Looking For Some (Saving $$) Advice

[momofboyz3]

Forgot to mention - the cell phones!!!! We had a plan with Verizon that was approximately $200 per month as well and I switched us to Page Plus and now our total monthly bill is $54! Almost $150 per month right there

Wowzers! The darn cell phone... Worse than cable! We have sprint & I'm about to google pad plus, thanks my twins have a basic flip phone from sprint spend maybe 2 hours a month on it, maybe a dozen text messages (it's an emergency phone & so I know where they are). I have Internet though and all the bells and whistles.

 

[momofboyz3]

Look into the value resorts. I love them and they are cheaper. And don't do the DDP unless it's free. It's easily to share meals at Disney and save money. A lot of the meals are huge and can easily be shared between two or three people if you know where to find them. Then breakfast in room. If you do enough research and cut corners you can stay pretty cheap on property.

Good luck!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

ThankYou! I will look into the value. BuT, no way will my boys share anything... They are HUGE eaters. Very athletic. In fact I paid OOP for one meal during our last trip and decided to share a meal with my youngest... Lets just say I was starving when we left. Lol.

 

[momofboyz3]

Dear OP,
I'm in the Boston area too. I personally could not handle driving to Orlando from Boston, even stopping over half way for the night. We fly out of TF Green in Providence/Warwick - lots of direct flights on Southwest plus parking is cheap.

We are a one income family - I work outside the home and DH is a SAHD. I work in Downtown Boston and the temptation to eat lunch out is always there with so many excellent restaurants to choose from. Still, I pack my lunch (and breakfast) every day and remind myself why I am doing so.

Do you have a Market Basket supermarket anywhere near you? We think their store brand products are just as good as the name brands. Can't say the same for Shaw's brands though. Also, find the reduced bakery section in your store - can't remember the last time we paid full price for bread.

Learn to love your crockpot - a pork shoulder or whole chicken can cook all day and will go a long way to filling up three boys.

A lot of folks like the change jar approach but I find it too easy to "borrow" from it. Can you have money taken out of your paycheck and sent to a vacation club type account or a distant credit union?

I agree with the idea of a Disney value resort - your transportation is free including Magical Express. If you can swing Art of Animation, you and the boys will not be disappointed! We stayed there for two nights even though we are DVC members - just had to try it out.

Well I have to reply to my fellow Bostonian! Yeah, one thing I won't do is drive to WDW although I an see this being a huge money saver.
I've been very good at packing my lunch and limiting my dunkin coffee trips to once a week.
I worked in Downtown for many years (just transferred to Brighton) and would easily spend $15 a day on food (crazzzzyy) but UNOs to go (UTG) is AWESOME or Bruegers Bagels!!!!
Anyways, happy to say I don't do that anymore.
I shop at stop and shop & will check out the markdown bakery stuff... I agree, I would totally borrow from the jar, so tomorrow I'm going to start the paperwork at work so they can take some money out (thanks everyone for that suggestion)
thanks again for your response. Stay warm, today was a chiller!

 

[dunningdisney]

buy half gallons of milk in the food courts or buy in gift shop and bring into food courts with breakfast

 

[justAglance]

While I was in the waiting room at my doctor today. You came to mind again. I notice most people here on the budget boards tend to have similar meal plans, and I notice steak of some form is usually a special treat. Since you have boys, I'm sure protein is a big thing. Boys eat meat, we love meat. Steak, mmm, steak. But man, the Prime stuff is ex-pen-sive!!

A friend and I try to out-cook each other when we break out our lunch at work. One day we both came up with the same protein for lunch. It was called 'Gucchi' steak. This is great steak on a budget. Not sure how many know of this, but if this helps more people have a special (budget) dinner, then I am glad to share. We both used $5 steaks also, btw.

You can look up other recipes, but this one was the one we both used. http://www.steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

PS: Grats on getting debt free. I was able to get out of debt also (awhile ago) and since then, it feels great. But like another poster said, since your debt free, grab a rewards card. Don't get trapped again by debt, but with the rewards card, you can now start getting extra 'freebies' (or at least how my mind sees it).

 

[bzkds]

If your cell phones are on Sprint now, look into Ting.com. It runs on the Sprint network so you can keep your same phones. I switched my Ds15 to Ting and have had NO complaints, in fact, I'm planning to switch myself (from Verizon) in January!

