I could never leave the 5s in my wallet. I would have to actually take them to the bank right away. That's two Red Bulls!

I could never leave the 5s in my wallet. I would have to actually take them to the bank right away. That's two Red Bulls!

Oooo I really need to try this! I have been trying to save money but I always end up spending it on clothes or shoes. I need more discipline.

that's a pretty smart way to do it! i could never leave them in my wallet either- i'd have to at least store them out of sight at home. i wanted to start a vacation fund- maybe i'll do it this way!

I'd need a big Sparkletts water bottle or something, but what a great idea.

Damn.

I tend to spend 5s first--they're the perfect denomination for a doughnut and a soda at 7-11.

i love that idea. for a while i was allowing myself to spend only $10 a day and then whatever was left over from that $10 i would save and i realized that i could accrue quite the sum if i was good a being aware of spending.

i really do like that idea though, and i might have to try it.

I really like this idea. Requires discipline but it's worth the try.

What a great idea. I should try this

Okay, I just changed 5 ones to a five and will be starting this.

i'm trying it

I don't deal with cash enough to do this, but it's a great idea!

yea, I dont usually have cash but this is a cool idea.

I save ALL my $1 and any change (and any money that falls out in the wash) and we managed to save about $300 in around 3 months

I could totally do this, but my husband would have an issue...maybe in 3 years, I could have 6K...I'll give it a shot!

altlhough prob less than.....cd rates have really been low lately

great idea! def requires discipline but it could be done!

I never use or have or touch cash. Its so dirty.

If you can't save each $5.00 you have then try saving all your coin change. It really does add up at the end of the year.

thats a nifty idea!!

i try to save all my ones, and i spend cash.... though i need to get them out that jar and into an acct... wonder what's in there?

I'm going to try this, but instead of buying a CD, I'll opt for a handbag or shoes.

That would be great if I actually used cash.

OMG! I do this! and I've saved about 8000

Well, the ONLY thing I pretty much deal with is cash because I don't trust the Identity theft thing. Too much of that going on with plastic. So this sounds like a really good plan, and I'd love to try it. What a neat idea! Actually, $1, $5 or loose change will add up quick with discipline.

Wow good for her. That must've had called for much discipline.

Are ya'll kidding me or what? Do we save so little that we can't wrap our brains around saving $5 bills then we are really screwed. Wake up America!!! Our national debt is 9 Trillion dollars and growing by the minute. Google Ron Paul and the Federal Reserve. Please learn that saving and investing money is the only way that we can have a future. Our retirement system is a joke and our Social Security system is bankrupt.....please wake up. If you need any pointers please reply to this and I will be happy to respond.

An interesting idea, except my local Fred Meyer spits out any "cash back" as only fives.

gman11, you're nuts. You focus too much on the number and too little on the content. Our debt as a fraction of our GDP is comparatively moderate compared to just after World War II and no worse than the 1960s.

I'm not saying it's not bad. It sure as hell is, but the world isn't ending... yet.

everybodys said u will save alot i knew that when i was in grade skool

I've done this with one dollar bill by putting all dollar bills
except two into a cigar box and its amazing how fast they mount up.
It average about a $1,000.00 extra for Christmas gifts.

I don't use cash either, but its easy to setup some sort of monthly transfers from checking to savings. That's what I do and it works. I setup a certain amount to take from what I deposit from my paycheck into my savings. I mean sometimes we have to stop and ask ourselves,do we really need that venti frappuccino from Starbucks? That's money saved there if you don't get one. Anyone who thinks money is dirty, i'll gladly take it. LOL.

Great way to save if you can! Around here, fives are used for everything---so I've found that we save easier if we just toss our loose change in a container. It's amazing how much change you lug around without knowing it. Painless way to save and it adds up. Only down side is hauling it to the bank to deposit! lol It gets heavy fast.

I once had someone at a bar tell me to hide a 50 from my paycheck in my wallet pocket. I did, and after spending the whole check was relieved to find the 50. At least I had some drinking money the next day, but it really does work. Some sort of self-psych-out.

that's a good idea !!hahaha

Every time I save, something goes wrong to where I need to dip in my savings....lol 4 real

I save change and 1's. My mom saves all change including dollar coins and other fun stuff. She drives a bus so lots of people try and pay with $2 bills but she trades them and keeps them in a wallet. She's got all kinds of 2$ bills. Including one with blue ink. She also has a 1 that has red ink on it, and off cut. I've never noticed any of that till she told me to really look at my money and sure enough I have some pretty crazy things myself. Granted all that has nothing to do with the article but I don't care. Oh and for the girl that does not know what a CD is, they are not talking about a music CD they are talking about what is now called at some banks as a saving certificate. It's something you put your money into and you can not touch it till the date or time "window" in which they allow you to without getting a penalty. some banks don't care but others do.

