Money

Money, or the lack thereof, is on everybody's mind these days. How to get it, how to keep it, how to manage it, how to save it. We all have the same problems with it to one degree or another.


Anyway, last fall I was reading a story on the Internet about a woman that started keeping her $5 bills. She put them in an envelope and when she got $50 in 5's she would put them in a savings account. When her saving account balance got to $1,000 she bought Certificates of Deposit to get as much interest as she could. To make a long story short at the end of three years this woman had managed to grow her $5 bills into $12,000!!


That story spoke to me so I started saving my $5 bills. I am not sure when I started saving them but at Christmas time I had enough to totally get me through the holiday. Which was a good thing because we took about 7 weeks off last fall and when I say off, I mean NO paycheck coming my way.


While I was in La Crosse last fall, I noticed that my Credit Union has what they call an "add on CD". You can open one for only $100 and add to it throughout the year. That is what I decided to do with my $5 bills. I must say that saving my $5 bills has been mostly painless, but I also admit that when I get change from a twenty that includes 3 5s instead of a 10 and a 5, I do have mixed feelings. But on the bright side, since the first of the year I have managed to put away almost $700 and it is really, really FUN to see that balance add up! Not bad for my pile of Lincoln's!!