Saving your pennies for a rainy day....

photo credit: Jill Clardy via photopin cc

The laundry machine pays me, does it pay you too?  Really, it does.  For years I have put clothes in the drum and at the end of the cycle I have anything from a few pennies to a few dollars.  My husband says I should be ashamed for laundering money like that and my kids just wander around the house hopelessly looking for that dollar they knew they had put in their pockets.  My laundry “tips” go into a large fishbowl we have in our kitchen.  From there I dig out money for an occasional coffee, water at the gym, last minute popcorn money for school, or anything else that the family may need spare change for. 

The other day I cleaned my desk (it took 6 hours, sigh) and I found my old bank that said “Shoe Fund” on it.  This cute little ceramic bank was given to me years ago by a friend who knew I have a passion for shoes.  It was a great birth day present and for years I have put the spare change that makes its way onto my desk into the little bank.  That is when it hit me.  I should really turn in my shoe fund for a genealogy fund.

Isn’t that a great idea?  I have been walking around the house patting myself on the back while thanking my kids for their contribution to my genealogy obsession.  However, a fishbowl just wasn’t okay anymore.  It is big and anyone could take money out of it. I needed to dress up a new bank and let people know exactly what they were helping mommy pay for.  Can you just imagine the eye rolls?

Thankfully my eldest son just outgrew his shoes, again, in only four months, so I had a fresh shoe box at my disposal.  I know, a shoe-box,  kind of overkill isn't it?  But you use what you can find.  So, that along with some construction paper and I had a brand new money collection device.  It even has a prominent position on my genealogy bookshelf within reach of anyone who wants to contribute.

My youngest told me that I wasn’t allowed to have a money box (cute name huh) without knowing what my goal is and what I am going to do with it.  (Unlike him who gathers loose change like an obsessed hoarder carrying it to his piggy bank to listen to his precious clinking around in it) However, I knew he had a point.  What will I do with my laundry tips?  How will I save and how will I spend it?

My initial list consisted of books, supplies, and dues which sounded all good.  Then, it struck me.  I really, REALLY, want to go to the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) next year and what a better thing to do than start now to save up for all the fees to pay for me to go.  Nothing like a goal to make you squirrel your (and your family’s) pennies away is there?

So....good choice?  Do you think there is something else I should save up for too.  RootsTech is up there on my list, but I can't drive to it like I could GRIP.  A flip-pal is still on my want list as well.  I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts.