How are all of you savers doing out there?

[sarahsmom73]

I know there were a bunch of us that were diligently saving our change, putting aside money every week, doing surveys, cashing in bottle money etc....

How are you all doing?


I'm feeling pretty good as our Christmas shopping is about done and I don't think I paid more than full price for anything! I love sales!!!

I keep writing the check to myself every week even if it for $10! It is really starting to add up! I also am planning to add in my extra curricular money I earn this school year in....

Next....

 

[newholiday]

Usually I go monthly to the Disney Store and charge $100 for disney dollars. Its easier to pay off $100 for 8mos than to pay off $800 in 1month.
So since DH isnt coming with us next Aug (mother/son) trip Ive decided I will still visit the Disney store monthly but will buy $65 in disney dollars ea time. That will be a help.

Also putting $ aside ea wk from my paycheck. Im aiming to have $400 by early spring to buy 2 plane tickets.

 

[fam4jc]

HI. Even though my trip has been canceled, I am still saving for the next one. Every day I take change out of my purse and put it in the castle bank. Once a week I pour my dh's change jar out and put it in the big plastic jug we have in our bedroom. I have 100 automatically taken from our checking acct every two weeks transfered into the ING savings - that balance is over $1000 now - I opened it in July!
I am selling a little on ebay and those profits go into ING (when there is some)
We are doing okay with our savings but I think I am spending too much money on little things. I need to rain myself back in or that $200 a month will be to painful to transfer!

 

[mudnuri]

I've just gotten a credit from Southwest for $398 for a price drop. that should cover 1/2 of our plane tickets.

We revamped our christmas gift list, and now it's down to about 3/4 of what it was before. We're all going to disney so that's the family gift, and then everything for the kids- except DD7's 4-wheeler will be disney related. Disney dollars, t-shirts, light twirllers etc...

I've been putting $50 a week into a savings account at a bank thats not easy for me to run to when I need money. I also do not have an ATM card for it, so that's been building since June.

DH's truck is going in on Thursday for some work, and it's now out of warranty so I'm sure that'll cost us a few hundred...BUT we haven't had payment on the truck in 2 years, so it's all okay.

We've taken our insurance off our Motorcycles, and that policy is a 1 year policy- we only had insurance on them since April, so we'll be getting back about 40% of that. That money will go into the Disney fund...

Good luck to you all saving! It's the little things that get me. The $2.28 each time I go to Dunkin Donuts (about 5 times a day LOL) for coffee, eating out when I'm too lazy too cook...or ordering pizza etc. We did great with that for a long time, and only went out 1 time a month, but we've gotten back into the lazy habit, and a lot of money can be spent this way. We wont be able to order deliveries soon, once snow flies, they don't deliver up our hill...so that helps, and if its snowing out like that, we wont drive to get it either...hurry up snow!

Brandy

 

[beautybelle]

I know isnt it crazy how we can save up so much money when its for something we REALLY want. We do the extra change thing too and the last time I checked I was over what I thought we was. I was sooooo happy. Our spare change has paid for our airline tickets and theme park tickets with money left over for souviners. I was tickled pink. But thats saving for almost 2 years with a little added here and there. Good luck to you all doing the same thing. See ya at Disney!!!

 

[ellyn2000]

mudnuri, you've given me a great idea. I have a savings acct at a credit union that I don't normally bank at and don't have an ATM for. I think I'll start depositing every 2 weeks there and it will not even be a temptation to touch it. Thanks for the tip!

 

[VALDAN]

We're doing better than expected. My husband got a small raise ,plus a retroactive check for $1,000 which we put into our disney savings account! On top of of my monthly deposit of $150.00 plus the change we're saving, it could all be paid off before our trip next August.

 

[Strings]

We're doing pretty well with the change saving. We have about $1500. Out trip isn't until 12/2005. I am hoping to have it paid in full. Now if I can only get DH to give me our tax return this year, we'll really have some fun.

I forgot to add that I have $91 Disney Visa Reward dollars. I will probably have $250-$300 by the time we go.

 

[mum of two pirates]

I have been saving change, started out about 3 months ago and have over $140. but the biggest thing has been ING Bank. I opened an account for all five of us with the MS money link, thats $250. Then I have given out 35 referrals (that I have been paid for) and I sent 1 more just today. So thats $350 more. plus I have put in about $350 in my sons accounts. Thats about $950 in two months. I have about 30 more of my friends who I think I can get to open an account but havent even talked to them yet. I thought I would use all the ING money for spending money for the kids but Will probably use it to pay for our room for the week at wdw before the cruise. then the rest will be spending. we still have two years to go. Do you think I could save enough that ING would pay for our deposit on board for our next cruise? Hope everyone has as good luck with ING as I have. (I really wanted to see my countdown timer also)

Mum of two pirates

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I feel like we're doing great. I send $200 monthly for our hotel room (it will be paid in full in April). I get between $150 and $200 a month in DIsney dollars, we have about $300 in change saved so far and about $125 in Disney Visa Reward dollars. We already have our APs from last year and we'll have enough AMEX points for our airfare. Our trip is in July. Everything should be paid before we get on the plane.

 

[TinkerPixxie]

Im trying to get the holiday shopping out of the way. Normaly I wait till after Thanksgiving so this is good im starting.

Got some Disney dollars today too. Not many just 25.00 for each kid so they will have some spending money of thier own.

Got some deals at the Disney store today too. Oh and at Big Lots.