I do have a Ting referral code good for $25! PM me if you're interested

Beth

 

[arminnie]

I have become a major fan of dried beans and peas. Not really to save money - but because they really taste good.

I kid my DH all the time and tell him that I could replace him in a minute with my beans and cornbread.

I cook red beans and rice the traditional New Orleans way. Add small amounts of sausage for flavor.

I make pinto beans with Mexican flavoring.

Crowder or lady cream peas with potatoes.

Blackeyed peas with maybe cabbage on the side.

Red beans for chili with hamburger.

Beans (different kinds) with rice, cheese and rotel - one of my favorites.

White beans (navy beans) with small amounts of pork or ham. My DH likes fried potatoes with them.

I've even made homemade Boston baked beans from scratch.

The important part is that these items taste really good, are filling and are for the most part dirt cheap.

Eggs are also a source of fairly cheap protein. I usually boil a dozen at a time. I use them for snacks, tuna, egg salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, etc.

 

[momofboyz3]

While I was in the waiting room at my doctor today. You came to mind again. I notice most people here on the budget boards tend to have similar meal plans, and I notice steak of some form is usually a special treat. Since you have boys, I'm sure protein is a big thing. Boys eat meat, we love meat. Steak, mmm, steak. But man, the Prime stuff is ex-pen-sive!!

A friend and I try to out-cook each other when we break out our lunch at work. One day we both came up with the same protein for lunch. It was called 'Gucchi' steak. This is great steak on a budget. Not sure how many know of this, but if this helps more people have a special (budget) dinner, then I am glad to share. We both used $5 steaks also, btw.

You can look up other recipes, but this one was the one we both used. http://www.steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

PS: Grats on getting debt free. I was able to get out of debt also (awhile ago) and since then, it feels great. But like another poster said, since your debt free, grab a rewards card. Don't get trapped again by debt, but with the rewards card, you can now start getting extra 'freebies' (or at least how my mind sees it).

so I love that you thought of me at the doctors office! Hahaha! I did check out the "Gucci steaks" oh man that's no joke.... You r right my boys LOVE meat! I make BBQ ribs every other Sunday and thy each have a full rack. It's why I like the DDP because I didn't flinch when one boy ordered the salmon special the other and the other steak wherever we went (the 3rd was only 9 so he would usual eat a burger or pizza)
I do think it's time for me to apply for a rewards cc I think it would make sense. I did read your PM & the advice you gave, so thank you so much!
I appreciate the time you took to respond

 

[tink fan]

My 13 year old son is trying to make/save money for a school trip. In the past three months, he has made about $450 from selling things around our house.

Here is the breakdown:
$230 selling old toys, books and DVDs at a flea market sponsored by our local Children's Museum. This one floored me that we made so much, but we priced everything very reasonably and sold almost everything within 2 hrs. I figured that I don't want to bring home the items, so I was better off selling them. We had the bin of DVD's front and center and that stopped a lot of people at out booth to look. We had a price of $1 per DVD.

$100 for clothes at Once Upon a Child--they will only take items in good condition, no stains or tears. I know they pay practically nothing, but if you have enough ... We had a lot of uniform pants/shorts and I got rid of all their coats and jackets.

$83 on his Nintendo DS lite and 3 games on Amazon. Another surprise here. Pokémon soul silver and heart of gold games can be sold back for more than $20. We were only given an amazon credit, but you could use this for Christmas gifts. (I just paid my son the amount of the credit because he wanted cash)
We did the same at Target for a couple other games and received a target gift card for $23. The Pokémon games have a pretty good resale value. Most of the other games we had did not.

I was very surprised by how much money we were able to make from stuff we just had around the house. If I was willing to sell on ebay, I could probably do even better.

If you find items that have never been opened, check on the store's return policy. I found a couple boxes of American Girl doll clothes from last Christmas that my daughter never touched. I called the store and they said that they could be returned at any time if they hadn't been used. They were still current items. I even still had my receipts, so I received $60 back for them. If not, I would have received a store credit that I could have used for gifts for nieces.

What I realized with the resale shops and flea market is that you have to get past what you paid for it and what you think it is worth. I decided it was better to receive a smaller amount and have it sell, rather than pricing too high or trying to find another place that might pay more.

