July 6, 2010 - 7/6/2010 ~ Pounds to Rubles ~ Mickey invades the Baltic Sea

[threebritts]

Our first thing is to not have Pizza Night every Tuesday, but to do it just twice a month instead of every week. That will save $20/night, so that's $800. And while that might not seem like a lot, that's insurance, tips, or transfers, or some combination of the three. Or 61.5% of Zachary's cruise fare. Hhhmmmm... writing that just gave me the idea that I'm going to challenge the boys to come up with ways to SAVE their cruise fares. Like every time they turn a light out or don't take a super-long shower or turn the t.v. off when they aren't watching it, they can put some change in a jar. I bet they "earn" their cruise passage easily that way.

I told DD the first thing we are cutting back on is WEBKINZ!
My house is becoming overrun with them anyway!
The snowbirds are coming down and Ill have alot of chance for OT between now and May.

We are lucky in the fact that my friend thats going on this cruise works the London desk for Continental so im doing her fare and shes doing all our airfare with passes.
Its not the fare that seems to get, its the tipping,excursions and that darn "key to the world card "I love so much. I need to learn to just say NO

 

[nzdisneymom]

Zachary loves his Webkinz, too. Costco had a two-pack for $20 about a month ago so I picked that up and put it in the closet for Christmas. When we were at WDW in September, I noticed that the World of Disney was selling Webkinz. It just seemed so wrong. And for the price they were charging - wowza!

Another thing I think we'll try is every time you get a drink of water rather than a juice or soda, you can put the per-drink cost into the jar. I was thinking about that today when my soda-can I brought for lunch was a dud and I spent 65-cents in the vending machine for a new one (while the one from home, even as a dud, was under 25-cents). Or maybe I'll bring my "cheap" sodas in and sell them to my co-workers

 

[yargrnhoj]

Just two hours????? What's your secret? Sorry Cheryl - we you! Hope John's Birthday was fantastic!

JR - your Europe trip - did you end up going to Paris too? I thought you were supposed too but not sure where else you went too.

I'm having lunch with Cheryl Monday after next. I'll tell her you said hi.

Yes, we saw England, we saw France, we saw... wait, nevermind. It was a lot of fun. Pictures and trip report at http://www.jrgray.net/2008europe/main.html

 

[cmaelltt1]

I just wanted to post something to see if my viking Mickey avatar worked.

 

[cmaelltt1]

Well, I'm not so sure it looks like a Viking hat when it's that small. My try to change it a little.

 

[denise]

Carrie,
How cute! I really need to learn this program....ok...that's my new goal among many...

 

[Keggy]

I told the girls (DD and DD BFF) they could earn money if they help me lose weight. I added they just can't say, "How's it going." They said darn...
I also told them I would pay them to wash ours cars toward their money for the trip....didn't go over so well because it was work!
But seriously....we are not getting mochas anymore...there's $4 X 3 a day...every little bit helps....
maybe I'll sell our furniture too!

I joined WW last Monday - hopefully that with this trip in mind will be motivatin for me! We need to not eat out so much, so that will be savings towards the trip!

 

[DW2DH&DS]

I just wanted to post something to see if my viking Mickey avatar worked.

yay!!! he looks so cute

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Hi everyone! Hope everyone has had a good week. Mine has been slammed it is the end of a grading period. Grades are due tomorrow and i had nothing recorded. We also have wonderful parent teacher confrences tomorrow. so much fun. As for saving money there are several things we do. All lose changes goes into our cruise fund pig. Normal piggy bank decorated with vacation sayings. Instead of buying lunches we are packing them saves almost a 100 a week. No more starbucks. We have set up a special high intreset savings accouint all extra money like refund checks and any tips matt gets goes into this account. We also decided no gifts for the next few years. This is easy for us to do since we are all adults and don't expect Santa to show up on Christmas.

Lissa

 

[jship210]

Money saving for us. Lunches- we bring ours every day- coffee, we make two pots in the morning one for breakfast and one to fill our to-go cups.
At the station we have a coffee pot, everyone chips in. No more Dunking Donuts, Starbucks ect. eat out once a month if it's a special night. Coupons! Coupons! Coupons! My DW is a finatic. She has a ball getting stuff for free or very cheap.
At night any change goes into the "pot" Thankfully gas is $2.73 here and I have a G-car so we only fill my wife's once a week and my truck every other.
It's amazing how quickly it adds up. By cutting back on the small things it really shows at the end of the year. But it also means a veranda!!!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Lissa - good luck with the conferences tomorrow.
I'm at the point that I wish Santa didn't (have to) show up - things would be a lot easier.

I love reading the ideas that you all are posting. I should look into the higher-interest savings account - is that like an ING account? That would be a great way to put our money aside and have it work a bit for us as well.

Zachary got chosen to play Santa is his school holiday play. Thankfully his is the one costume that is "provided" so I don't have to shell out $15 for it. I already had to buy his $10 chorus shirt which he will probably wear for just one performance since he's got a non-chorus role in the play, and of course he needs jeans for one performance (and his trip to the Agrirama next month) and a pair of black pants for the rest of the performances. As fast as he and Nathan are both growing, I don't buy much at a time for them.

But that reminds me that I should take my box of outgrown things to the consignment shop!

