How are you saving for your DFTW?

[stitchlet]

Are any of you ladies doing any "fun" things to save up money to put towards your DFTW?

DF & I are saving all of our coin change and $1 bills. And our grocery store receipt keeps a running tally of what we've saved by buying sale items and using coupons, so once a month we deposit that amount into the account.

I realize that these little things are a mere "drop-in-the-bucket" compared to the cost of a wedding, but it is adding up to be more than I would have thought.

Any other ideas for saving?

 

[luv4mylittleones]

Who needs to save? We're rich!!!!

Oh...wait...no we're not! We just thought we'd build up mounds of debt and spend the next 10 years paying it off! Yeah...that works!

Seriously...I like your ideas and think we might start doing that too! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Emwit27]

The Bank of America Keep the Change program is great! It rounds every purchase I make on my debit card to the nearest dollar and puts the change in my savings account. It's like it never existed! I've had this for over a year now and made enough cash to pay for 2 wishes cruises!

 

[Sparkles9306]

We do the change and $1 trick too.

I am also doing Sunshine Rewards as a fun way to earn money. I've been doing it for a few months now and already have cashed out a decent amount. You can cash out for paypal, but also many kinds of gift cards, including Disney. Here's the link: http://www.sunshinerewards.com/signup.php?r=4868

 

[stitchlet]

ooops! silly me . . . forgot the #1 way that we "save" money for Disney - the Disney Visa Rewards card!

Poor DF, he's always happy for a moment when he sees how much we can apply towards our WDW trips, but then he does the math and figures-out how much we had to have spent to "earn" those rewards dollars . . .

 

[luv4mylittleones]

ooops! silly me . . . forgot the #1 way that we "save" money for Disney - the Disney Visa Rewards card!

Poor DF, he's always happy for a moment when he sees how much we can apply towards our WDW trips, but then he does the math and figures-out how much we had to have spent to "earn" those rewards dollars . . .

That's us with our American Express cards! We have the sky one where we are saving points towrd our hotel and the knot amex that has all the other great membership rewards...we charge everything to those and pay them off every month just to use the points for the wedding!

 

[Tabetha]

It's something I've been freaking out about a little bit lately. We're over a year away, and theoretically we should be able to save enough. Theoretically!

I've been looking pretty hard for a part time job, and I lucked into a gig transcribing video footage for a tv show. It eats up my weekends (boo), but I'm hoping to tuck away a couple of thousand dollars by the end of June.

I'm also hoping to get another job working on a cruise ship for a few months. If I can get back to that, and (here's the trick) DON'T SPEND ANY MONEY, I should be able to set aside another several thousand. I've really got my fingers crossed on that one, there are no guarantees that it'll come through... It's hard to be away, sometimes you have to make sacrifices to achieve a goal, right?

 

[myprincessgirlisa]

i did the TDS thing, but that was when Disney owned TDS not the Childrens Place...so I took all my checks from there & put them in savings, plus I took advantage of ANY discounts i could get from being a cast member
I saved a pretty penny, but I worked my butt off(2jobs)...sometimes over 70hrs a week!!!, but it was all worth it, I even won the teamwork award & my name is forever etched on a plaque at our store

Now to save I do this....i put everything in savings & transfer only what I need to checking...its helped, but I cheat every so often....or....if I make something(like a homemade gift) or if coworkers get marketday/fundraiser stuff thru DDs school, i pay for it & people pay me back with a check...i take that & put it into savings for WDW

great ideas on here....i can always benefit from saving more!!

 

[aprincess72]

We live by Dave Ramsey's financial principles which is why we have no debt at all. So for our wedding we went back to Dave's basic budgeting advice. Which means money goes into savings first and we use cash and not a debit card (you overspend 30% when using a card). You put your alloted money for the week in your wallet and that way you always know what you have to spend and you don't overspend! It sounds simple but it works. We paid cash for everything including our Disneyland trip.
Our families contributed to our wedding as well but after everything we actually came out $15000 ahead! We did so well we decided to stick to the "wedding budget" through the end of the year so we can get a bigger house!

 

[purplegirl247]

I did (and do) a similar (but opposite) thing as myprincessgirlisa. I have my bank automatically transfer x amount of dollars into my savings account every pay day. If it's not there, I can't miss it, and my savings jumped up quite a bit in the six months that I bumped up the amount (I usually put $50 every week but increased it to I think $75 or $100 in the months leading up to the wedding). Of course, I took a look at my budget first, so I wouldn't end up tapped out at the end of the month!

I also take out x amount of dollars per week to spend on going out to dinner, unexpected expenses, and fun stuff. Once that money is gone, I don't spend anymore. This generally means we stay home a lot toward the end of the week.

