The One Where Claire Saved a S*** Ton of Money
On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, our host is Jenny Harp, Level 2 Trainer. She is joined by Financial Gym client, Claire, to discuss her experience at The Financial Gym.
Podcast Notes
Claire found The Financial Gym through social media, from How to Be Broke in New York on Instagram. This Instagrammer posted about her training session at The Gym and because of that Claire, followed The Gym’s Instagram, website, Yelp, etc., for six to nine months before finally doing a warm up call in October 2019.
Claire was paired up with Jenny as her Trainer, and in the last three months, Claire doubled her savings.
Prior to The Gym, Claire didn’t know anything about money. She didn’t know how to save or budget. Jenny talked to Claire about automatic savings, and Claire set up a direct deposit out of every paycheck into a high-yield savings account. Now she has five savings accounts designated for different things.
When Claire started at The Gym, she had a savings account that Jenny had her designate as an emergency fund and Claire moved it to a high-yield savings account. Claire then started other savings accounts for things like travel and moving.
Claire doesn’t feel like she had to change her life that much after starting at The Gym. One of her sacred cows is going out to lunch, which averages $15 a day. She is still able to do that, and it allows her to get some fresh air during her lunch hour. She used to stop at Starbucks every day, but now she takes her travel mug and gets coffee at work.
Claire has a rule where $50 a week is automatically moved from her checking account to her moving account.
Strava is an app Claire uses, and every time she goes for a run, Strava automatically takes $5 from her account and moves it to her savings account.
Qapital has been saving Claire money for moving and also for Wesley, which is her eight year old dog. He is a 65 pound lap dog mutt. He is getting older and his medical expenses are going up.
Claire got a bonus at work and she was able to save some for moving, some for Wesley, and some into her high-yield savings account. Without The Financial Gym, that money would have sat in Claire’s checking account and she would have spent it.
When Claire first started at The Gym, she had some credit card debt. She will have it paid off in the next month and a half, by paying extra on the balance.
A near-term goal Claire is saving for is a new MacBook by the end of 2020. Her old one is from 2010. She has already had to replace the hard drive and battery, and it is really slow. Once her credit card is paid off, she will take that amount and save it monthly toward this goal.
Jenny mentioned that Apple has a credit card that offers three percent cash back when you buy Apple products.
After going through Claire’s quarterly review, what they had budgeted for fitness wasn’t really covering it. Since Claire built up her moving fund, they were able to move some money from that fund to fitness.
Resources Mentioned
Instagram: @howtobebrokeinnewyork
Jennifer Lopez Movie: Hustlers