Do you pay yourself first before you pay your bills?

[homesteadmamma]

I read a few years ago about always paying yourself first before paying bills or purchasing groceries and we did that until dh was without work. It wasn't much but we always tried to put 10% a month in our savings account.

Have you or do you do this?

[slowtypinwoman]

Dh and I get paid once a month. The first thing Ido when I put the $$ in the bank, is go to our savings bank and pay that first. Ever month I put $100 in more if we can swing it. It has been a painless way to save and we have well over 1K now in less than a year.

[CAGmomof2]

Yes we put money aside into our savings account it is not always $100.00 though...
We sometime have to wait till after we pay our bills to put money into our savings account.

[Michelle]

We have money put into a 401K account, but other than that there is no money leftover for savings right now

[Shell]

Yes I do! I read to pay myself first many, many years ago. Since I was 19 I put money away into an RRSP (IRA) and as of last year we put $200 monthly into our emergency fund (see challenges) I only wish I learned NOT to use my credit cards.

[scooby]

yes 10% goes in savings plus 20.00 a week goes automatically into a Christmas Club.

[Mom23boys]

Um, no I don't. I guess I need to start. The school district I work for puts $150 a month into a stock market account for me. DH has a 401K account.
We have $1000 set aside for emergencies. Other than that, we haven't paid ourselves. I really need to do this and in one of the challenges I said I was going to save money for 4 different things. I will start with my first check of the year. (I get paid monthly... on the 25th). I am going to take 10% of that check and put it away in savings.

[ReaderMom]

Money is taken out of the paycheck and placed directly in the credit union. The rest of the check net of taxes and benefits is then placed into the checking account.

[bamamomto4]

All we have is Dh's 401K and Sam's 'gives' them profit sharing.You either get it when you retire or quit.

[simplemom]

Scooby, that's a good idea to save for Christmas. Is it for the gifts? Since you said club...I am curious.

[scooby]

Lucie, I'm not sure if Canada does this but here in the states most banks or credit unions have what they call a "Christmas Club" what it is is a savings account that you can't touch. You decide what amout, say 10.00 a week, you either deposit it every week or have it automatically taken from your account. When I have to take it to the bank each week I always find an excuse not to, so I have it done automatically.
So anyway if you choose 10 a week and you start it right after they open the new year club, you would receive a check in the mail for 500.00 plus interest.

I do 20 a week so the last week of October I get a check for 1000.00 plus interest.

I use some for gifts, my holiday meals, ie... Thankgiving & Christmas and also for my holiday baking and if any unexpected bills or such show up, like they usually do.

It really helps because November & December are always hard on the budget. This way I don't get the added stress of where will I get the money. And believe it or not after a few weeks of putting 10, 20 or even 5 dollars away, you won't miss it.

Hope I explained it so it makes sense.

[cody15650]

I pay the bills first, but they take money out of my check for a 401k & a little for a credit union.

[pita1213]

money for the 401K is taken out automatically. and 20.00 gets taken out of our checking account everymonth and goes into savings accounts for dks (10.00 each) all the money i get from surveys and secretshops goes into our savings. i am waiting for one bill to get paid off so i can send that money to savings. another bill will be paid off about the same time and that money will be snowballed into another bill payment.

[Wendy99]

I'm from Canada and have never heard of the Christmas account, but just LOVE that idea!! I wish my bank offered that!

As for the savings, we have $150 deducted off each pay (every 2 weeks). It's tight, but necessary for us. It totals $300 a month, when we can save more we add extra. I also signed up for "bank the rest" so everytime I make a purchase using my bank card, its rounded up to the nearest dollar and put into our saving account. It may only be $5 or so a week, but it sure adds up and you don't notice it missing. We use our EF (savings account) for once a year things, house insurance, home repairs (necessary ones not cosmetic) and anything else that pops up that we can't afford (ie. unexpected vet bills, car repairs etc). That is why I try so hard to put as much in it as I can.

[pecunierrant]

We have some automatically put into savings with each pay check. It's gone before I check our balance or pay bills so it fairly pain free.