 

[stitchlet]

Thanks for all the tips! You've all got some great ideas!

 

[Chantelle]

Between just buying a house and planning the wedding, a lot of the wedding is ending up on the line of credit. Not ideal, but it is a manageable amount of debt and we have a repayment schedule worked out for the next few months. I claim that this is our something borrowed for the old poem...something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

One thing that is really helping us with wedding costs is that the Canadian dollar continues to grow in strength. Our hotel rooms alone ended up costing about $300 less then we had figured because the dollar has gone up that much. While a lot of weddings end up way over budget, most of our items are ending up under budget leaving us in very good shape.

 

[lurkyloo]

We're doing a lot of the things mentioned here already, and you'd be amazed how much it adds up! We have a change jar, I do Sunshine Rewards (thanks, Maggie! ), and we're earning Disney Dollars with our Disney Rewards cards.

The other things we do: product rebates, survey money, signing up for a Wachovia checking account (they give you $125 if you keep it open five months), recycling (everyone teases us about collecting all the bottles and cans at parties) and eBay - we've sold a ton of stuff, little and big, and it all adds up to more money for our trip!

 

[alauniira]

How does sunshine Rewards work??

 

[lurkyloo]

Sunshine Rewards is a website that helps you earn money by clicking on links, taking surveys, signing up for offers and shopping online. Once you've accumulated at least $20 in Rewards, you can cash it out for Disney Gift Cards, other kinds of gift cards, or cash though Paypal. A lot of DISers do it, and it's run by a DISer. I found out about it from a bride on this board.

It's great for someone who's online a lot at work or home, cuz you can spend a few minutes web surfing to earn money a couple times a day. However, if you're like my fella and are hardly ever on the Internet, it can be hard to earn enough rewards.

One thing to know, because you earn money by signing up for stuff - contests, trial offers, etc. - is you get a LOT of junk email. It's good to set up an email account just to use for Sunshine Rewards.

http://www.sunshinerewards.com/signup.php?r=5299

Hope this isn't TMI - I'm just really excited about it cuz I've already earned $200 for our trip!

 

[mmmsarah3]

We live by Dave Ramsey's financial principles which is why we have no debt at all. So for our wedding we went back to Dave's basic budgeting advice. Which means money goes into savings first and we use cash and not a debit card (you overspend 30% when using a card). You put your alloted money for the week in your wallet and that way you always know what you have to spend and you don't overspend! It sounds simple but it works. We paid cash for everything including our Disneyland trip.
Our families contributed to our wedding as well but after everything we actually came out $15000 ahead! We did so well we decided to stick to the "wedding budget" through the end of the year so we can get a bigger house!

That is so crazy, my parents have been doing his stuff and got us involved now. So that is a big way that we will be saving. I didn't think that many people knew about him or at least I have never heard of anyone else knowing about him. He has really good tips and you would think it would be common sense, but sometimes people just look that sort of stuff over.

 

[aprincess72]

That is so crazy, my parents have been doing his stuff and got us involved now. So that is a big way that we will be saving. I didn't think that many people knew about him or at least I have never heard of anyone else knowing about him. He has really good tips and you would think it would be common sense, but sometimes people just look that sort of stuff over.

It changed the way I think about everything!!!

 

[jodeeluvsdisney]

Our savings plan consists of selling two of the three houses we own between the two of us (and one of them is not the current home we live in!) Ugh!! Going on year 1 now that they've both been for sale.

Does anyone know anyone in Michigan who wants to buy a three unit rental home and a really cute single family home in Kalamazoo??? My house comes with FREE college tuition. Yes, you read that correctly. If kids go to Kalamazoo Public Schools they get college paid for at any MI public university!

Seriously, we could have a custom wedding if we could get rid of 2 of our 3 mortgage payments!! Ha ha!

 

[jodeeluvsdisney]

Oh! and I return all of my DF's beer bottles from the garage where he and his buddies are constantly working on a toy/automobile of some sort...and I can almost pay for my weekly groceries!!

 

[KStarfish82]

I the Disney Rewards Visa Card! I have been charging all my major purchases on it and have definitely had the rewards add up. I can pay for all those little extras with the rewards alone!

This type of savings isn't exactly "fun," but I have opened a new savings account at HSBC which gives a 5% interest rate. I live at home still and my expenses are minimal. Luckily, I have a GREAT job which I and am fortunate enough to be able to save. I already have enough to pay the rental fee for the ceremony site (wherever that may be ) just from the interest!

My DF's grandfather recently passed on and we have actually been using Craig's List to sell his furniture. In a way, it's kind of like his wedding gift to us .