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Take the Savings Pledge And Promote Military Savings

by Kimber Green

Military SavesMilitary Saves Week 2015 is February 23-28 and is a great time to assess your military savings plan. This is a weeklong initiative of the DoD’s Financial Readiness Campaign to promote military savings within the military community with thousands of businesses participating. Events are being held on military installations around the world during this time to help service members set a goal, make a plan and save automatically. Installations, organizations and businesses will be promoting positive military savings and offering opportunities to learn how to save and build wealth, not debt.

The campaign aims to motivate service members to save a portion of each paycheck, develop a personal financial plan, establish good credit and enroll in programs such as: Thrift Savings Plan, Savings Deposit Program and Group Life Insurance to encourage military savings. Banks, credit unions and financial services organizations are all participating by offering special deals and information sessions during this time to help educate the community about the importance of military savings.

Take the Savings Pledge During Military Saves Week

Military Saves slogan is “Start Small, Think Big.”

Many military installations will be offering workshops and seminars. If you’re stationed at Darby Military Community, Italy, you could learn about military savings while shopping. “Take an adventure in learning basic thrift and savings skills while shopping. The outing includes trips to several consignment and second-hand stores in Livorno and Stagno.” Yep, you win.

Whether you go on an awesome outing in Italy, sit in on a financial savings seminar in Jacksonville or simply scroll through militarysaves.org, you’ll be taking a step in the right direction of moving toward better savings.

So how do you actually save money?

It all starts with making a plan and a commitment to stick to it. You don’t have to be tough on yourself and pinch pennies; make a savings plan that is easy to follow and realistic. It’s easier to have short goals, such as saving $10 a week, rather than telling yourself you need $500 by the end of the year for an emergency fund. This is exactly what I thought of when I read their slogan: Start Small, Think Big. Not only is it catchy, but it’s a great way to look at savings. Many people become intimidated by the big picture and don’t know how or where to start.

You could begin by visiting their website. It offers tips and strategies for saving, lists events hosted on each base and has a long list of resources. Then sit down with your spouse and discuss what your savings goals should be and if you would like to attend an event or make an appointment to speak with a financial counselor. Each step you take strengthens your financial future and having healthy finances and an open line of communication are key to reaching that goal.

Related: 3 Easy Ways to Spend Less Money in 2015

Include children in this week’s activities as well. Military Youth Saves is a program designed to motivate children and teenagers to develop good savings habits early. It teaches them to create their own savings plan and to save a little bit of money each month to reach a goal. This is a great time to start a piggy bank or open a savings account for your child.

Take the Savings Pledge During Military Saves Week

Don’t pinch pennies; pick up loose change! It really adds up.

Be a good role model. Whether you know it or not, your children are watching and learning from what you do. If you drop your loose change in the piggy bank by the door, sooner or later they’ll start snatching up loose coins too and putting them in their piggy banks. Show them that saving money for the future is important.

If you’re on a tight budget, you might think it’s hard to start a military savings plan, but it is possible. Military Saves Week can give you the tools you need to make it happen. It’s up to you to take advantage of them. Take the Savers Pledge and start saving today.

Take the Savings Pledge During Military Saves Week

Military Saves Week activities teach service members and their families to build wealth, not debt.

What events are going on at your installation for Military Savings Week? Have you taken the Savers Pledge? Tell us in the comments section.

Reduce the Festive Debt: 6 Ways to Not Overspend During the Holidays

by Julie Provost

The holiday shopping season is here!  Whether we like it or not, military families need to start thinking about the holidays. This time of year can be really stressful for people, especially if you are on a tight budget. So what can you do about it?

reduceChristmasdebt

6 Ways to Avoid Overspending During the Holiday Season

  1. Write out your budget and stick to it. I do this ever year. I write out everything we need to purchase from what we will eat on Christmas Day to the teacher’s gifts. On this list, I write down a spending limit on each gift for everyone. Then, when it is time to go shopping, I know what my budget is. The amount you spend on each member of your family will be different for everyone depending on your income and budget.
  2. Share a meal with friends. When you are a military family it might not be feasible to spend the holidays with extended family. Instead of having a meal for just your family, why not get together with others to make a meal together? You won’t have to buy every single ingredient and you will be able to save a little money that way. It is also nice to spend time with friends if you can’t be with your family during the holidays.
  3. Shop the sales. When it comes to buying presents for my kids I am all about the sales. I start checking them early. I want to be able to find the things I want for a discounted rate. I can save a lot of money this way, it just takes some time to figure out which stores have what toys on sale and when they are offering their discounts. You might also consider layaway. This is when you save an item at the store and pay a little bit on it each time you go in. You can take it home when you have paid for it in full. This might be a much better option than putting something on a credit card and trying to pay it off after Christmas. Check if your favorite stores offer this plan.
  4. Make homemade gifts. You can bake some yummy goodies and give those out at gifts too. It is really cost-effective to do this and can be a lot of fun. Most people really enjoy baked goods around this time of year so you can’t go wrong there. If you don’t like to bake but are crafty, there are a lot of different things you can make as gifts. Take a look at the MilitaryShoppers Pinterest boards for ideas.
  5. Stay home. For the past several years we have not gone anywhere for the holidays. The price of airfare is way too high. It would really blow our budget. We have been able to have a nice family Christmas in our own home and it has been great. Our kids wake up in their own home and we don’t have to go anywhere all day long.  This isn’t always an option for everyone but there is something nice about a simple Christmas at home and it will save you a lot of money in travel expenses.
  6. Pick a name. My family is quite small so we don’t do this but I think it would be a good idea for large families. Out of all the adults in the family, you buy a present for 1 person. You get assigned a name and you buy for that 1 person. It can be a fun way of giving for Christmas without having to buy something for every single person in your family.christmas, holidays, technology and shopping concept

The holidays can be a stressful time but they don’t have to be. Try some of these tips to keep your budget under control during this time of year. You will be thankful you did when the credit card statements arrive in January.

What are your tips for reducing debt and spending less during the holiday season?

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