Married, pregnant, living with ma and pa

My grandpa told me to “pay myself first” in order to save. But Mark and I have saved not a darn thing in the first six months of our marriage, due to spotty employment, or total lack thereof. Pay yourself first? More like feed yourself first, pay your bills late, and then spend the rest on $3 wine. Or just drink wine you pick up off the street.

I started this blog so I could write about saving. Instead, I’ve written a lot about desperation, deal gittin’ and being cheap. So desperate were we, we returned a $600 TV he won and spent the money on food and bills. We were next in line for gov’mt cheese when I got a job at a temp agency that saved us from total government reliance.

I know I’m lucky now to have a job and a man with a job in this economy. And fingers crossed and knocking on wood, this fine month of May marks the spring of our financial rebirth. This will be the first month of our marriage with full-time pay checks, two each.

To commemorate the occasion, I’ve added our joint bank account to my existing ING Direct account. I like having this online account; it has a high interest rate for a savings account; is less accessible to us, with no bank card to prevent ATM use; and I’ve used it in the past to save a little bit. Now we want to use it to save a lot. We will be stashing a quarter of our income in there by setting up an automated deposit monthly. It will be relatively easy, if I can control my passion for fashion; we’ve been living a Spartan existence anyhow.

So finally, I can do what my Southern grandpa told me when I asked him for advice a few months ago. The cardinal rule of saving, he told me, is this: pay yourself first. ie, put money in savings before you can get your grubby little hands on it. So passionate was he, he clipped a newspaper article from the Shreveport Times, highlighted this phrase, and drew an arrow to it along with the penned notation “Most important thing!” Then he put the newspaper article in the mail along with a note he typed to me on a typewriter about investing and saving.

We should really listen to our grandfathers. They have learned a thing or two from the last Great Depression.

Once our coffers fill up a bit, I’ll also look into investment options, a topic I know absolutely nothing about. Anyone have any tips?

Kitty grrl can't get her fur back like you can't getcha money back once you spend it on stupid shit. Kitty grrl says: pay yerself first