(Here's the Savings Jar after four days. $34.45 so far!)
The Savings Jar got a big boost today because I saved a bucketload yesterday, but I didn't know it until today. In case you missed the beginning of this thanksGiving series, we are focusing on the "giving" part of thanksgiving this year. In a nutshell, I'm making consistent efforts to cut back on spending, while still living well, and corralling those daily savings in one place. At the end of the month, I plan to use that money to invest in the Kingdom of God in some way.
On Monday, I was to the sick-to-death of the struggle point, and ready to pay any amount of money to get the last bit of formatting done in my new book. I could not making facing pages, couldn't get my page numbers where I wanted them, and couldn't construct the table of contents. Well, I could construct it but the one-click method was not working. I called the book coach. "See how much it will cost to get the designer to fix this," I said. "Send it on," she said. "I'll tell Vinnie. He can do it."
I was delighted to hit send and be through, but in a few minutes, Vince (the designer) called. He had many lovely things to say about my formatting and publishing skills and then he said the words I did not want to hear. "There is no sense in you paying me to do what you can obviously do yourself." "Vince, if I could do it, I wouldn't have called in the cavalry!" "Ha!" he said. "I'm telling you, you can do this and while you are at it, I have a couple more suggestions." Vince went on to tell me how to do what needed to be done and said to call him "if you start pulling your hair out. I'm telling you, you can do this!"
I was pretty close to pulling my hair out before I was done, and it took hours and hours yesterday. Jacki, my book coach, kept calling. "Vince said you were sending a new text file. Where is it?" I wanted to shout, but I just kept repeating my mantra, "Still working on it. Sending soon." I decided Jacki and Vince were both big bullies! Finally, I was done. Well, I wasn't sure if I was done, but I had done all I could stand. I exported the text file to PDF and hit send.
Today, Jacki called to ask a question about printing. "How was the file?" I asked. She was positively breezy. "Oh, it was fine. Vince said you fixed everything. You're ready for the printer." "It was right??" I demanded. "Did Vince call and complain?" she asked. "Of course not, because it is right. Relax. You did it." I was thrilled. Apparently the only one worried was me! Have I mentioned how much I adore Jacki and Vince? They have pushed me to be better than I am, and I am incredibly grateful!
All that to say that I didn't have to pay anyone to do the work I finally did myself. That horrible day of agony saved me quite a few dollars. Judging by the cost of his other designer fees, I'm pretty sure it would've been $100 for what I needed. At least. That's what's going in the Savings Jar. That brings the total to $134.35! I can not wait to see what we have in there by the end of the month!!
So, how's your Saving Jar doing? What interesting ways have you used to save money? Keep at it. We are going to have some fun doing God-work once we get our jars full, and we will have lived well and enjoyed ourselves all along the way.
Happy Saving!
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