Saving Money for a PsA Day

Co-pays, special dietary needs, massages, alternative therapies, whenever a family is impacted by psoriatic arthritis a whole slew of unexpected costs tend to come along with it. Even the most frugal and flush families can feel a pretty big blow to their bank accounts.

The thought of saving for that rainy day can be sickening, especially if you are one of the many who already lives paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately, there are some ways to sock away money that make it so easy you won’t even know you’re saving. That is until you look at your balance!

Give Me $5

Every time you receive a $5 bill for any reason set it aside in a separate wallet or purse and don’t even think about spending it. Every time that purse or wallet gets full, take those $5s to the bank and deposit them in a savings account. Just $5 bills. Everything else is fair game to spend as you wish. You’ll be amazed at how fast the cash adds up.

For those who rarely use cash, obviously this may not be the best route, but I’ll tell you the game of it gets kind of addictive to where you’ll want to start switching to cash. I recently was told a story of a single mother who instituted this plan decades ago. She did it so well that when she passed away, she was able to leave each of her 5 children $30,000 from her ‘stash.’ If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is!

Change it up

We’ve all heard the thoughts about saving change or collecting change in a large jar or bucket, but if you really start making a conscious effort to throw all your change in there it can add up fast. Once a week have everyone in the family dump their change in the bucket. This is especially great if you’re planning for a large family purchase like a vacation, then even the kids will want to get involved. A lot of banks have coin sorters now that don’t require a service fee or those good old paper rolls and there are a number of at home rollers you can buy pretty inexpensively.

Loyalty wins

I know it feels overwhelming with every place around having so many loyalty programs you can’t keep the apps straight, but in most cases, I’ve gotta say they’re worth it. You’d be amazed how much you can save from frequent buyer programs and even those mile-long drugstore receipts. Get used to remembering to use your loyalty and pay attention to special offers you’d like to take advantage of. Another thing to look into is store debit cards, not credit cards, debit cards. Linked directly to your regular debit card account, some stores offer a percentage off every single purchase. Why wouldn’t you want to save 5% or more every time you go to a store you frequent, especially when you know you’re using the exact same money you would have otherwise? No interest or fees. It’s a no brainer!

Bank on it

When’s the last time you looked at the terms of your bank account? It took a fraud scare for me to take a look at mine and learn that I’d been unnecessarily paying exorbitant fees for oh about 10 years now. Not good. Fortunately, the banker I worked with clued me into it and got me into a new checking account at my same bank without me even having to change my debit card with less than half the potential fees. He also was able to get some recent fees reversed. It definitely pays to check things out and understand why you’re charged what you’re charged.

Sell your loot

The dreaded spring cleaning is just around the corner, but did you know it can also lead to some unexpected cash? There are so many online places to sell just about anything now that you don’t even need to go through the hassle of a garage sale if you’re not feeling it. Just use the apps and you’re in business. There are even online versions of clothing resale stores who will send you a pre-paid mailing bag and then a check whenever your stuff sells. It’s that easy. Sure, these resources may not net as much as it would if you did it the old-fashioned way, but who has time for all that? And don’t they say, “Time is Money” for a reason?

So, none of these tips are going to give you a short-term or ultimate fix to all your financial woes, but they certainly will help, and they all involve minimal effort to put into place. Every little bit will help chip away at that dreaded stress of paying the bills and you can even earmark the money as mad money to use for something you’ve really wanted to do without feeling guilty! Imagine that?