Tink

 

[kerry34]

I am doing good here. I have the money for the cabin and the tickets put aside, so that is all set. I am saving change, dollar bills, and any spare money i come across that i wasnt expecting, rebate checks, can money, etc. I have about 150.00 in loose change saved so far, about 50 disney dollars, 65 dollars in dollar bills and 350.00 in my savings. The money i am saving now will be pretty much all food and spending money. I put about 50 weekly in my savings account, sometimes more. I am hoping to have about 2000.00 by the time we get ready to go. My kids are also saving all their money as well, so that will be good when it comes to souveniers.

 

[RobinMarie]

I am saving all 'found' money in an ING savings account. If I get a check for a survey, I deposit into my checking account and immediately transfer it into the ING one online.

My found money includes: survey cash, rebates, change, 10% of any extra money from work (bonus), and 10/week directly deposited into my account from my check.

My whole point is not to 'miss' any of the money. So far I'm doing pretty well.

We are saving for our 14 day cruise. I hope to have saved enough for the flights, tickets, excursions and hotel stays.

 

[Rebeccapaige!]

Hi!! I'm doing the change jar thing too! I had $23 in a month. and this month I started putting dollars in it too, I have around $15 in just a week!! maybe a little more!! I paid off my plane tickets in about a month!! they were around $700. And I will have my hotel paid off by christmas or sooner! Dh is paying for our plane tickets, and all our christmas money (get get quite a bit!) will be our food money! My daughter's bday money around $100 will be her spending money, and My bday money will be my little one's and my spending money (I get more money than dd)
I really agree with the poster who said if its something we really want we really do save! that is so true previously I couldn't even pay off a $700 christmas debt in a year, now I paid off plane tickets in a month worth $700 lol!
Becky, Paige and Hailey

 

[Rebeccapaige!]

OOPS meant dh is paying for park tickets NOT plane lol
Becky

 

[grlpwrd]

We have 2 trips planned: Hawaii in June 2005 and WDW in summer 2006. ... Keep in mind my last trip was going back home in 2003 when my grandma died and I was 8 months pregnant.

I have stopped shopping at thrift stores and stopped recreationally shopping at places like Target (I buy very little markdowns now - boo hoo LOL). It has made a world of difference for us, though.

I have been making more homecooked meals and eat out only sparingly.

I have gift certificates earned from reward programs for our food so that helps.

I walk or jog to the bus stop to get our kids to and from school so that helps with fuel costs and my health.

We do more free activities in our community, like visits to parks and biking as a family activity instead of paying memberships for this next year or so.

Yes, we, too, downsized our Christmas list and actually will be giving homemade items.

We're cutting every corner we can and every little bit does help.

 

[djm99]

Thanks to the advance of many from this board I opened an ING direct Account. I have $80 directly deposited into that account every payday - $40 a pay from my husband and $40 a pay from my account. I just started the first of September and I'll stop in mid June (21 pay periods). That's a total (less interest) of at least $1680. That will cover our spending monies. Everything else (hotel, tickets, etc.) will be paid a little over time. That way no stress - no pain no gain!!!!

We are staying 5 nights on at a Moderate Resort $702 (AAA rate) - I make sporadic payments.

My tickets - I will buy 4-day hoppers pluses 1 by 1 from hotwire Savings Club. (I need to buy them all soon – price increase in February – affects the outlet places too)

For my week off site I pay upfront - via Hotel Kingdom.

Or course I do the change jar thing. This year I got a water bottle to fill up.

I bought Disney Dollars last year - which where great. Every time I was in the mall - which was alot - I bought $10 - $20 worth. I had $300 last year. When I was onsite I did not not spend $1 of my travelers cheques (which I used for our week off site). You can use Disney Dollars for everything from parking fees to tips for dining/mousekeeping. I loved these things. What I loved most was I couldn't use them anywhere but Disney (and of course the Disney Store). That's the best way to say to me!!!!

If you eat off site, I would buy Gift cards from your local restaurants (like Applebees, Chili's, Don Pablos {online too}, and many other places).

Meal vouchers - oh yeah!!! Hotwire, connections, etc. it doesn't matter where you get them from, just get them. They saved us sooooo much money!!! I traveled with 2 other families last year and none of them thought the vouchers were that big of a deal. With all the places we used the vouchers they were a little "upset" they didn't take advance of them. My family of three (DH, DD, and myself) share 2 vouchers easily. And again we pre-paid for our meals so we NEVER had to spend a $1 of the spending monies we took with us!!! I look forward to that once again!!!!!

Finally, I bought Travelers Cheques as a means of savings. Buy some here and there. If you are an AAA member and you walk in, there are no fees - Dollar for Dollar. Most credit unions are like that too.

Planning for me is just as must fun as being there - almost as fun-so I suggest starting as early as possible and pacing yourself. Watching all your "stuff" (tickets, travelers checks, gift cards, meal vouchers, etc.) grow gets me SUPER EXCITED - its the fun of it all!!!!

 

[zippehsmom]

Well we're doing pretty good also. I have already put down $272.06 deposit for CR (still owe $1,050. It's for a garden wing room, I hope discounts come out so I can move to the Tower), $350 deposit on BCV (only $350 more to go), I purchased our airfare $683 (great deal on Spirit 5 Roundtrip tickets). That kind of wiped my Disney account out because I just did all of this in October. Right now we only have $200 in there, but I'm putting $100 per week in there. In addition, any money I have left over from my weekly allowance I use that to start filling my envelopes (like Misc. money, Mousekeeping, valet/luggage). I already have $192 in those envelopes.

Our trip is in August so I feel pretty good about what we have so far. We decided to purchase AP's , so that kind of added to this years budget. We're going back next summer 2006, so that'll save us money there. Actually DH isn't making this trip with us. It's going to be Me, my 2 DD's and my neice and nephew.