Start Saving After Enrolling In Debt Management Program (DMP)

I am a credit-card-debt woman who has been in a free debt management program in Malaysia for more than 10 months.

Prior to enrolling in the debt management plan, I had no savings in my personal account at all. What I had then was credit card debt! No savings. No emergency fund.

Thinking back now, I feel scared. How could I not have any extra cash to be saved as savings? What if an accident happened and the car needed repair? Or what if an untoward incident occurred and there was a need to settle expensive bill?

What to do? At that time, there was never extra money left after paying the credit card minimum payments, car and home loan installments, utility bills, groceries and daily expenses.

There was no time for me to think of what if, what if,...

Since I began my DMP in October 2008, I have been able to keep RM320 in my newly-opened personal savings account so far for emergency fund and other high-expense endeavors.

In a few weeks' time after two of my ClickBank and Amazon.com checks are cleared, there will be a total of more than RM1,400 in my account.

And not to forget the amount of piled up small change in my piggy bank. Since February this year, I was inspired by a blogger to try out this method of saving money.

It's amazing to see money increasing in my savings account; it spurs me to work hard to make more money online and cut back on spending to be put away for emergency fund.

I knew this money saving tip right after I started blogging about my credit card debt in 2007. Unfortunately, I failed to save any money. There was not even enough money to pay all the credit card payments and other bills; the expenses always surpassed the income.

Hubby made very little money at that time and my online income suffered a drop when the number of assignments in the networks I worked with decreased tremendously.

Of course, the wonderful rule of "Pay Yourself First" works now. Hubby began his full time teaching job this July. A full time job means there is a fixed salary from hubby. As for me, my online income from my niche blogs is increasing day by day.

Begin paying yourself first each month and pretty soon you will grow richer and richer. Decide whether you will pay yourself 5% or 10% first and deposit or transfer the amount into your savings account before paying any bills.

I tell you, I love this technique for saving money very very much. This February after reading the power of small penny and dollar saving, I started inserting small notes into my ceramic piggy bank.

In the beginning, I put $1 or $5 notes into the money saving piggy bank on a regular basis. Now, I love inserting $10 small notes into it.

How much have I saved in it now? I don't know and I will only find out the end of the year. It's my hope there will be a couple hundreds that I can add to my emergency fund.