Fat Guy Skinny Wallet

Since 2014 has come to an end, we want to update you on the savings goal that we set for ourselves. We used the 52-week savings challenge in order to structure our savings throughout the year. If you don’t know what that is, make sure you read the original post where we explain the details. Now, let’s get on to the results!

An Update On Our 52-Week Savings Challenge

As you can see from the savings schedule above (click to enlarge), we should have ended 2014 with at least $1,378 in our Capital One 360 Savings account. Below you can see a screen shot of our total as of December 31, 2014:

We did it! We ended the year with a total of $1,381.44! The first 6 or 7 weeks were a little rocky for us because I kept forgetting to make the transfer each week and had to do a couple of “catch up” transfers. Of course, with such small amounts, it didn’t impacts us at all to do this. By the end of February, we came up with a system to follow the schedule.

At the end of each month I would set up all of the transfers for the upcoming month, and also enter them into Quicken, so that they are accounted for. By doing this, we didn’t have to worry about remembering to set up the transfer each week.

It feels good to have been so faithful and disciplined with this goal for the entire year. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to stick it out during the months where the transfers are larger. Here is what we said back in July:

It’s going to get tough from here on out since the amounts have grown so much. We had a couple of our health-related costs go up, so that is going to eat away at our budget even further. Hopefully, we will be able to stick with this plan.

I have to say that there were a few weeks when it didn’t look like we would be able to make the transfer because of all of the financial obligations we had at the time, but we were able to stick with it and follow the schedule perfectly down the stretch.

How Did You Do With Your Savings Goals In 2014?

If you participated in the 52-week savings challenge, did you end the year with at least $1,378 in your savings account? Did you make weekly (or whatever matches your pay cycle) transfers to savings or did you make several large transfers to add up to the amount?

Did you follow our suggestion and get an extra $50 for your troubles? Here is what I recommended in the introductory post (which still holds true if you want to save in 2015)…

My suggestion is that you open a new Checking or Savings account with Capital One 360 (Full Disclosure: this link contains my referral code). We currently have 6 accounts with Capital One between personal and business and we couldn’t be happier with their products or service. You can set up automatic transfers from your current bank, and if you use the link above, you will earn a $50 (for checking) or $25 (for savings) bonus just for signing up!! It’s free money!!!

So if you decide to open a new Capital One 360 checking account using this link, then you will have a total of $1,428 at the end of the year! By choosing an online bank, it will help you to fight the temptation to dip into your savings account for a frivolous purchase.

Even if you didn’t follow the 52-week savings plan, were you able to meet your savings goal for the year?

In a few days we will be posting our savings goal for 2015. We definitely won’t follow this schedule, but we may aim for the same dollar amount. A few people made schedule suggestions when I posted about this in 2014, so we may rearrange this.

{ 6 comments }