About a dozen Pringles boxes

Surely enough I’ve mentioned this on at least social media, if not on my blog somewhere: I find creative ways to save up a bit of money. In the past I’ve simply created a second bank account for saving up for my iMac. I’ve also bought little mini box with layers in it to put stickers on to have goals to save up. And this time around I’ve gone a little crazy: Pringles boxes to the max.

Pringles has those cylinder shaped boxes for their chips. And throughout 2017 I’ve been buying their smaller versions and kept them for a Dutch Sinterklaas project. That’s over now. And I have the boxes left over. Perfect. Now I can start saving in them in 2018. Voila, it’s 2018 now.

A year has 12 months, I have 12+ boxes, it’s meant to be (angel music starts playing).

They’re a messy pile on my kitchen table so I am not going to include a picture of it, you have to use your imagination this time. But basically they will end up in my closet or something with a bit of paper in them with a goal. And that’s it. When I get home I check what money I came home with and spread that around those boxes. Slowly saving up for those goals. Cheating isn’t possible. I can’t put 10 euro in one box knowing what’s inside it, because I want it more. Nope, the papers go in the boxes folded, the boxes go randomly in the closet. And throughout the year I just put the money I come home with in it.

Maybe I end up with just a euro in 12 months from now, but my aim is a bit higher.

Why so many boxes? Because it makes me realise I need ‘more’ pieces of money to be able to fill up more boxes. Just one means I can be mentally content with just dumping in the 10 or 50 cents and forget about it. Maybe keep the 2 euro in my pocket for bread the next day. Nope, not now. Now I put the 10 in one, 50 in the other and the 2 euro in the third. Just how it is. Tough luck for me.

Why am I so stupid doing this? Because saving is tougher and tougher, and I have tried to lower my bills, be more aware of electricity and water / heater usage, and all that. But in the meantime everything gets more expensive; Making saving money even harder than the other year. I don’t mind struggling a little bit, but only if there’s something at least at the end of the rainbow. And I don’t mean a bigger bill. I mean a few boxes with some extra cash in it.

What am I saving for? Whatever! Lunch with the family, a birthday party, Christmas in France riviera, a new pencil, or some paint for the bedroom. It doesn’t matter. My todo/wishlist is big enough and only growing – and surely not getting any less.

This also forces me to mentally be more aware of what I spend, how I spend it, and when I get home after spending money that I don’t spend the leftovers the day after but that I use it for more important things at the end of the year.

And if this means I can’t buy the bread tomorrow, maybe that will make me buy cheaper bread, or at least buy smarter on my groceries. A box of rice maybe, instead of potato wedges. A bottle of lemonade or box of tea, instead of two cans of cola. Heck, it might even be better for my health that way as well.

So yeah.. I might have a closet somewhere with little boxes filled with coins and paper money by the end of the year. The hardest part is that when I need money for super serious things and bills like rent, that I don’t touch these.. They are considered to be input only.

“Hey Sir, set a daily reminder at 5 pm to save a bit of money”, “ok, but Apple already has all your money” DAMNIT SIRI


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