Pinching Pennies

It's just a dumb penny.

It's just hundreds of dumb pennies.

They all add up, surprisingly quickly.

Bank of America offers the "Keep the Change" program. It's a pretty basic concept, when you buy something on your card, B of A rounds it up to the nearest dollar, putting the difference into your savings.

Well, my lousy credit means I don't qualify for that program. But I am doing it on my own with my NetSpend account, it just takes a little effort. On the 15th of the month, I log into my online account to review my transactions. I add up all the 'change' and transfer it to my savings. I'm proud to say I haven't touched that savings yet, and it's going to be enough pay for my Oklahoma state taxes that I need to pay by April 15th.

Once my taxes are paid off, I'm going to start saving that money as my emergency fund. It seems like every time I get a little bit ahead in life I get hit with some big unexpected expense. Car trouble, late paycheck, you name it I've been through it.

And you guessed it, I'm going to gather up all those pennies lying around my house and cash them in, and put that into the savings too.

What little things can you do to build up an emergency fund? Skip the latte three times a week and that's $60 a month! Small sacrifices can pay off in the long run.