Where Did All My Money Go?

Rachel had had enough. As in, E.N.O.U.G.H.

On the outside, she appeared bubbly and full of energy.

On the inside, she felt like a failure. Riddled with guilt and shame.

She was also a single Mum bringing up two teenage boys. And to support them, she worked long hours in a gift shop she’d owned for about five years. That’s the good bit.

Here’s the bad bit. She was on the verge of breaking a promise she vowed she wouldn’t break. A promise she thought would make her a better Mum.

It’s was as simple as this.

The previous Christmas she was unable to take her boys on a week’s holiday because she was strapped for cash and couldn’t get away from the business. The same thing happened the year before and she swore it wouldn’t happen again, and then it did.

By the time her boys returned to school, she was absolutely gutted. She hadn’t spent any time with them. At one stage, she even wished she didn’t have custody of her children. She felt that low. A complete failure.

The Treadmill
By the time we met in August 2014, Rachel was at her wits end. It was only four months until Christmas and she was afraid history was about to repeat itself all over again.

However, letting her boys down again wasn’t her only pain. She felt incredibly frustrated that the business was making decent money but she had nothing to show for it. More layers of shame.

Importantly, Rachel wasn’t going backwards either. She was just stuck on a treadmill. Like most people, especially parents, she was just focused on getting through the weeks, one at a time.

Unfortunately, the weeks quickly morphed into months and on this occasion, she only had four left.

It was time to get off the treadmill!

The Circuit Breaker
“If you had the money right now, where would you go for a weeks holiday and what would you fill your week with?” I asked.

All of a sudden, her smile reappeared and her face had some colour in it.

Turns out, her idea of a holiday was a simple one. She just wanted a week away near the beach because her boys loved the water! And if she could go jet skiing, paddle boarding, snorkelling, swimming and grab an ice cream on the way home, that would be fab!

Also, if she didn’t feel like cooking at night, she wanted to know she could take the boys out for dinner and not worry about the right hand side of the menu.

No wonder she felt so disappointed about last year. Who wouldn’t want at least a week of that! (I’ll take two thanks).

So, I asked Rachel how much she thought it would cost and straight away she said, approx. $4,500. [$2,000 accommodation, $2,100 spending ($300 per day), $200 fuel].

I was shocked. If she knew the cost, why hadn’t she done anything?

Her answer had something to do with bills constantly coming in and never having enough left over at the end of the month.

I asked if she had a savings account especially set up to save for a holiday to which she answered ‘no’. She said it was very hard to save any money as a single Mum.

It was a fair comment but that wasn’t going to get her a holiday either. It was time for a bit of tough love (so to speak).

Breaking it Down
My first recommendation was to set up a separate bank TODAY, strictly for holiday savings only.

Then I looked at my calendar and did a few sums:
1. $4,500 divided by 16 (the number of weeks until Christmas) = $281 pw
2. $281 divided by 6 (the number of days per week her shop was open) = $48 pd

Then I popped the question…

Do you think you could save $48 a day until Christmas?

Rachel wasn’t sure, so I asked if she’d be willing to give it a go because I thought it was very doable. It meant saving approx. $1,100 per month. For some reason that number resonated with her.

As soon as she said ‘YES’, an explosion of ideas went off in her head and for the next ten minutes she scribbled down all her thoughts. Ideas that had probably been there for years!

I also scribbled down something else for her to think about…

“When a decision is made, providence moves too”

She liked that.

Mum On A Mission
By the time the meeting finished, she had that twinkle in her eye that said, “I can do this!”

She made a heap of changes at work and home and got a stack of stuff organised that had been her ball and chain for ages. She was a Mum on a mission! (And you know what that looks like don’t you! Like a loveable hurricane).

We also agreed she had to send me a text every day of how much she’d saved. Sometimes it was more than $48, sometimes it was less.

The days and dollars began to accumulate nicely.

Her most rewarding moments were at night when she got home. Her boys would greet her with, “Hey Mum! How much did you save today?

They were her support group, and super proud of her. Always had been. They were also the wind beneath her wings and she soared like an eagle for four months because of them.

We had a follow up meeting one month after she started the plan where I shared another idea with her but she baulked at it. She liked the look of it but she wasn’t sure if she could do it.

The weeks flew by, but unfortunately Rachel’s text messages were not what I thought they were. She was not saving what she was telling me.

At the end of week sixteen, she hadn’t saved $4,500 at all. Instead she’d saved $18,400!

I kid you not.

Webinar – ‘Savings for Life’
If you would like to learn more about what Rachel did, I will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, September 18, at 7pm. It’s free.

The purpose of the webinar is to ‘guinea pig’ an idea I have been working on for some time. You will have the opportunity to see what I showed Rachel plus the opportunity to participate in a ‘boot camp’ if you would like to save some extra cash between now and Christmas.

Please note – this is not about budgeting, it’s about saving. I will show you the difference in the webinar.

If you would like to join me, please register here.

The only cost will be 30 minutes of your time, plus the chance to turn your piggy bank into a biggy bank! Feel free to invite a friend to if you like. You can fatten your pigs together. ;

Have a great weekend!

Adam

Back Paddock – unfortunately there wasn’t a Moowsletter last week but if there was, I would have included this ‘Daggy Dad’ joke for Father’s Day.

Q: Why was 6 scared of 7?

A: Because 7,8,9.