Laptop Savings Plan

Laptop Savings Plan

Objective: To have saved enough money outside of my current bat mitzvah credit to be able to purchase a MacBook Pro.

Circumstance: Urgent situation at school, not urgent at home. Parents have volunteered to pay half price. Hopefully parents will understand that I want to use lap top outside of school?

Price: The minimum price for a used but “like new” macbook pro on amazon is one thousand dollars. Parents pay half, thus the price is $500.

Budget:

I receive just over $80 a month from Hebrew school. From that…

$70 > laptop savings account

$10 > bat mitzvah credit (for other spendings)

Then I will be receiving $100 for cat sitting across the street. If Benjamin helps out, he will receive share. Here is current plan for that:

I do not tell Benjamin how much I will pay him. If he helps out, it should be because he wants to help.

I pay Benjamin $4 for every day he helps, giving him a maximum of $20 at the end of the week.

I expect he’ll come 3 times out of 5? Maybe more, I do not know.

If that’s true, I will receive $88.

We’ll use $90 as an average for my estimates.

Cat sitting:

$90 > laptop savings account

nothing goes to bm account

I plan to ask for money from relatives on the holidays. I’ll probably ask mom, dad, Benjamin, and maybe Aunt Diana for kpop stuff, but that’s still a lot from grandparents.

If each couple contributes $25, and maybe one gives $50, that’s $100.

Hannukah Money:

$90 > laptop savings account

$10 > bat mitzvah credit

I will then use some bat mitzvah money to buy some other albums and things.

I might change my mind and add all the money to the laptop account when the time comes if I’m feeling impatient; after all, I’ll have money pouring into the credit account once I stop saving.

Same thing applies for birthday! Wishlist for parents, brother, friends, and aunt – money from other relatives! Let’s assume I get the same amount of money,

Birthday Money:

$90 > laptop savings account

$10 > bat mitzvah credit

Same system. I then use credit to buy myself some other goodie online. Yay.

            Again, I save $70 from salary a month – let’s see how much that adds up by my birthday.

September > $70

October > $70

November > $70

December > $70

January > $70 (that will come later than my birthday, but whatever)

That’s a total of $350 by the end of January – paired with all the other money I’m getting, not all of this is necessary. Let’s plot out my savings by the end of each month.

September:

-$25 starter money

-$70 salary

Total: $95

October:

-$95 from September

-$70 salary

-approximately $90 cat sitting

Total: $255

(half way there!)

November:

-$255 from October

-$70 from salary

-no other sources of income yet discovered

Total: $325

December:

-$325 from November

-$70 from salary

-$100(?) from relatives

Total: $495

At this point all I need is 5 extra dollars to tip the balance. I don’t even need to wait for January, and I can ask for more items from my wishlist for my birthday instead of money.

If I want to slip in a little extra cash at any time, I know what it takes to boost up the speed! I will have my lap top before the start of second semester. Yay! (Also, it is likely that Christmas sales might boot prices down in december, which would be amazing! The question is - which is the better deal? New lap top on cheaper price, or used lap top on regular price? $1,000 versus... what?)