Sense to Save

‘When the funds are low, and the debts are high’: A lovely poem

I was a cross-country and track runner in high school, and I memorized an inspirational poem called "Don’t Quit."

On those endless runs in the middle of nowhere, I would recite it over and over in my head.

When it was 95 degrees and there was not a breeze to be found along that corn-lined road in rural Indiana, that poem kept my thoughts cool.

When it was 4 degrees and 7 a.m. and I was competing in my first 5k, the poem kept me moving.

I’m not a runner anymore, but I was thinking about the poem again recently, and thought it might inspire those of us who are paying off debt or saving money.

Here’s a link to a sweet video version of the poem, and I’ve pasted the full text below. Hope you like it!

Don’t Quit — Author unknown

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victors cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit!

(Photo credit: Jacob Garcia)

Saving on car insurance: We’re making a one-time payment

Our car insurance for May through November will cost $366.30. That’s a lot lower than I thought it would be, and about $65 less than last time. I’m pretty happy about that, and I hope it will continue to go down as time goes on.

Anyway, we had to decide how many payments we wanted to make. For every additional payment, we’d have to pay about $4 more.

Two payments: $187.15 each for a total of $8 more
Three payments: $150.52, $113.89, $113.89 or $12 more
Four payments: $95.58 each, or $16 more
Five payments: Not an option, for some reason
Six payments: $65.05 each, or $24 more

We had to decide: Should we pay it off and just get it over with and save the most money, or make installment payments, and not have to tie up $366 all at once?

We opted to make a one-time payment. We have the money to do that right now, and it’ll be nice not to think about it again until October or so. One less payment each month means that money can go toward other goals.

And, if we do need to tap into the emergency fund from now until our next car insurance payment, we won’t have to worry about making the car insurance payment, since that’s already taken care of. So, one less thing to have to worry about.

The money isn’t due until early May, so I’m going to put it in our ING account, where it’ll grow like $1 in interest while we wait to pay it.

Snowflakes for March–look at what I found!

I’m really amazed at how many “snowflakes” we were able to round up in March. Every little bit of discovered, unexpected or extra money went straight into our emergency fund. At first, I wasn’t sure if $3 here or $15 there would make a big difference, but it really does add up! Give a purpose to those snowflakes, and you’ll find yourself beefing up your emergency fund or paying off debt faster than you thought possible.

Savings account interest $5.22

Pinecone research $6 (two surveys)

Rite Aid rebates $4.05; $14.46

Loose change from piggy banks, car $15

Sold a bag of books to Half Price Books $6.50

Online purchase refund (order mix-up. I used a $10-off coupon for the order, and they refunded the remaining coupon value as well) $6.99

ING Direct referral bonuses $30 (Thank you, whomever you are!) If you’d like me to send you a referral link, I’ll be glad to do so. When you open an account and deposit $250, you’ll get $25 and I’ll get $10.

Indiana state tax refund $111 Will this be the last time we file taxes in Indiana? I hope not…

Ebates check $143.47 I wasn’t expecting a check until May, but this showed up in my mailbox the other day. (!) I’ve gotten quite a bit of money back from referral bonuses and my own purchases. Check it out, already!

Total: $342.69 or 3 percent of our completed emergency fund!

Gift cards

OK–technically gift cards can’t be put into our emergency fund. However, we can use gift cards to supplement our regular purchases, so that leaves more money to save. Read more »