 

[DisTeach]

Hope everyone has had a good week. Mine has been slammed it is the end of a grading period. Grades are due tomorrow and i had nothing recorded. We also have wonderful parent teacher confrences tomorrow. so much fun. Lissa

I can feel your pain, Lissa! My conferences are at the start of November, and they are ten hours in length at fifteen minute incriments. How long do yours go for? Also, what grade do you teach again? I think from the Med cruise you said you teach elementary, but I forget which class exactly. We have to do all of our grades online and parents have access to their student's grades on every assignment in every class. It's quite a good tool! Do you do that, too, or is everything hand recorded? I hand record, too, just in case lol

I'm saving money by just taking $20 cash each week and stashing it away like an old school hoarder.

 

[denise]

gonna sell things we don't need!
Just sold my DD's kicking/punching bag tonight that was never used. Sold it on Craig's list for $100 and the guy who bought it was someone in her martial arts class...how funny was that....but that $100 goes into trip fund now! (had bought it 2 years ago for her and it sat in garage unopened)

DH is going to sell some not needed Hard Rock Cafe pins (extras of course) on Ebay....

We save our change too. We have not spent change in years. All change always goes to the bank every week into the vacation account. My DH is always asking if I have change. That account went down after the Med trip so starting all over!
I just sold some DVC points and that paid for DD part of cruise!

We pack our lunches for work too. We have for a few years now. DD gets free meal at her work each day! (California Pizza Kitchen) so we are saving there.
If there is overtime at work we are both taking it now....
Need to think of more ways....
maybe I will wash car windows at stop lights for change....

 

[Deb T.]

I can feel your pain, Lissa! My conferences are at the start of November, and they are ten hours in length at fifteen minute incriments. How long do yours go for? Also, what grade do you teach again? I think from the Med cruise you said you teach elementary, but I forget which class exactly. We have to do all of our grades online and parents have access to their student's grades on every assignment in every class. It's quite a good tool! Do you do that, too, or is everything hand recorded? I hand record, too, just in case lol

I'm saving money by just taking $20 cash each week and stashing it away like an old school hoarder.

I'm also singin' the parent/teacher conference blues! I'm the academically/intellectually gifted resource teacher for a large middle school with an unusually high AIG population. I'm expected to schedule parent conferences for each of my 530 AIG students! Since we don't have conference days built into our calendar, these meetings have to be held before school, after school, and during my planning period. Even if I started on the first day of school, the reality is that 530 sets of parents divided by 180 school days equals 3 conferences a day!

As for saving up for the cruise... first of all, we're praying that DH is able to keep his job throughout the recession. We're already pretty frugal. But, we are eating out less often and trying to put a minimum amount into our savings account each month.

 

[slg]

I'm a Canadian and I'm freaking out about the exchange! We're cutting back on everything and we will not be taking any pre or post rooms with DCL. Have been looking for cheaper accommodation in London, maybe in a youth hostel! And we'll be schlepping on the tube and the bus down to Dover.

Not sure how to save on the actual cruise, but if our dollar keeps dropping then excursions will have to be cut back.

If the cat. 12's come out with good prices, I may trade our cat. 4 for 2 12's (which kills me but if it keeps me on the boat then I'll suffer it).

I'm trying to be mindful in my shopping and ask myself " do I really need this?" before making a purchase. Also going to use up all my shampoos and conditioners and make-up that I get sick of and move on before I finish.

If there are some of us who will be going down to Dover on our own, we should try and go together. It would be more fun and less frightening. I'll talk more about that closer to the time...too early now.

Its hard to be excited when the economy is so terrible, but we have almost 2 years to go, so hopefully things will be a bit rosier.

 

[nzdisneymom]

My coworker had a Happy Meal for lunch yesterday. She got a London Barbie as her toy and gave it to me. She's sitting on my desk now as a reminder that I work to travel

 

[goingsouth]

we switched from cat 6 to 10 to save money. we we also be taking public transport to/from dover and staying in a London b&b. I'm saving our Disney reward card $ to pay for tips. I told the kids that Santa had his money in the stock market so there would be less under the tree. Frankly, they don't care. They'd be happy with less. It's me that (in the past) goes overboard. I made a budget on excel today and I am going to stick with it!

Joanne

 

[scottishwee35]

Hello Everybody

We just back from SPAIN,

We had a nice times and the weather was lovely and lovely hotel too.

Back to Scotland - pouring heavy raining

I told my husband that one week was not enough,, should be two weeks

anyway, he said no holiday next year because of this Cruise as we have to save up harder, I made money from Ebay and will selling more soon to make more money.

About logos I love all of it

I heard a rumor about the little mermaid statue not being in Copenhagen in2010. Naturally, i did a google search. There is a chance she will be moved to Shainghai for the WorldExpo. I am really sad about it because i wanted my picture with her as well.

http://en.expo2010china.com/expo/expo_english/participation/ln/userobject1ai53027.html

My husband cannot believe it

Maybe we should have viking night instead. A night of drinking and debauchery would seem fitting!

Yes, should be fun

Scottishwee35

 

[Keggy]

Glad yu had a great trip! Welcome back!

 

[CarolAnnC]

I saw today the US$ was stronger against the Pound and the Euro. Maybe we should stock up just in case!

Going to start a couple of easy cutbacks here, such as cancelling an AOL account we still have, and possibly some magazine subscriptions as they run out.

Might be a good New Year Resolution! ..to cut back on some luxury items. Our trip for next year is the WDW vacation I won at Doorway to Dreams here in Chicago, so should save some travel money next on that at least.