break into.

3. Keep it in your house, in a place thats out of sight, but not out of mind. You don't want to forget where you put it.

4. For me personally, I won't be putting it into the bank untill I have 3 square feet saved up. I am doing this because I want to be able to say no to CASH before I have to say no to an even bigger readily availble savings account.

5. Research savings accounts and keep up with interest rates. You want to be able to put your money into an account that will help it grow, eliminating some of the hard work for you. Plus it is a proactive way to remind you WHY you are saving, and NOT TO TOUCH your money.

6. In the mean time, STOP LOOKING at things to buy. ;)

My first Square Foot! - Merry Christmas!

Whoops! It's been a few days, thats no good!

It's Christmas! And hey, anyone get Christmas money from loved ones? I did! :D I got $70!! I am on a few forums though, and I have seen some people get upwards of $500!! o_0 wowza! Whatever you got, be thankful for it! Please PLEASE say thank you to the givers. After all, money does not grow on trees. Trust me, I'd be a tree pruner if it did!

I put my $70 straight into a save it jar. In the jar I already had $5 which I got from saving change. Together that equals....

$75

I just started selling  Scentsy https://stacybaron.scentsy.us/Buy and so far my sales from that have been $17!! Pretty good for not doing any parties yet :D 

$75+ $17=s.... $92!!!

I just made my first square foot!! :D

Okay so Christmas made this first square foot easy, and thats how it goes! Sometimes money is easy to come by, other times its like finding a drop of water in the middle of a barren desert. When it comes easy, don't take it for granted! Put it away, keep it safe untill you have a square foot of home!! Then drop that money in a savings account! :)

What is one square foot at a time exactly?

Hello!

So, I got this wild idea, and here it is. A lot of people save for houses, right? Well, I am doing that too! This is just where I want to keep track of how I am doing. Advertise shamlessly so I can reach my dream, and just really encourage other 'wanna be' home owners to start saving!

Now,  I don't have a home picked out yet, (come on, I have nearly nothing saved yet :p) but I love love LOVE looking at houses. So from time to time I might just share one I have found on realtor.com, because honestly, thats my favorite website of all times. Yeah! If you love looking at houses, you'll love it here as well. :)

Now, I ideally we want to say that 1 square foot of house is meager, easy to achieve. That could be true, but well, I am a stay at home mom. I don't have a vechile, and no real skills to be seen. Oops. What that means is, I really don't have much money comming in. Of course Hubby has a job, but if it were enough to buy us a house with, I wouldn't typing this up now would i?  So how am i going to do this? Well I already mentioned shamless advertising, and yes, I am embracing that. I am also going to be selling Scentsy and if that goes well, i just might expand and sell another product, hey the more the merrier right? I am also looking into ebay selling. oh scary. Could go either way right? And here is another thing, free money?? It's going toward the house!

So for the sake of the blog I am going to say that a house costs $90 a square feet. The cost per square foot will vary from house to house and state to state, but I think thats a pretty good solid number to go by with this blog, and to achieve my dream of being a home owner.

Okay, so $90 a square foot. And I want no less then 1,300 sqaure feet, but would prefer something around 1,500 so for the sake of wanting to have more then enough money, I am going to set my sited on 1,600 square feet. That equals out to a whopping, $144,000 I want to save.

But we won't be looking at the over all cost. I want to look at the cost of a square foot, which we are saying is $90. So every time I am able to make $90 I will be 1 square foot closer to getting into a home! Oh yeah :D

So, starting to day I have... no, not a sqaure foot. Poop! I have 0 square feet. But all is well. I am working on that first square foot! Can't wait to hit this first goal. :D