Lived hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck before that for good reasons, single mom, two sons, private universities because they were excellent students with good grades(yes, they still have some loans to pay). I sacrificed plenty, believe me, and I was frugal.

Like many others here, I totally cannot express how WONDERFUL it is to know I have a little something to fall back on…it is a HUGE stress reliever.

Better than that, it really is addictive. I arranged for auto payment of 10% to ING from my checking account every beginning of the month. Then I raised it to include the 5.8% increase I get starting this month. I have banged in any money left at the end of both months. Now it is a game to see how much I can have left over to add.

For January, I budgeted $470 for fuel oil. I was able to get 200 gallons for $86 less than that. What did I do? Added $14 and banged in an extra $100.

I’m not bragging at all. Just trying to express how good it feels to finally be on the saving side of the equation. My name is Imani and I am addicted to saving.

The heck you say. Didn’t you write a post a while back about how new graduates should aim to save 50% of their income?

True, if you’re used to spending 100% of your monthly income, then making the switch to living on half of that is going to take some serious lifestyle adjustments – more than just cancelling the Netflix subscription and installing CFLs. You may have to move to a cheaper place, get a roommate (or two or three), and get rid of a car (or two or three). But if those are changes you’re willing to consider, the savings can add up quite handily.

I agree with everyone else too that savings is addicting, the only downside is the transition from savers to hoarder.

I’ve established an account an ING and have my biweekly transfers scheduled. Like Attagirl points out, I get anxious waiting for the transfers and typically find ways to make extra deposits in the interim (rolled coins, eBay sales, yard sales, etc.)!

now this is years ago, but it still applies to today, only thing is the amounts would be higher…

for months we just spent every paycheck, no thought for tomorrow…we rented, we didn’t plan to buy a home or anything like that, we just party’d..after work…

well one day the IRS showed up..seems myhusband owed them some money from before we were married..seems the amount was $800..and the deal made was we would pay them $100 every week to get tht taken care of….

we stopped partying, stayed home..got it out of the way, and once done…we both realized..Now ifwe had saved $100 a week, we would have $800…

and that’s what we did…we just kept saving that $100 a week..we had no plans for it,…the goal was tosee how much we could save…it wasn’t a hardship…it was what we wanted to do…pretty soon we had $2,000…and just about that time came across a place we wanted to buy…but they wanted 5K down…realator said…”don’t worry, when yu wave that $2,000 in their face, they’ll sell..and they did…

same thing when I joined the credit union at work years later…oh I missed that money they took out of my paycheck every 2 weeks for about the first month, and after that…I never noticed it..soon I noticed I had $4-500 in there…what’s that?? nothing in my eyes…and then seems I just forgot about it…and pretty soon I had a couple grand…

it was so simple…I didn’t have to do anything, all the paperwork was done for me…and the money just kept accumulating…True I coulda looked around for higher interest and all…but I just wanted something simple…

but the first time they took out money of my check..oh, I missed that so badly…but once I got over that??? it was the cats meow…

if you put money aside… whereever you put it….make sure you choose an amount that you can live with…cause ifyou put too much aside…you’ll find youself taking it out…and that’s very defeating to one mentally….

as I say this was years ago…

So when I have a decent amount of money in a savings account – I move it over to a CD, making it even less likely that I will spend it because I won’t want to incur a penalty.

I agree that ASPs make you much more careful of your spending – I prefer to set mine up to come out the same day I get paid, so I don’t even notice it. After a while you get used to being “paid” just the amount that ends up in your checking account.

Next 5yrs I saved $5K every year, it became $25K. Not enough for down payment in Hawaii where median home price well above 400K, so I opted for a condo. Looked many, many properties that time.

Saving is a part of the process, and I felt good about what I savied. But when housing boom further pushed up the price, it seems it never catch up.

I finally dived and bought a oondo in 2005. By the time I found another financing incentive from both Federal & State, able to finance shorter term (15yr instead of 30yr) w/20% down. I could have bought earlier, should have saved sooner or I should have bought larger (NOT!).

In order to save for down payment, I reduced the retirement plan contribution, my annual saving rate haven’t changed much, just changed the proportuion of the saving goals. I would recommend “play house” – assume your new home costs 20% more than your current rent, put aside that 20% into saving. You will see it grow.