Saving Mr. Lincoln’s Retirement

Mr. Lincoln’s has had a good run.  So good, in fact, that I thought long and hard about his retirement from our blog.  BTW – the gorgeous sunset photo above was taken by me in our valley on December 15, 2013 at 5:06 p.m.  Keep this bit of information in mind as the glorious sunset sky from that day (and a few other days) reveals itself in this post!

A year ago, on Mr. Lincoln’s birthday, I posted the first post in this series, Saving Mr. Lincoln , sharing with readers my new savings strategy.

The Strategy

I’d read a snippet in a magazine – you know, one of those little boxes in the sidebar of a magazine’s page meant to draw your attention, but not necessarily a part of the article.  In fact, it had nothing to do with the article at all.  I think it had a picture of a light bulb, so it caught my eye.

And, it piqued by interest.

What a great idea, I thought to myself; saving 5 dollar bills received as change from a purchase or as a gift!  Painless!

And, it is – painless.

So painless that in a year’s time, I have saved 239 Mr. Lincoln’s totaling $1,195.00!  Wahoo – over $1,000.00 saved painlessly, effortlessly, easily!

Here’s a breakdown by month:

1. February 2013 – $40.00
2. March 2013 – $70.00
3. April 2013 – $80.00
4. May 2013 – $90.00
5. June 2013 – $145.00
6. July 2013 – $100.00
7. August 2013 – $130.00
8. September 2013 – $125.00
9. October 2013 – $75.00
10. November 2013 – $65.00
11. December 2013 – $85.00
12. January 2014 – $95.00
13. February 2014 – $115.00

New to our blog?  So this is the first post in this series that you’ve read?  Let me share with you that when I told Charlie (my husband) about my new savings strategy, he was intrigued and asked to join me.  So, this total of $1,195.00 represents the efforts of the two of us.  However, he does not keep his $5 bills on him, but gives them to me immediately (a gift).  I save all of our $5 bills in a special hiding place and once a month, I deposit those $5 bills in our special Saving Mr. Lincoln savings account.

After mulling over what to do with our Saving Mr. Lincoln account, we have now designated it as our emergency fund (part of our Resolve to Be Ready 2014 campaign that I started last month on our blog).  And, we have not spent any of the money in that account, at all.  It just sits in that account, safe from our bad spending habits collecting a little bit of interest and growing every month!

Why am I retiring my Saving Mr. Lincoln series?  Well, I made my point:  this way of savings can manifest big results!  And, those big results can happen effortlessly, painlessly, easily.  I may do periodic updates, probably annually on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and resurrect it once a year.

Let me be clear:  we are not discontinuing our Saving Mr. Lincoln savings plan!  Charlie and I intend to continue merrily along.  In fact, in addition to saving my $5 bills, I’ve been saving my coins since March of 2013 and added one dollar bills in May of 2013.  Just by saving my coins and dollar bills, I have saved (without Charlie’s help) an additional $421.64 bringing the actual total in our Saving Mr. Lincoln account to $1,616.64!

Whether you save your coins, your dollars or your $5 bills, adopting a Saving Mr. Lincoln plan is worth the effort.  So, as my Saving Mr. Lincoln series retires and sets sail into the sunset, here are more amazing, untouched sunsets pictures to share with you…

December 15, 2013 at 5:07 p.m.

 

December 15, 2013 at 5:07 p.m.

 

December 15, 2013 at 5:08 p.m.

 

December 15, 2013 at 5:08 p.m.

 

December 16, 2013 at 5:05 p.m.

 

January 21, 2014 at 6:40 p.m.

Here’s one to share on Pinterest:

Believe it or not, I didn’t take this photo.  This photo is brought to you courtesy of PicMonkey!  I created this in PicMonkey, from scratch, including the cloudy pre-sunset sky.  The cloud background is a “texture” plus it’s a “premium” effect (which means you pay their monthly or annual fee to use it and the other premium effects).  Here’s a quick mini-tutorial:

Actually, you can pin any of these photos to Pinterest and they will lead readers to this post.  But, the “How I Saved $1,000” pin will, hopefully, make them want to come and read the series!  Please share any or all of these photos on Pinterest!  And, thank you for doing so!

Tootles,

 

Related Posts:

(other Saving Mr. Lincoln posts)

1. Saving Mr. Lincoln
2. Saving Mr. Lincoln – March 2013 Update
3. Saving Mr. Lincoln – April 2013 Update
4. Saving Mr. Lincoln – May 2013 Update
5. Saving Mr. Lincoln – June 2013 Update
6. Saving Mr. Lincoln – July 2013 Update
7. Saving Mr. Lincoln – August 2013 Update
8. Saving Mr. Lincoln – September 2013 Update
9. Saving Mr. Lincoln – October 2013 Update
10. Saving Mr. Lincoln – November 2013 Update
11. Saving Mr. Lincoln – December 2013 Update
12. Saving Mr. Lincoln – January 2014 Update