Have you ever noticed that our lives are actually very structured? It’s so structured that we don’t even think about it or notice how it affects us.
When we leave for work in the morning, we leave normally in half hour increments: 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30. Or, in quarterly increments: 7:15, 7:45, 8:15 and so on.
No one ever purposely says: I am going to leave at 7.16 on the dot.
Granted, we don’t actually leave right at that exact moment of 7:15 or 7:30, it’s normally done in such a way that we say we will leave at 7:30 but what we mean is around 7:30.
And when we pay for something, it’s with change or bills lower than a $20. If we have a crisp $20 in our pocket, we are less inclined to break it into less than $20 to pay for some pop, chips and a chocolate bar.
But when there’s change, there’s a feeling (for me anyway), of let’s just get rid of it and use it up because it’s taking space in my pocket and making noise.
The reason why I’m bringing it up, is because we can take advantage of that structure to benefit our lives, kind of like putting a subtle control in place that we won’t even notice is restricting us.
For example, with time.
When I left at 7:10 in the morning, or 7:20, it made a world of a difference, those couple of minutes. Normally, people leave at 7:00 or 7:30, so leaving in between, even at 7:15, traffic had a bit of a lull before the next rush, but at 7:30 it would be a madhouse.
Just a couple of minutes, and traffic was much easier to deal with.
Same with money. I try not to break a $20, but if I do, I hide the $10 bills in another compartment where I don’t even see them, and at the end of the week, I normally have about $40 – $50 there, which then I either shuffle back into my wallet to use for the next week, or I put it in the bank if I feel I am carrying too much.
Actually, in general, if I carry too much money – a couple $20s or $50s, I am even MORE inclined to keep it in my wallet to keep that nice fat look and I am very, very hesitant to break any of the bills on something small and insignificant like a candy bar or chocolate bars.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I save eery single $5 bill I come across, no matter what. I’ve not been doing it very long but so far have saved $400 just in $5 bills.
Ha–actually, I DO say that I’m leaving at odd times. If I leave for work from my boyfriend’s apartment, we leave at 8:12. If we leave from my apartment, we leave at 8:23. That’s the latest we can leave and catch the subway (assuming the trains are running normally) and wind up at our desks with a minute or two before 9 a.m. Leaving much before that means the trains are more crowded, so I don’t get to work any earlier and I often don’t get a seat. Leaving later gets me a seat but means I’m a few minutes late getting to my desk.
It’s a fine-tuned system, but it works for me!
I also carry change because I hate getting change back–so if at all possible, I will attempt to use it up (then I have none, and have to accept change for a while…and so on.)
OO!
So BOA here will round up debit card purchases for you (I think it’s BOA – I don’t bank with them, but I do this my own way) so that when you purchase something that is 15.56, they deposit the other 0.44 in your savings.
Personally, I do this by rounding up in my check register. I check my bank statement at the end of the week and transfer the balance discrepancy (with regards to any pending transactions) into my savings account. If it’s been a particularly busy month (like when purchasing school supplies) I may end up with an extra $75 in my savings.
I also try to keep my wallet clean by not carrying change. That includes singles and sometimes 5’s that I’ll hide in my kitty-bank (it’s like a piggy bank but it’s a giant cat instead). It’s a pleasant surprise when you’re collecting it to take to the bank.
Yes! What a fabulous post! I noticed this, for sure. I take the subway and that 10 minutes is the difference between me shoving myself in against the door and me having a seat in a nearly empty train!
I leave work a little bit later than most people do just because the traffic is lighter. I try and leave a couple minutes earlier too although I’m not always successful at that!