Money in 2013

     Have you noticed the trends in articles surrounding the New Year?  First it was all about setting and trying to keep your New Year's Resolution.  Then it became a bit more focused with the subjects trending on weight and fitness.  Now it seems we are entering a phase where the focus is money,
     No matter where you live in the world today the economy is on everyone's mind.  We are all looking for ways to stretch our budget.  Admittedly I am not the best resource on this topic.  I don't think we do anything more creative than the next person.  I have however found a couple of interesting things that I wanted to share with you.

     The biggest rage right now was started by Kassondra Perry-Moreland and her Facebook group Kassaondra's 52 week Money Challenge.  The idea behind this it to save $1,378 relatively painlessly.  You start by saving $1 the first week then $2 and so on. There are numerous groups all over the Internet creating clubs of their own.  Many others are offering a different savings plan with the idea that putting away $50+ at the end of the year might be rough.  One plan being offered by Rita Arens on blogher is to place the larger amounts throughout the year working another starts off with $52 and works backwards.
     Another theme I ran across was "Use What You Have".  I started this one without realizing I was trendy. I love my Food Network Magazines.  I've had a subscription for a couple of years but decided not to renew it for 2013.  WHY, you ask.  Well my idea is that every month I would go through my collected corresponding months and choose recipes from there to cook.  Recipes are definitely something that are not dated so whether I'm cooking from January 2010 or 2013 isn't going to matter at all.  Another "Use What You Have Idea" that's unique has its own website: www.whencanireusethiscalendar.com. So should you happen to have a calendar from 1991 lying around that you didn't use 2013 is your year!!
     We recently discovered that our credit union had two different rewards programs.  Thankfully the credit union, that we've been using for over 15 years, credited us with 6 months of points when we joined this program.  What surprised us with this program is that it rewards points for using your checking debit card like many of the credit card programs.  We've already earned two $100 Lowe's gift cards!  So be sure that you are taking advantage of all that your banking institution has to offer
     I'm not sure what we'll try new in 2013 but hopefully there will be more money in savings than we started off with.