There’s budgeting, and then there’s saving. Both are hard to do, especially when many of us are better at spending money than saving even a cent. Since last semester, I’ve been using DigIt­—another app that helps you save money that I wrote an article on back in December 2018—and Tip Yourself. I’ve even made a few rules to help me save using the latter, and while the free version only has one ‘Tip Jar’ that you can put your savings into, you can get the Pro version for about $9.99 a year.
Essentially, Tip Yourself helps you save by using positive reinforcement. Did you go to the gym today? Tip yourself anywhere from a selection of $2 to $5 to $10 for doing something good for yourself. Some of the things I tip myself for are working out, going to class (or even just doing homework), getting a good grade, reaching my daily water goal, saving money in general (i.e, every time I take the T anywhere).
Tip Yourself allows you to withdraw any funds from your jar(s) as soon as the money clears and is insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000, so your money’s safe even when you’re trying not to use it until you need it for whatever it is you’ve been saving for.
One of my rules for using this is basically to not spend on anything for myself unless I have enough in my ‘jar’ to cover it. If I do have enough, I’ll get whatever it is I’ve been looking forward to having, and then withdraw from my jar, almost as if to sort of cover myself and get back up to what my previous checking amount was. Yes, it keeps from reaching my saving goal sooner than later, but it’s better than going in the red in my checking account or, even worse, waiting until warmer weather to walk to the bank just to put in a few more dollars every now and then.
With Pro though, you have more jars and you can take the positivity up another level, allowing you to save for different categories. Pro users can even enter a Savings Challenge, where the goal is to save $1,378 by the end of the year. It saves in steps, starting low by putting in small increments such as $1 then $2 and so on. I only just started using this, so I haven’t gotten very far in it. But it would certainly feel nice to have so much saved by the end of this year! I’ve also found myself spending less at the school in general, such as finding ways to take a lunch from home, etc. just to find ways to tip myself more throughout the week. Definitely good for a lot of reasons!
Between this and DigIt, I’ve actually found myself getting better at saving just by using these two apps on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Yes, sometimes it makes you forget you’ve been saving when you see the numbers in your bank account go lower because you are saving them into different accounts (i.e. DigIt and Tip Yourself), but once you remember that, it’s an even better feeling.