Tuesday, October 5, 2010

One Woman's Junk is Another Woman's Contribution to the CL Jar!!

I have seen the term "snowflaking" referred to on other blogs but wasn't entirely sure what it meant. I thought perhaps it was a different spin on "snowballing" a strategy Gail Vaz-Oxlade uses in paying down debt. Pick the debt with the highest interest to pay down first while maintaining minimum payments on the other debts. When the highest interest debt is paid off combine, or "snowball", that payment into the next highest interest debt and get it paid off, then add that payment...well you get the picture.

So I googled "snowflaking" and came across a post by Matt at One Million and Beyond that explained the concept.

"The idea of snowflaking is pretty straightforward in that any extra money that you save or make is applied to a financial goal right away regardless of the amount."

Well I am proud to say that today we "snowflaked" (can I use it as a verb??) A few days ago my partner brought home 2 boxes of old LPs that a friend of his was going to give to Goodwill and today he exchanged them for $70.00!!!  We immediately socked the money away in the Crofter's Lane Jar. We hope to...or should I say we PLAN to have enough money for gas and motel to and from PEI next summer for which we would need approximately $500-$600.

Stay tuned....

Have: $209.20              Need: $600.00

So over 1/3 of the way there!!
P.S. can anyone tell me the secret to making those financial goal bar graphy things in their sidebars??

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your snowflakes, at the moment I hav,nt time to sell anything or work any extra hours and so no snowflakes for me, although I do throw all my spare change into a large jar with miscellanious ( definitely not the right spelling ) written on it.

    But after the Wedding is over I will be selling on ebay again and hopefully will be able to pick up a few extra hours at work, any snowflakes earned will go towards my debt.

    By the way Jane The Wedding is on the 14th November.

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  2. Putting loose change in a jar is snowflaking. So is switching from having a regular latte to just a cup of coffee, or borrowing DVDs from the library for free instead of renting. Any little economy that is a change in our regular spending pattern is a snowflake.
    So you're snowflaking even though you think you're NOT!
    You must be getting excited about the wedding Maureen but there are so many expenses aren't there? Now that my daughter is 20 and has had a steady boyfriend for 2 years I'm thinking I just start a Wedding Jar! Too many jars!!

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  3. Jane,
    Congratulations on your "snowflaked"
    We also snowflake along with other bloggers. It can add up fast.
    Some people just can't be bothered to do the extra work for some easy money. I was given a lot of bestselling books by someone who just didn't want them hanging around anymore.(They use to throw them out. Crazy or what) I read what I liked and sold the rest for cash.
    Half I snowflaked and the rest I gave to the food bank.

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  4. I never thought about selling books and DVDs on Amazon before until I started reading other people's personal finance blogs. What a fantastic idea!! I am looking at everything I own in a different light now...thinking...how much could I get for those old CDs...hmmmm...$$$

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  5. It's absolutely a blog o verb :-)
    I can send you an email of my bar instructions (which I received from another blogger) if you like mine. drop a line to joliereves at yahoo dot com and throw 'progress bars' in the subject title.

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