Once you get the savings habit, you tend to stick with it. Getting started, though, can be tough. You did your homework on the big stuff: you shopped around to find dental plans you could afford, you signed up for prescription drug discounts; maybe you even shopped for an online mortgage to get a great rate. Beyond discount dental plans, you can find other smart ways to save, like making savings a game. Only with these games, everyone wins.
Savings Is A Game
Save for a common goal. You want a nice family vacation; your spouse wants central air conditioning. Aunt Tillie, who lives with you, wants new carpeting. Your whole family can work together to decide priorities, then everyone in the family saves for the same thing.
The key here, says The Fortunate Investor, is that everyone benefits from the savings. The goal can be short-term (next summer’s vacation) or long-term (cushier retirement), but everyone gets a piece of the pie.
Take a tip from “gamified learning” and turn something prosaic–saving money–into a fun game for all income-earners in the family. Look at percentages saved, not total amounts. Say your spouse earns more than you do, but only saves 10 percent of her discretionary income. You can best her by saving 15 percent of yours, even if it is a smaller dollar amount.
How to Play: Include adult children still living at home, extended family members living under your roof; everybody who pitches in on income can play. Every saver kicks in an ante toward the prize pot–as little as $1 or as much as you all decide.
Only play with discretionary money–never risk the rent or mortgage money, for example. Even if you only have $30 for the week as your discretionary money, you can still save and win.
Decide on a time frame, usually based on pay cycles. At the beginning of the game, everyone shows their discretionary money. At the end of the game, tally how much each player has left, which is savings. That savings gets pooled toward the family goal, but the “winner” gets the pot.
Sure, some family members may game the system, but all that does is increase the savings toward the common goal. Everybody wins.
The Jar
This widely known savings game mostly pits family earners against one another in a good way. Though many sites mention it, the version at Fabulously Frugal sets it out fairly clearly:
Agree on the goal: park admission tickets to Disney World; theater tickets; Aunt Tillie’s electric blanket–whatever is a bit beyond the already tight budget but is a worthwhile goal
- Every $5 bill any earner gets in change goes in the jar, no exceptions
- At the end of a year or two (you pick the time), count your cash; the amount of interest lost by not depositing it is minimal, while the sense of accomplishment is huge
How does this become a family game? Each earner gets a jar. Since the goal is common to all, the honor system works to keep anyone moving money from one jar to the other, or from tapping the jars for ready cash.
Gamemaster
Extend gamified savings to weekly spending. Everyone buys groceries; each week, a different adult family member is challenged to use sales circulars to spend the least while getting the most number of needed items from the grocery list.
So, for example, if the grocery list has 50 items and Aunt Tillie uses coupons and sales to spend $150, she got a unit cost of $3; next week, your spouse works from a list of 75 items the next week and also spends $150, so her unit cost was only $2. Your spouse wins that round.
When savings becomes a game–competitive, cooperative, or both–your whole family wins.
For more ways to save on dental and health care, contact us at DentalSave today.
