Lunch money

That was the name of my ING savings account.

I set it up a few years back and each month it would deduct $25 from our checking account and put into a different non-accessible-by-me-unless-on-the-computer-and-then-only-three-days-later account.

This account built up a pretty nice nest egg. I am not sure what if anything I ever envisioned using it for. But as of today the account has roughly $26.30. I have dipped into this account several times over the last few months to pay our credit cards in the months that they have been higher than normal.

Saving is not hard, and in many ways its pain free. I never missed this $25 since I never saw it and never had to do anything with it. I set the account up years ago when the banks were offering high interest rates, but now that times are different the premise is still a strong one. And when our "challenging times" end, I will resume the deduction.

Save WHATEVER amount you think you can each month, $5, $25, $50..whatever works for your budget. Then when you really NEED it, it will be there. Were it not for this savings we would have had a harder time staying debt free over these last 9 months.

A final note, this savings is different than our normal savings account. I can and will talk more about that later. The purpose of a savings account like this is to give a little cushion or bounce when you need it if unexpected things come up.