Saving Mr. Lincoln - January 2014 Update

What do yellow duckies in sunglasses have to do with Saving Mr. Lincoln? Nothing; I just thought they were cute and I want you to read this post! So, I’m bribing you with yellow duckies in January!

It’s 80+ degrees here! Yep. 80+! And it was yesterday, too, and the day before! Plus, the winds have been howling. Actually roaring. This past Sunday night, the wind was gusting so violently through our valley that I thought for sure that a fire would happen. Or, a tree would be uprooted. Or, our new solar system would lift off the roof and fly through our valley like pieces of sheet metal leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

Yep. I’m paranoid and dramatic like that. And, I had a pretty sleepless night on Sunday. Me and Coco; nervous as cats. Oh yea, I forgot; Coco is a cat! {grin}. Meanwhile, Charlie slept soundly; like a stone. Or, one of those monkeys “hear no evil”, with hands over its ears! Nothing rattles him; not even rattling windows. How does he do that? {grin}.

If you are new readers to this blog, I’ve probably completely confused (and possibly alienated) you! Who’s this crazy woman talking about a sleepless night because of howling winds? And, what the heck does this have to do with Saving Mr. Lincoln – January 2014 Update?

Well, here’s a brief synopsis: we lost our home in October 2007 to a wildfire. You can read all about it here: Any Way the Wind Blows.

Plus, Saving Mr. Lincoln is a series I started on February 12, 2013 about saying $5 bills that I get either as change from a purchase or as a gift. Here’s how that works: I hand a clerk a $20.00 bill for a purchase that is $4.99. The clerk gives me $15.01 in change and one or all the bills are $5. If they are $5 bills, I stash them in a special place in my wallet. When I get home, I take them out of my wallet and put them in my secret hiding place. Once a month, I take my collected $5 bills to the bank and deposit them in my Saving Mr. Lincoln savings account.

If I receive a gift of a $5 bill, then I save that, too. In March of 2013, Charlie was so intrigued by this plan that he joined my savings program, so there are really two of us saving this money. His $5 bills are gifts to me!

This program has been an unbelievable success for us because:

I’ve never been a “saver” – I’m a “spender”.
We have a savings account that is solely for this program and it’s been very motivating to watch it grow.
It’s helping me to be more thoughtful in my purchases.

Now a disclaimer: I totally blew it out of the park this Christmas; I spent a boatload of money on Christmas presents for family and friends plus a lot of money on entertaining over the holidays. So, I would not classify me as “frugal”. But, I’m working on it…

I’m happy to report that we saved 19 $5 bills between December 13th and January 12th. That’s $95.00 added to our Saving Mr. Lincoln account. Our new balance is $1,080.00! In 12 months, we have saved $1,080.00 effortlessly, painlessly, without thinking about it! Here’s a recap:

$40.00 – February 2013
$70.00 – March 2013
$80.00 – April 2013
$70.00 – May 2013
$145.00 – June 2013
$100.00 – July 2013
$130.00 – August 2013
$125.00 – September 2013
$75.00 – October 2013 (inspite of buying 33 pumpkins! See my post – Pumpkin Fever!)
$65.00 – November 2013
$85.00 – December 2013
$95.00 – January 2014

Now what does this have to do with howling winds and sleepless nights and losing our house in a wildfire? Well, we don’t have an “emergency” fund stashed away. I have now deemed our Saving Mr. Lincoln account our emergency fund. Check. One thing off our Emergency Planning Checklist!

And, what do yellow duckies have to do with Saving Mr. Lincoln – January 2014 Update? Absolutely nothing. I just think my pool duckies are cute! Here’s some more pictures:

Tootles,

(other posts about Saving Mr. Lincoln)

(other posts about Emergency Planning)

Related Posts:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply