Sister told me to budget by 'paying myself first' and I thought she was crazy

My sister in Austin kept saying to set aside $50 each paycheck before paying bills, and I argued we barely had enough for rent. After 6 months of trying it, I actually had $600 saved for emergencies instead of none. Has anyone else had a 'pay yourself first' plan actually work or did it backfire for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan54518d ago

My buddy tried this with his coffee money, started putting ten bucks aside every morning instead of buying lattes. He ended up with enough after a few months to fix his car when the transmission started acting up... weird how the small stuff adds up. The fridge broke the same week and he actually had cash for that too.

ryan_clark4017d ago

My buddy Mark tried this last year and honestly it worked out better than I expected. He was putting away $40 from each check and after about 4 months his water heater burst in the middle of the night. @nathan545 That coffee money thing is real, Mark told me he used to buy fast food breakfast every morning and swapped it for just eggs and toast at home. He saved like $70 a month without even trying hard. By the time the heater broke he had close to $500 ready to go and didn't even have to stress about it. Tbh I always thought the whole idea was dumb too until I saw it work for him.