Create a Treat Fund with Spare Change

Do your pockets collect spare change at the end of the day? If you are female, does your purse get weighed down with change (you know it does!)? A great idea for all of this extra spare change that doesn't seem to be adding up to a whole lot of anything - is to create your very own "treat fund".

Now what is a treat fund? A treat fund is exactly what it sounds like, a little extra cash for the little extras in life that we all like to have. A nice pair of shoes. A good meal. A night out with your friends without putting it on your credit card. Seeing a show. That's what a treat fund is for.

Right now take all of the change out of your pockets, and your purse and anywhere else - and make a pile of it. Next you'll need some type of container for it. It doesn't have to be a fancy container. Some people like a container where they can see the treat fund growing - something that is clear and see-through. Other people like something that they actually can't see through - so they have no idea just how much money is piling up. Then they get excited about the idea of just how much money is piling up, and all of the fun things they would do with the money.

Sometimes you can almost have more fun thinking about all of the ways you are going to spend your treat fund money, than you have actually spending the money. Well, not quite - spending the money is really pretty cool. The idea with a treat fund is to fill the container that you have chosen, and let it fill to the very top - and then spend it. Now some people decide to spend the money every month, once a month like clockwork. But if you want to have bigger treats, you really need to let that money add up.

I use a really large coffee can as my treat fund. So I guess you could say I am from the school of thought that doesn't want to see it add up, I want the surprise. I really try to wait until the container is completely full. The coffee can is a super large coffee can from one of those warehouse shopping centers where people do their shopping, not a regular supermarket. I think it held something like five pounds of coffee. My treat fund can really add up.

The nicest thing about a treat fund though is that it teaches you that even the little things do add up. I think it encourages you to save and to think positively about saving. Even though you are spending this money in this little fund of yours. But it still gets me to thinking that the more money I can save, that it is going to all add up in the end, and that is a very good thing.

So why not start a treat fund for yourself? You could treat yourself to something special without the guilt every once in awhile, and you'd feel all excited when you ran into your spare change. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.