We use a different version of this kind of trick! Everyday as we have to use dollar bills, we always keep our change. We try to pay only with bills. Then at the end of the day, we take all our change and put in a very large piggy bank (big jar works too). We did this the first year and had over $2,100 dollars in change!! We took our entire family on a trip to San Francisco (from Alabama), flights & hotel were paid for! Then the next time we waited almost 2 yrs and had enough for a full week in New York only a block from Times Square, flight again was covered! You'll be surprised how quickly it adds up. We have been stashing for over 2 yrs now - saving for a family trip (including the two boyfriends of my daughters lol!) to either Europe or the Carribean! WEEEE!!

I have been doing something similar with pennies. I have been saving pennies for 3 years and so far I have like $5.00

Hey this sounds good to me. I save all my change and cash it in at the end of every year. It generally works out to about $400.
Bank of America also has this thing where every time you use your debit card, it rounds up the balance of your charge to the next dollar and automatically deposits that into a savings account. So, if you charge $7.32 on your debit card, it would deposit the extra .68 into your savings. I like it. That adds up to about $60 per month for me. But I like the idea of this $5 thing and I think I'll give it a try.

i could never do this with $5's. i'd probably save each $100 change i get. duh!!!

...Like Coca-Cola?

Self discipline... so tough!and Gman11, don't forget there are some of us who have only one income, three children and a dead-beat ex!-so saving any amount of money is not impossible but difficult at times, specially when gas prices go up everyday.

il try this for my self, this will be an inspiration.

i do something similar but on a smaller scale. i empty my wallet of all ones every night and put them in a jar. sometimes, if i have a bunch of bills, i add fives too, but when i'm broke towards the end of the paycheck, it's always nice to have a fall back for a mocha or gas money or something. something else i do is only transfer from my savings to checking what i'll need (a roundabout number) so i wont be tempted to spend more when i go shoppin, since i tend to be a bit of an impulse buyer. saves me ALOT!

I am proud of her for doing this and getting a CD. With inflation, if you are not earning money for your money then you are technically losing money. Many people are trying to live beyond their means, get what you can safely afford and save the rest, like this woman. Maybe she should get a Mutual fund? diversify! and buy buy buy while the prices are low, so it will pick up. Ok I am off my finacial soap box. GO save (+earn)!

I am proud of her for doing this and getting a CD. With inflation, if you are not earning money for your money then you are technically losing money. Many people are trying to live beyond their means, get what you can safely afford and save the rest, like this woman. Maybe she should get a Mutual fund? diversify! and buy buy buy while the prices are low, so it will pick up. Ok I am off my finacial soap box. GO save (+earn)!

I couldn't do this because of all the "high maintenance" women in my life.....the vampires...but its a good idea in theory.

I sure can use $12,000 right now but i guess i have to save it first.sweet,its worth a try

Actually, the much better method is that described by glitterhog, which is commonly known as "Pay Yourself First".

Instead of spending and saving what's left (whether that's a five dollar not or some coins), it's much better not to touch that money to begin with. You'll save much more if you set aside a fixed amount. A fixed dollar amount is good, but it's even better to set aside a fixed percentage of your income (assuming it's going to go up over time). Also, try to add any bonuses, etc. you can to this as time goes on. Aim for at least 10% of your income.

Why this is better than saving any notes or coins left over is twofold. Firstly, you don't have to spend anything to save anything. You save automatically before you even spend. Secondly, and even more importantly, you don't have to have the discipline to avoid spending all of that excess money (e.g. the five dollar note).

If you set your banking and investments up right, you can have a percentage of your pay sent to a second account, and you can then have that invested automatically in a mutual fund, for example, once it reaches a certain threshold. All of this can be done automatically.

The rest relies on the second basic principle of money: live within your means. If you're forced to live on 90% of your income, for instance, you will get used to it after a while and before long, you won't miss the 10% you're automatically investing. If you're able to get away with living on 100%+ of your income (at least in the short term), then your lifestyle will adjust accordingly and you'll waste money without even knowing why.

I hope this helps. A very simple (but great!) book on this topic is "The Richest Man in Babylon". "The Millionaire Next Door" is fantastic too.