SmartyPig: Social networking meets good old-fashioned savings
Giveaway alert: read this entire post for the chance to win a SmartyPig $100 gift card.
SmartyPig reminds me of the days when my grandmother made weekly deposits to her Christmas Club. Remember those? The special savings program offered by local banks to ease the expense of holiday shopping. These were still quite popular when I was growing up as a kid in the 1970’s.
Well, SmartyPig is giving good old-fashioned savings a boost with some social networking.
Here’s how it works. SmartyPig is a savings account that allows you to save for a specific goal and invite others to contribute. There are other perks: including a good interest rate (4.30% APY) and incentives from top retailers like Amazon, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.
SmartyPig is tilted toward consumer-oriented goals and best suited for people saving for a specific item like a new, expensive crib. Or at least that’s the example Trent at The Simple Dollar gave in his review:
When we were buying a crib for my son, for example, both grandparents wanted to contribute and wanted to know how we were doing in saving for that crib (we were getting a gorgeous one that would be perfect not just for our children, but for their children and so on). One of them even suggested that we have a baby shower themed around the crib we had in mind, but there was no intuitive way to put the pieces together for it. SmartyPig is basically the solution to this.
Perhaps an overpriced, underfunctioning crib is a bad example (since Jennifer recently admitted on Queercents that it was one of her Top Five New Parent Money-Wasters). But Trent gives another illustration:
I can’t help but think back to when I was a teenager and saving for a car. My family was intimately involved in this process, and they encouraged me all the time to keep saving. My dad would occasionally put a few dollars into the account, and my mom would sometimes slip me $5 towards the car when I would take out the trash. Other family members, particularly my grandmother, were quite encouraging as well, and even a few of my friends were in on the story. When I finally got the car (and got it fixed up and road-worthy), it felt like not only a goal I had achieved personally, but a goal I had shared with my family, too – they were happy for me as well as they had seen the progress all the way along.
Hmmm’¦ this got me wondering if I had ever taken part in a group savings plan and I recall the day my dad announced to his young adult children that he no longer wanted gifts for his birthday, Father’s Day or Christmas. Instead he wanted money to add to a savings account with the sole purpose of buying a custom toupée. Yes, my dad was ready to get rid of his combover and we were going to help him achieve this goal – twenty bucks at time!
While SmartyPig isn’t for everyone, it’s good for very specific goals that are meant to be shared. A teenager saving for his first car, a dad saving for his first toupee’¦ you get the picture. So go check it out if you’re in the market for simple. smart. savings.
In the meantime, the SmartyPig people gave me a SmartyPig $100 gift card to give away. Good to start saving for a hair piece or whatever else you think could make you happy! Just leave a comment here with what you’d start saving for and I’ll pick the one that is the most fun (and clever) for a Monday morning. You’ll be 100 bucks richer for it. Now get to work’¦
Professional teeth whitening. 🙂
I’d like to save for a new dresser that will fit in my closet. I bought an old beat up dresser 3 years ago for $26 at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I needed something cheap and functional. Now I’d like something cheap and attractive!
A complete Schottenstein Talmud. This is the sort of thing I’d have to save up for – I never have several thousand dollars to throw away all at once. Once I have all 73 volumes I’ll have to start saving for bookshelves for all the books that this set will displace.
My next large savings goal is tuition for my MA or MFA in Directing, which I may even be overseas at potential costs of 12,000 British pounds. Yikes! Any little bit helps and it’s definitely a goal I think friends and family would contribute toward.
I would like to save up to buy my first house. I graduated college last year, and have been in a job in my field for a year. So I think it’s time to take the next step.
I’d like to save to buy an engagement ring for my partner 🙂
What a clever savings tool! I am going to have my kids use it. The passbook savings account just doesn’t seem to work for them the way it did me. This is probably because they are too busy to get to the bank so I end up making the deposits for them. Plus, their grandparents could just deposit birthday money to SmartyPig rather than sending checks. In terms of what I am currently saving for…it’s a secret…Julie for WOW!
I’m currently in a detrimental living situation, and so I’m trying to save money to get away. Basically, I am being threatened by one parent’s suicide and/or foreclosure of the house (which will mean a lack of shelter for me) and another parent threatens me with my own life and/or my credit report. This is definitely not a fun situation to be in. I have a rough plan for getting out of this situation, but things keeps popping up and getting in my way. For example, I got a $600 charge on my credit card thanks to the parent who threatens to ruin my credit report, and apparently my credit card company doesn’t buy the fact that some people have crappy family life. =/ I’m also trying to get back into academia so that I could get my PhD in social psychology, but I can’t focus on that while I’m living here. I know of a few people who may like to help me with this, so SmartyPig sounds like a good idea. But given the gravity of the situation, I’m not so optimistic that people are willing to help me financially.
I’m saving for a nanny…so I can
a) not go completely nuts reading _Goodnight Moon_ 400 times each day this summer when my partner goes back to work and I resume childcare responsibilities;
b) finish my next book so that I get tenure so that I can keep said child in onesies and fresh copies of _Goodnight Moon_ ;
c) get some semi-regular exercise, so that I can carry said (24 lb) child to the indy bookstore to find some good alternatives to _Goodnight Moon_.
I’m trying to get to a couple of conferences this summer…both the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network’s annual Chapter Summit (in Portland, ME this year) and the totally amazing Gender Odyssey conference in Seattle.
I’m going to have to come up with at least $500, maybe more – that’s after subsidies from GLSEN, Gender Odyssey and Trans Youth Family Advocates. And I’m a poor high-school-almost-college-student.
Well, yesterday, my baby sister just left me by moving to Amsterdam… Great opportunity for her, not so great for me as I looked up flights to visit her this summer… They are way out of my price range ($12-1500). So my girlfriend and I are starting a savings account to help us get there… SmartyPig looks like one of the best ideas out there – and the interest rate seems very competitive…
A new mattress!
Okay. Here it is. Laid on the line. After 13 years together, two days ago my partner and I decided to split the sheets. One of the issues was our different approach to… (deep mood music)… money and finances. Yup. Took 13 years for this to really come to a head. The break up was very cordial, calm, a mutual agreement between two people who have loved each other for over a decade, but feel like they both deserve more from a relationship. Call me crazy. Being back out in the world as a single person scares the behoozies out of me. I’d like to save for laser hair removal 🙂 With age, I seem to have inherited the dreaded “hairy old” gene.
All: I wish I had 13 gift cards to give away, because you all have wonderful ideas. But alas, the SmartyPig people only gave me one card to give to a smarty pants at Queercents.
Softly Dreaming wins!
I know what it’s like to get back out there. During my years with Partner #2, I gained 40 lbs. So after the breakup, I wanted to sign up for Jenny Craig before signing up at any of the dating sites. A little “refresh” with the looks is the best medicine to get over any breakup… even the amicable ones. I hope you enjoy this jump start in saving for your laser hair removal.
Game over for now! But keep checking back at Queercents because we’re always getting freebies to share with our readers.
Nina – YOU ROCK!
I am so over the moon, that’s all I can say!