Tips on Money

Most people think of a money box as being a safe. Perhaps a secret place that they are stashing money for safekeeping and that desperate burglars would never be able to find their way into. My husband and I, however, have a completely different definition of a money box. In our bedroom, sitting on top of my incredibly cluttered dresser, is a nicely gift wrapped shoebox. What's in the box? Money. How much? We haven't a clue. Years ago, we had all of these crazy dreams about weekend getaways or luxurious vacations but had absolutely no money to be able to make those crazy dreams turn into a reality. Anytime we managed to stash a few extra dollars, something would end up happening. We'd need new tires or have an unexpected bill pop up. Those few extra dollars would find their way into someone else's pocket. I was pouting about this concept one evening when my husband came to me with a smile on his face. He said that he'd come up with a great idea that would not only be fun but also make me smile. I had to admit, he had my curiosity piqued.

He suggested that we create our own money box. We'd find an empty box and cut a tiny hole in the top of it. We'd wrap it up and decorate it with whatever creative ideas we could come up with. We would each put money it in whenever we could. Whether it was simply $1 a week, or $20 a week, it didn't matter. Neither one of us was allowed to let the other know how much we'd manage to contribute each week. The only rule was that we had to put something in the money box each and every week. We would designate a time frame for putting cash into the money box, and whatever amount was inside when it was opened was strictly for vacation purposes. If it was a small amount, we would plan a weekend escape. If it happened to be more, perhaps we could begin to plan a more lavish vacation. I was absolutely thrill with this idea. Not only was I shocked that my husband had come up with something so creative and adorable but I knew that it would not be easy to take money back out of the box if we did need it. It was a brilliant idea and we wrapped it
up with the agreement that we would each put $10 in immediately to make the money box official. Hey, at least we knew that we would have $20 in there someday. We also dated the money box for exactly one year from the date we sealed it. Exactly one year later, we sat in the middle of our bed and tore that dusty
money box open. He and I both counted it and discovered that we had more than we had thought we could have managed to save. Though it wasn't enough to take a lavish vacation, managed to take a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas. On our return home, we wrapped up another money box to start all over again. This time, I'm
aiming for Hawaii.