Well today I thought the weather was suitably miserable to talk about Snowflaking. This isn't the actual snowflake discussion (I mean, surely it won't snow *properly* this year), but the humble small amount of money saved.
'Snowflaking' is an American term for saving small amounts here and there. For the £13 you got from a cashback site, the £8 you saved on a meal out because you had a voucher, the £10 you got from a relative for a birthday gift or for Christmas. Even the little savings pot we all have on the sideboard (well, all of us addicted to not wasting cash!) - that can go in the Snowflaking account too.
Step 1 - Identify the first debt that you want to to pay off.
Step 2 - Begin looking for any way you can save or make small amounts of money. Don't worry if they're too small - that's why they're called snowflakes.
Step 3 - To 'find' these snowflakes you can do things to reduce your regular outgoings and save the difference. You can also use things like gift money and cashback as snowflakes.
Step 4 - When you have a snowflake in hand, throw it at the debt you targeted in Step 1. One way to do this is to make frequent, online payments of snowflake amounts. I do this and it works very well. Just find a decent savings account to place it in as that interest will be important to compound what you are earning in the account!
Step 5 - Continue to find snowflakes wherever your can. The power of this system is in repeating it frequently. After a while you will find that it has become quite addictive and a game. That's when you can make it really work for you!
Step 6 - Visit snowflakerevolution.com for more information and inspiration!
I have done this all of 2008 and it works well - I have a spreadsheet where I make a note of all the 'hidden' money I save each month to my savings account, amounts that I wouldn't usually have noticed. This is from vouchers, cashback that I would usually have just spent, half price movies on Orange Wednesdays, free movie previews and much more and much more.
I hope you already so something like this and that the idea of it will enhance your system, or get you to start ASAP - Christmas is coming, and Snowflaking from today could pay for Christmas 2008!
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