Recap from my last post:

Assuming a $1,000 initial deposit and .46% interest rate on a CD... I need to save $500/month to have $22,000 saved on my 30th birthday.



I used to contribute 15% of my paycheck to my 401k, but if I cut it to 6% (the maximum my employer matches), I can invest 9% ($180/month) into this savings CD. That leaves $320/month to save. Say I save an average of $30/month with grocery & credit rewards cards, that leaves $290/month to find someplace.



Plus, WILDCARD, I live in a seasonal working environment, so I don't have any idea where $500 will come from some months.



Another wildcard (and this goes against my goal, but it's something I REALLY want and that I think will make me immensely happier), I REALLY want to move into my own 1-bedroom apartment when my lease here is up at the end of September) and we'll assume that that will cost me an extra $350/month.



Anyway, some 1-time ways to save or make $$$

-Make more of a game out of coupon-clipping. Not really a 1-time event, but maybe I can average an extra $10 or $15 of coupon savings.

-A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a new bank account that's supposed to pay me a $250 bonus in another 5 1/2 months.

-Collecting loose change. Can I save $300 in coins in a year? Challenge accepted?

-Eat the food I already own. Use the spices I already have instead of buying a 4th jar of cinnamon. Chew the 3 dozen packs of gum I've already bought

-Bonuses & tax returns automatically go into the savings account. So does interest that the account earns.

-Continue looking for free samples of things. I'm purposely not trying here though because there's 4 of us sharing a mailbox and I don't want to annoy the other 3 with the box being inundated with "junk" mail for me.

-More funneling of savings into the account- things bought with employee discount, things bought on sale. Sometimes this might be harder to keep track of (aka the grocery store slaps a sale price label on something, but the receipt doesn't track the original price / what I saved).

-Donating things I no longer need/want to maximize tax return.

-My employer will pay me for 40 hours of volunteering- perhaps I can manage to find a way to squeak that into my savings.

-Pay myself $1 every time I meet one of my other goals on this site

-This winter I live on the free bus route, so I won't be buying the $150 parking pass that I did the last 4 winters. I'm also saving gas, but we'll skip figuring that one out.

-"Skip the raise" (if/when I get one)

-Skimming the extra $ in my checking account off and into my CD

From a Facebook post I wrote earlier tonight

"Just to depress myself, I found a calculator online that said if I locked $1,000 in a CD tonight, earning .46% (bank's current CD rate), compounded monthly, and I wanted to have 200K for a down payment on my 30th birthday; I'd need to sock away $4,700/month.

^Hahahaha, that's more than I even make each month."



I live in a ski resort area, so my dream of owning a home seems impossible because a lot of places are half a million or more.



If I can manage to save $500/month, in 3.5 years I'll have $22,000 which seems like it's not even worth it, but I know it is. $22,000 is definitely a lot of money, but that's not even 10% of a cheap house here.



I'm actually pretty good at saving already, but I don't want to deprive myself either- I enjoy visiting national parks and taking photos and hiking and it's 300x better if there's a waterfall involved. Unfortunately, camping is pretty expensive-$20/night is pretty common, although I know you can also camp for free on national forest land a lot of places, but sometimes that sketches me and/or my mom out.



$500 is actually a lot to save each month for me. I make $2,000/month... then put 6% in for my employer 401k match (I used to put in 15%) and then taxes get taken out... Then I need $1,700 in my bank account on the first of every month to pay rent (I have a roommate and we split it in half, but I'm the one that writes the check).



If I automatically put 9% of my paycheck into a savings account, that's $180. So $320 still needs to come from somewhere. I use a rewards card at the grocery store and have 2 credit cards that I use to take advantage of their rewards, but that's nowhere close to $3,800/month. It looks like I'll have saved $200 THIS YEAR on rewards from grocery store & credit cards. And I've saved $150 of change (not sure since when). So, $290/month still needs to come from somewhere. Oh, and the great part is- working in the ski industry is a very seasonal thing- I'm not going to make $2,000/month year-round- some months I'll make less. This is all so discouraging and I just want to give up now. At least I got a $500 bonus at work back in April. I can make $300/month if I work 25 extra hours a month at a 2nd job (17 hours if I'm babysitting). Maybe this is doable- MAYBE. Perhaps I could finally make a tiny bit of money selling some of my photography work too- ha, good luck self.