GREENSBORO, N.C. — The coin jar is pretty common. Most of us have one at home. It takes a very long time for it to amount to anything unless you add a twist to it.
“I never spend a dollar bill. It's kinda like a game. It's a great way to save money. Say, for instance, you have a $2 item. I give them a $10 bill. I put the five dollar bill back in my wallet and I put the three single dollars into savings,” said Mike.
I dipped into my own wallet and found a $20 bill and seven single-dollar bills. If I follow Mike's "never spend a dollar bill" savings plan, I have enough to buy lunch from the money in my jar. But Mike says his system is bigger than that.
In fact, he's taking a vacation with the money he's saved.
“If you save every dollar, dollar bill that is and you don't spend it and you put it back, you have money at the end of the year to take vacation or fun things with it,” said Mike.
This could be your answer to the money for Christmas or a weekend getaway.
Obviously, this only works if you carry cash and use it on a somewhat consistent basis. If that's not you, there’s another savings idea for you, it’s called the 52-week savings challenge.
Every week, you transfer the dollar amount of whatever week of the year it is into your savings account.
So--week one. A dollar.
By the middle of the year, the 26th week, you put in $26 that week. The last week of the year, you put in $52.
If you did this 52-week challenge all year, you'd save $1,378 in total.
You can pick it right up in the middle. We're in week 42. If you did this challenge just to the first week of December, you'd have $315 saved to spend on Christmas.