How do you stay motivated???

[ANNFMUR]

How do you stay motivated with your savings plan. I really need to get focused. We can do this if I stay with it. Our trip is in March and needs to be paid for my Jan 20th. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[toystoryduo]

It can be hard staying motivated at times, can't it? What we do is we make a poster that has every category in our budget on it w/ a cute Disney picture. As we save enough money for each category, we add Mickey ears underneath the picture. For example, our car rental budget for our trip in December is $300. So, we found a picture of a Test Track car and wrote the words "Car Rental" underneath it. For the last few months, it only had 1 Mickey ear underneath it (1 Mickey ear= $100) because we only had $100 saved up for it. A week or so ago, we counted our change jar and had enough money to cover the rest of the car rental so we added 2 more Mickey ears and a great big smilie face to let us know that we are done with that category.

By the way, to make the Mickey ears, I used a Mickey Mouse hole punch I got from Michael's craft store.

Hope this helps!

 

[Melissa M]

When shopping I say to myself, "do I really need this or would I rather spend the money in WDW?" Disneyworld wins hands down most of the time.

 

[PlaneJoy1]

I have had this same sentimate this week! I DON'T want to budget anymore! It's going to take too long, I want a new shirt/pants/makeup, etc.

But then I think of the money we'll have when things are paid off. It's going to be a LONG process, but hopefully we'll get through it. We will treat ourselves at each milestone with something we can afford and then plug on.

Sigh.... I know how you feel. It's REALLY hard sometimes to want to stay on track.

 

[Laurajean1014]

It's like any other motivational tool..... think of the goal, outcome or end. That's what keeps you motivated.....not the everyday drudging.

 

[we3disneygo]

it's easy...........i just wanna see the mouse!!!!!! really when shopping I think, i could buy this or have another 20.00/whatever to get me closer to seeing the mouse!!! it's working so far!

 

[cseca]

I think the best way for me is to do a monthly amt taken out of my paycheck automatically to a savings acct.
That way, I don't think about it too much but definitely have the money when I need it...

If there's anything extra at the end of the month, I'll put it in the same acct. But whether there's anything extra or not, I already have some put away every paycheck.

Works pretty well this way.

 

[Jules123]

OP, I'm having the same problem. I'm trying to save for a trip too and IT'S SO HARD when your trip is so FAR away!

 

[PattiPB]

I think of every extra expenditure as Mickey ice cream bars. Every $2.50 I spend costs me a Mickey bar. Therefore, every $2.50 I save gives me a Mickey bar.

So, if I skip Starbucks, I saved a Mickey bar. If I drink water instead of a soda in a restaurant, that's half a Mickey bar. Once I saved $10 on our rental car, and that's FOUR WHOLE MICKEY BARS!! Go me!!

The funny thing is, I don't eat Mickey bars!!! I eat those Minute Maid strawberry lemonade cups!

Anyway, it is a daily reminder of why I am being frugal and making certain choices. It's also a touch nuts, but it's been working all these years!

 

[LoveWDW]

We have money automatically deducted every pay, this way it isn't around for casual spending.

My husband's policy when he wants to buy something is to leave it behind, and if he still wants it a few days or a week later, he'll buy it.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Simple for us, if we don't have it paid for (NOT on a credit card) in full, we don't go. Same with food/spending money, if we don't have it saved, we don't go. Nothing for a vacation is charged to a cc, with the except of our room/package, and the check is written the minute I get off the phone making the ressie or paying it off.

 

[Jsme]

The only way I can save is by having it taking out of my check directly. This way I never see it. The bank I have that savings account at I hate to go to because of location. So I do not ever withdraw the money.