How much money do you save?

When I was 34 (two years ago) I couldn’t scrape up 100 bucks if my life depended on it. These days, I’m in much better financial condition. Two years ago, I decided to make saving money a priority and now I manage to save $600 per month. I stopped throwing away money on crap and have become somewhat frugal. I’m curious as to what other people try to save each month and how they do it (automatic deduction, savings bonds, etc). I buy one 100 savings bond per month and the rest goes into an ING savings account.

I wasn’t saving any money either, until a few years ago (unless you count the 401K plans at various jobs). Then my mom sat me down and showed me just how close to being on the street I was.

I now save $1250 a month by automatic deduction from my paycheck into a money market account that I can’t easily access. I never see the money, so I’m not tempted to spend it. I’ve built up a good balance, and I’ve even gotten to the point where I don’t spend all the money I make every month like I used to do (I have a serious book addiction). Now even my easy-to-access, everyday account has a good balance. Even better, with the exception of my mortgage I am debt free. It helps that I only have me and my cats to support, but in this day and age (and economy), in NJ, this is still no mean feat.

I probably save about $1500 each month. Five hundred gets sucked out automatically into my savings account, and the rest sits around for months in my checking account until I decide to either throw it at my mortgage or money market account. I also have the standard IRA deduction. I’m horrible at organizing my money.

The sad truth is that I have no life or S.O. on which to spend my money, and I never seem to go on vacations. So it’s either buy useless stuff I don’t really need or save it.