How To Use Your Journal

Are there a thousand ways of using The Thousand Dollar Journal? We don’t know, we didn’t count! We do know it contains countless ways of making saving more fun and spending more sensible, so here’s our quick guide to getting the most from your new guide to your money.

The best thing to do first is write in your journal as soon as you can. Some people don’t like to write in “books” but this one is different. We need you to write in it regularly, so get used to that right now, and write your name at the front. You’re going to own the process of becoming wealthy, so tell the world you own this book!

Read the secrets

It takes 21 weeks of saving $7 a day to save $1,000, and to help you create this habit, Peggy asked the Seven Dollar Millionaire for his 21 top secrets about saving more money, investing it, or spending more wisely.

Saving comes first. Write down your goal for saving at the beginning of every week. At the bottom of each secret, there’s a picture of Peggy Pigasus, with a space for writing down a number. Do it. Put some money in her tummy!

Put money in her tummy

Track your saving

Track your savings, and your progress towards your saving target, every day. At the end of the week, add up how much you saved through the week and write down the total in the big Peggy at the bottom of the page.

Track the money you spend during the week on the left hand side of the journal page. Write down when you spent the money, how much you spent, and what you spent it on, so you know where your all your money goes.

There’s also a column for you to decide if the spending was something you really needed or just wanted. Track that too.

Track your spending

Analyse Your Spending

Add up how much you spent on each type of shopping, to see where you spent the most, and where you could cut back the most. Think about it, and work out how you can do better next week.

From Week 2, we have a Weekly Plan column, where you can plan exactly how much you should spend on each category.

Once you’ve finished tracking your spending at the end of the week, flip the pages to the next week and start planning next week’s spending. Make a budget, so you can see how closely you stick to it.

Then plan next week's

Have some fun

Every week, there are quizzes, checklists, challenges, links to websites and social-media pages, and more. See how many ways you can find to use this journal to make saving happen and make saving fun. The more fun you have not spending money, the more money you’re likely to save.

You’ll see QR codes at different points through the journal. Point the camera on your phone at these codes and they’ll lead you to lots of interesting things to do online.

Sometimes there might be a video to watch, or a web article with more information. Sometimes it will be a Facebook group, with other savers comparing their tips, tricks and strategies. Sometimes, there will even be competitions with prizes, for you to add to your savings even faster.

Take it online for a prize

Our last secret for using the journal is ...

Use it however you like. If you can save $1,000 in the next 21 weeks, you’ve used this journal correctly. If you develop the habit of saving, of tracking your spending, of questioning if you need things you only want, then you’ve used this journal correctly. If you feel better about your ability to save money, then you’ve used this journal correctly.