Money Saving Tips From a Money Saving Procrastinator
- Erin Marie
- May 20, 2018
- 3 min read
To start, I am definitely not someone who is bad with money, but I do struggle putting it aside for different purposes…like taxes or vacations. (Note the honeymoon pic from Pompeii...now to the Azores in 11 days!) It’s not that I don’t have the money, but it’s better to save up for it and put it away systematically (aka plan...what a novel approach), than to have to take a giant lump sum out of my checking account.
This year, Ryan and I have really cracked down on budgeting but had a lot of unexpected expenses that caught us off guard. I kept remembering that I needed to put money aside for taxes at the most inconvenient times and so I continued to procrastinate. When crunch time came, we finally got serious and made a plan.
I needed someone to do it for me and just take money out weekly until tax season so that I never even saw it in the bank account. I didn’t want it to seem like we cleared out half of our savings when April arrived.
I tried two different Apps after having done a fair amount of research and scouring the PennyHoarder website for advice. They have some great tips if you want ways to save an extra dollar here or there.
https://www.thepennyhoarder.com
Anyways, I came across the Qapital and Acorns apps and decided to give both a try. Ultimately, I will continue to use Qapital because it fits our needs the most, but Acorns is still a good choice depending on what you are trying to accomplish.
Let me break down the similarities and differences for you.
Both apps round your money up from every purchase. Qapital allows you to do it from $1-5 and Acorns just does it to every dollar. That means if you spend $3.30 somewhere, it will put $0.70 or more into a special account.
Both apps allow you allow you to make a weekly deposits so that a designated amount will be pulled out automatically and you don’t have to think about it. It can be anywhere from $5/week to $500/week depending on what you are trying to achieve. You can also pause the deposits at any time.
Here is where the two differ and why I prefer Qapital.
Acorns is an investment app so it puts your money into mutual funds. So you are literally investing your money in the stock market and not just putting it into savings. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about investing. We invest in our portfolio consistently but I would rather do that through a legitimate firm like Charles Schwabb or RBC than through an app. Also, if it’s about saving money, I don’t want those funds subjected to the rise and fall of the stock market. Mutual funds are for long term investing and I just want to save up for taxes and a vacation within the next year.
Qapital allows you to make goals: we have a travel fund and our tax fund. Each one has separate weekly deposits, roundup rules, and a different amount we are trying to save towards. It notifies you of your progress and it’s essentially just putting that money it into a separate savings account, not investing it.
If you are trying to get a head start into investing, then Acorns is an excellent option. You can sign up with this link, there’s no charge or fee and it’s completely safe. Even if you just do the roundups and no weekly investment, you’ve started and that’s amazing!
https://acorns.com/invite/V9QNN6
If you are trying to just save money though, I would personally suggest Qapital. It also allows you to add additional savers to your accounts so Ryan and my cards are now both contributing to the funds and we don’t even notice. Again, you can honestly just do the roundups and will be surprised how much you can accumulate just by doing that.
Click the link below to sign up and get $5
Hopefully my experience can help you save towards your next trip, car, house, etc! We are personally excited to head to Portugal and are already saving for our next trip! Let me know what you think by commenting below and i’ll be posting more about tricks we’ve used to maximize our budget.
Now go forth and save money!
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