Replenishing a Savings Account

As I mentioned last time, we have a savings campaign going on in our household. If we can stick to it, we will hopefully begin to fill the $5,000 hole in our savings account while enjoying the logical byproduct of less clutter in our house.

Next month marks 17 years since we paid off our previous house and became officially debt-free. We have only been able to stay that way by the grace of God and by living simply. A savings account also figures prominently, because when you’ve committed to being debt-free, you must have some cash set aside for emergencies of all kinds, whether it’s a $100 repair to your car or a $3,000 furnace because you like to stay warm in the winter.

We save any windfalls, dividends, tax refunds and other cash infusions that may come our way, and we’ll continue to do that. But in addition, this year we’re trying something else to help rebuild our savings account.

Recently I saw a chart in a newspaper ad for a local credit union. They’re offering an account similar to a Christmas club account; for those who aren’t old enough to know what a Christmas club account is, it’s when you deposit a specific amount in a special bank account every week so that by Christmas, you have a nice chunk of change with which to buy Christmas gifts without using your credit card, therefore not going into debt.

This account is a little different. You pick a day of the week and commit to making a deposit into the account on that day every week for a year. The first week you deposit a dollar. Easy enough, right? The next week you deposit $2, the next week $3, etc. By the end of the year, you’ll be depositing $50 or so a week, but you’ll end up with a balance of $1,378 plus interest.

We’ve decided to follow this plan. We’ll probably feel those $50+ deposits at the end of the year, but that’s my husband’s busy season, and my books usually see a bump in sales in the fall and winter anyways, so those deposits shouldn’t be too painful. Besides, it will feel good to know we’re making headway on rebuilding our savings….hopefully before something else breaks around here!

Update: I Still Love My Small House

So it’s been seven years since we bought our small house after living in two large rental houses (and a five-bedroom two-story for many years before that). You live differently in a small house than in a large one, and it took me a while to figure that out. (I included what I learned in my eBook Secrets of Small-House Living, written a few years after we moved here.)

Now I’m used to living in a small house, but it has not become routine for me. I still love only having two bathroom sinks to clean instead of four. I greatly appreciate being able to plug the vacuum in the middle of the house and do all the vacuuming without once unplugging it, much less lugging it up and down steps as I did for many years.

Perhaps the thing I love best about my small house is that I don’t have to spend too much time or money on it, which frees up both things to be used for other pursuits. Every bit of time I don’t spend caring for a larger house can be spent reading, writing, gardening, or sewing. Every dollar I don’t spend on this house can be saved, or spent on travel. And we’re not talking about just a few bucks. The property taxes on this house are 1/3 of what we once paid on our large house. Now that’s quite a bit of savings!

There are downsides of living in a small house, but they’re quite minor. I’m aware that a couple of relatives are appalled by the fact that we gave up our lovely huge house for something that can best be described as modest. Oh, well, I gave up caring what they thought long ago.

Another negative is that sometimes I feel cooped up, especially now that it’s winter. But I’m solving that in two ways: I’ve turned a spare bedroom into a reading room, so that I have somewhere to sit and read besides the living room, and I’m making more of an effort to go for walks (all bundled up, of course) and meet friends for coffee now and then. These are things that I should have done long ago, because they are both quite enjoyable, and I find that afterwards, I return to my little house with a new sense of appreciation along the lines of “Be It Ever So Humble, There’s No Place Like Home.”

My Book is Here!

My first print book is now available for purchase!

The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering just came out in print for $14.95, and it’s already selling. This is so exciting for me! What a great feeling to hold my own book in my hands. Many thanks to those of you who bought the ebook; its sales numbers made my publishers decide to bring it out in print.

You can find it at Barnes & Noble, Books a Million and anywhere else books are sold. It’s also available from Amazon, though they’re charging more than retail price.

Speaking of Amazon, a reviewer there liked it, but wishes I would have addressed how to declutter when you have little children. Unfortunately, I’m not qualified to give advice on that subject. I tried decluttering many times when my kids were small, but all of my efforts ended quickly and in failure because I was just so busy dealing with everything else: the kids, the house, meals, etc. That’s how I ended up with a basement full of stuff that eventually filled two storage units. I just couldn’t find time to go through it all until I was forced to when we sold our house. By then, my kids were teens and young adults.

So you won’t find that information in my book, because I found it too hard to declutter with several children underfoot. But if, like me, you find yourself living with way too much clutter, I can show you how to get rid of most of it while keeping only your most treasured possessions. Just read my new book 🙂