#2 – “Go a full year without buying new clothes…” – LearnVest

#3 – Work out. You have no excuse when all you need is a wall. – Self

#4 – Do a little bit of work now and be the rest of the year. Automate your savings contributions (and your bills). – DailyWorth

#5 – Keep learning. – TED & NYTimes Crossword Puzzle

#6 – Get rid of negativity for $1 and enjoy stronger relationships with others and yourself. – Neil Strauss (see pg. 18)

 #7 – Take control of your life. – iwillteachyoutoberich.com

This month, Tara hosted the monthly Saving Club meeeting and used the date as a deadline to clean out her house of unused and excessive stuff. Inspired by an article on how “stuff” can “own” you, and additionally encouraged by the fact that having less stuff allows you to have fewer decisions each day, Tara got rid of clothes, accessories, makeup, shoes, books, kitchenware, totchkes and more. And the fellow club members had new (to them) items to take home!

Cara built on that philosophy by not buying gifts for club members and instead taking photos of the gifts she would have bought. After all, it’s the thought that counts. And this way, there’s no clutter!

Amanda did a lot of her online shopping via Upromise portals and gets 5% or more cash back (via 800+ online stores; 10,000+ dining restaurants, 21,000+ grocery and drug stores) to go toward her student loan debt. Cash back can also be used to start a 529 plan for kids or your own continuing education. And you can get family and friends to link to the account so their bonus can also go toward your Upromise rewards.

We all reminded ourselves to use credit card portals to do online shopping as well. Discovercard also gives 5 percent cashback bonus (sometimes 10 percent) if you log in to your account first, head to ShopDiscover, and then click through to sites like Amazon, iTunes and more.

Denver Financial Planning Day

Saturday, October 13, 2012
9:00 am – 2:00 pm
North High School

City of Denver and the Financial Planning Association of Colorado invite you to attend Denver Financial Planning Day on Saturday, October 13, 2012 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the North High School, where you’ll be able to meet one-on-one with dozens of professional financial planners to discuss your personal finance questions, concerns and interests.

Information will be provided on a pro-bono basis by experts from the Financial Planning Association and highly qualified CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. There are no strings attached – volunteering financial planners will not pass out business cards, marketing materials or sell products or services.
www.financialplanningdays.org/denver

www.letsmakeaplan.org
www.cofpa.org

Step by step, here’s how we started our club. Feel free to tweak and offer suggestions for other gals!

1. Make a list of gals you think would be interested. The more diversity, the better! It’s interesting to hear from women in different stages in their lives — the better able to equip you with experiences that you might encounter, or the better able for you to offer up your personal experience to someone else! Aim to have about eight in the club — you don’t want it too big, otherwise it can get a little unmanageable.

2. Send them an e-mail. Here’s some sample copy:
“I’ve been struck by a little bit of practical inspiration and have decided to start a Women’s Savings Club.

What is a Women’s Savings Club, you might ask? Well, it’s a bit like this: Let’s take the feel of a book club, toss in a dash of smarts from investment clubs and add our own little money-conscious twist for…Women’s Saving Club! We’re sending this to you not because we think you’re a spendthrift and need to sock away some money for retirement, but because you’re a cool gal with ambition, initiative and an inclination toward sustainability, and we could all learn something from you.

Here’s how it will work, though I’m open to other ideas:

• Meet monthly at a club member’s house!
• Everyone brings appetizers/drinks made from things that have been in your pantry/fridge/freezer forever.
• Pick an item to trade each time – magazines, books, CDs, accessories, (other ideas here) — and everyone brings those items and trades. Or…pick a craft to do — like bringing old cards, sharing and re-making them into a year’s supply of birthday cards. Or… ??
• We’ll pick a topic to discuss, research it prior to meeting and then come to work on it together. Besides a constant theme of sharing savings ideas and tools to use (e.g. smartypig.com and mint.com), other potential themes on our agenda can include banks with high CD rates, setting up an e-Trade account, how to refinance your house/second home, where to sell your old wedding dress, umbrella insurance policies and basically anything we’re interested in at the moment!
• To participate, you have to set your own financial/saving goal. Starting with the first club meeting, you’ll share the goal, and then as we progress we’ll offer updates toward reaching our goals!
• Not only will we be mini financial experts, but we’ll be supporting and educating each other. We’ll then grow up to be smart, savvy girlfriends, wives, daughters and mothers!
• Please RSVP. If you can make it, great. If you can’t make it, but are still interested, please note that. If you’re not interested or if this isn’t the right time for you, that’s fine too, just let us know.

Sincerely,
Your Name Here”

3. Once you have a group of committed gals, set some ground rules. Here are ours: Women’s Savings Club Overview (Word doc).

4. Have your first meeting! (Might also be good to always have a set date to meet. We meet the third Tuesday of the month!) Sample agenda:

• 6:30-6:45 Catch up/eat
• 6:45-7:15 Goal Update (remember to bring your written goals)
• 7:15-7:45 How have you made money work for you, how do you want money to work for you? (Good examples/experiences with investing, saving, IRA, 401K tricks, etc. Katie and I will kick off the discussion and everyone feel free to jump in.)
• 7:45-8:15 Resource Sharing: Blog, Christy explains her budget, Kathryn resources, and I think some gals have some others
• 8:15-8:30 Next steps/Wrap up/Swap CDs

Also, ask your club members to come up with topics of interest of them to kick off the discussion. It’s helpful to send the topic in advance of the meeting so that club members can spend some time thinking about it. Need help starting to think of topics? Click here. 

5. At each meeting, appoint someone to be the notetaker to help document each gal’s progress toward their goals. Click here for a sample goal tracking spreadsheet.

6. Last, but not least, tell us when you’ve started a club! We want to be sure to offer you cool, new tips and exciting news as we go along this money-saving experiment.

We’ve learned so much from the gals in our club and know you’ll learn from your friends. Plus, we’re here if you ever need ideas, inspiration or want to chat. WomensSavingClub@gmail.com

Oh yeah, be sure to have fun! Happy saving together!

“…women are approaching philanthropy on two fronts: by developing programs that help them become better, more strategic philanthropists, and by joining charitable ventures dedicated to addressing issues facing women and girls…”

http://www.deboskeygroup.com/pdfs/Women%20and%20Philanthropy.pdf

Savers, what are your thoughts? Would you rather buy your trip on layaway or do you have a separate savings account dedicated to vacations?

Liz’s has borrowed Amanda’s book, How to Train a Wild Elephant: And other Adventures in Mindfulness, and has started a weekly practice of becoming more mindful in her life. Her awesome idea was to put a little one-word reminder of the mindfulness exercise on her vanity mirror to help keep her focused.

Another suggested resource: The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms. From Amazon.com: “Life balance is a myth, and the pursuit of it is causing us more stress than the craving for balance itself.”

A side discussion on “what caused the mortgage crisis again?” led us to this book, which we’ll now be passing around. The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

And…girls, I’m sorry, but I guess we can’t be Wonder Woman. Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. But I suppose boys can’t be Superman, either. Counter article: Men Can’t Have It All, Either.

Which makes us need a drink. Our favorite libation of the evening? Lobster Reef Sauvignon Blanc.