Last year was my first time going to the Stampin’ Up! Convention and I am so looking forward to going again this summer.
I love a challenge and have decided to challenge myself to follow a savings plan where I make a small increase to the weekly amount I set aside. I figure I have about 6 months to save up a nice chunk of money to cover airfare, hotel, meals and um…SHOPPING!
Download my little Excel spreadsheet to see how easy it is to gradually “turn up the heat” on your savings plan. Have you heard the old adage about how if you put a lobster in a pot of cold water and gradually turn up the heat…he’ll just go um peacefully to sleep? Or something like that. I have never been able to bring myself to cook a live lobster.
Anyway, here is how my spreadsheet works.
- Enter a small dollar amount into the pink box on the spreadsheet. You could try $1.00 or $2.00. As soon as you change the amount in the pink box, all the rest of the calculations automagically update.
- Scroll down to the last line (which is week 27, around 6 months from now) and see if that will be enough to cover your expenses for the convention. Adjust the dollar amount in the pink box if it seems too low or too high.
- The spreadsheet tells you how much you need to save each week to reach your goal.
- Mark on a calendar which day you will either take the cash out of your wallet or transfer to a special bank account. Discipline will be the key to success.
An alternative could be to go “backwards” saving the larger amount at the beginning and decreasing the amount you save each week.
Here’s the link to the spreadsheet – you will need Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheet to use it.