How I Budget for the Non-Essentials

“This post was sponsored by Chime as part of an Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review.” First off, cheers, it is almost the weekend!  With less than a month left of summer if you have not tried Whispering Angel rosé try a glass before the weather turns chilly and thank me later.   Speaking of the end of summer last week I got an email for from my alma matter letting us know that the incoming freshman class are about to move in to campus.  I didn’t feel old until I realized that was more than eight years ago for me and that brought me back to the essay I wrote nearly 10 years ago on why I wanted to go to business school.  I am sure like many college applicants I wrote about a fond childhood memory – my neighborhood lemonade stand – but unlike most 16 year olds I wrote about the cost of good sold.  What does that mean?  Even if six year old Kelly sold lemonade for $0.50 a cup that was not actually my profit – I had to pay back the cost  of the mix, the cups, and divide out the cost of the signs and after that my brother and I only made $0.12 per cup.  

Fast forward nearly two decades and I have switched from lemonade to roseé and my take home is a bit more than $0.12.  That said it feels like every time I get a paycheck I see the HUGE difference between what I earned and what is being deposited into my bank account – welcome to taxes, womp, womp.  Since graduating college I have never had an issue saving or paying for the big things or the standard expenses like rent, utilities, cell phone, transportation, or Internet but where budgeting has always been tricky for me is on those extra items.

What fits into that category of extra items? Well it is no surprise to anyone reading this that I really like cute shoes and going out to eat.  That is not to say I am irresponsible with my spending but those are two things that need to be held in check because it a city like New York, they can add up very quickly.  Sure, I can afford $3 iced coffee or even a $50 pair of shoes but everything in moderation.  And that is where Chime comes in. 

Chime is a new kind of bank account and I love their tag line, “The bank account that pays you to save.” Recently I have been using Chime, both the iPhone app and the Chime Visa Debit Card, to make my daily purchases that qualify as “extras”.  My favorite part is that every time I spend it sends me a mobile alert and unlike my usual credit card which has a secure login and then five screens to get to the recent transactions I get a friendly ping almost instantaneously.  In the digital age alerts within moments is really the way to go – have you heard that millennials have an attention span of only seven seconds?  It is true! Plus as an added bonus Chime accounts have no monthly fees, no possibility of overdrafts, and no minimums another thing great for 20-somethings!

And not only can you control your money with a spending account but I love that I can also transfer surplus spending money into a savings account and both accounts are FDIC insured!  I also enrolled in Chime Automatic Savings through the app, which unlocks a whole other set of rewards as each time I use my Chime card as with each  purchase the company rounds the transaction amount to the nearest dollar amount and transfers the savings from my spending account to my savings account – and who doesn’t like free money!  

There are Chime features I have not tried yet – bill pay and direct deposit though if they are anywhere near as easy as using the card or setting up the accounts I am sure they will be a breeze. I am also eager to see tomorrow the bonus savings hit my account as every Friday Chime adds a 10% bonus on your round ups for the week.  How does it sound?  Worth a try at least! Take a look at Chime here and use my unique sign up to try it yourself! 

Cheers to saving and smart finance!