Little By Little

"Little and often fills the purse."

"Little and often makes much."

These are two idioms that are ignored by many, however, today we were reminded of the truth in these sayings.

This doesn't look like much.

To be honest, it isn't.  Seven yen or six cents.  However, when you don't spend these, but rather throw all of them into a jar, they add up.  A couple years ago we cashed in our jar to have a little "mad money" when we went on a family trip.  We have been slowly refilling the jar back up and today I took it to the bank.  There was ￥4,167 ($37.03) in the jar.  Yes, it took 22 months to collect that.  No it is not a lot in the whole scheme of things. BUT... it was money we truly did not miss. AND it was enough to pay for a cheap lunch date!  Plus there is enough left over for another treat or two.

Now our jar is all but empty.  Wonder how long it will take to fill it this time?

We have also started another new jar with ten yen coins.  (Roughly equal to a US dime.)

 

Ten yen coins are a little harder to save.  They make a slightly bigger dent in our tight budget, so instead of keeping all the ten yen coins we get back in change, I am just tossing them into a jar at the end of the month when I update the budget envelopes.  After just 2 months we have a fair start!

Little and often may not fill the purse, when you are using pennies, nickels, & dimes, but it is fun to save them.  It is also a challenge, as in, how fast can we fill the jar?  And in the end we have some "mad money" to put toward something extra!

What "Little and often" things do you do?