 

[momofboyz3]

My 13 year old son is trying to make/save money for a school trip. In the past three months, he has made about $450 from selling things around our house.

Here is the breakdown:
$230 selling old toys, books and DVDs at a flea market sponsored by our local Children's Museum. This one floored me that we made so much, but we priced everything very reasonably and sold almost everything within 2 hrs. I figured that I don't want to bring home the items, so I was better off selling them. We had the bin of DVD's front and center and that stopped a lot of people at out booth to look. We had a price of $1 per DVD.

$100 for clothes at Once Upon a Child--they will only take items in good condition, no stains or tears. I know they pay practically nothing, but if you have enough ... We had a lot of uniform pants/shorts and I got rid of all their coats and jackets.

$83 on his Nintendo DS lite and 3 games on Amazon. Another surprise here. Pokémon soul silver and heart of gold games can be sold back for more than $20. We were only given an amazon credit, but you could use this for Christmas gifts. (I just paid my son the amount of the credit because he wanted cash)
We did the same at Target for a couple other games and received a target gift card for $23. The Pokémon games have a pretty good resale value. Most of the other games we had did not.

I was very surprised by how much money we were able to make from stuff we just had around the house. If I was willing to sell on ebay, I could probably do even better.

If you find items that have never been opened, check on the store's return policy. I found a couple boxes of American Girl doll clothes from last Christmas that my daughter never touched. I called the store and they said that they could be returned at any time if they hadn't been used. They were still current items. I even still had my receipts, so I received $60 back for them. If not, I would have received a store credit that I could have used for gifts for nieces.

What I realized with the resale shops and flea market is that you have to get past what you paid for it and what you think it is worth. I decided it was better to receive a smaller amount and have it sell, rather than pricing too high or trying to find another place that might pay more.

ThankYou! I never thought of ebay or resale stores I'm definately going to take a weekend and get all of our stuff together & look into both.
I know I have alot of brand name clothes which are sitting in the back of my & the boys have tons of stuff in good condition.
Thanks again!

 

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

Seeing as you are living week-to-week, I recommend to use reward websites to earn extra cash.

try:

-swagbucks
- viewpoints
- QR rewards

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

OP I just read through this thread and you have received great money savings ideas some of which I use regularly. What we did differently this past summer was switch our dates (we always go in July--high season) and we checked in on the first day of value season which was Aug 4. We were there for 11 nights and the hotel price difference saved us almost $600 and this was in a value ASMusic!

So, I priced out a vacation for you value hotel ASSports which I think your boys will love and at the beginning of value season. This is all rack rate but a 15% off room is always offered for this time period so cost will be less.

Aug 4-11 7 nights ASSports
7 day base park tickets (no water parks or hopping)
$2079.

With Quick Service DDP $3189
With Regular DDP $3721

As you can see the DDP adds a huge chunk which you can reduce by going oop on food. For my family of 4 adults we calculated that the qsddp is $160/day and $60 of that is for desserts and drinks so we never purchase it.

I totally get the pre-paid feeling of not having to actually look at prices and ordering whatever but in my opinion that comes at a high cost. Pack cereal, granola bars, bagels, microwave popcorn and light snacks in your luggage.
You can get a half gallon of milk at the hotel for almost the price of a single serve container. That takes care of breakfast and some snacks which is a huge saver.

Calculate cost of lunch and dinner according to where you will eat and put that amount on a gift card and use that to pay for the pre-paid effect. This way you will only pay for what you order.

We used this method this past Aug. and were able to do an 11 night stay for around $3500 not including transportation.

 

[elaine amj]

The key to saving real money is to change your mindset about money. Rather than just buying something because it's a good deal or you "need it", take a minute and ask yourself if you REALLY "need it". Consider what you can do with the money otherwise.

I usually try to look at money in terms of what I can use it for. When I was planning a WDW trip a little while ago, I came across a deal where I could upgrade from a Value to a Moderate for our 10 day trip for just $200+ and some hassle. It was a VERY good deal. I ended up opting not to do the upgrade because $200 can buy me another local weekend getaway. We love our constant weekend travelling and I decided we would get more enjoyment out of another short trip somewhere near than staying in a fancier hotel at WDW. YMMV

Since I started working a few years ago, DH and I have succumbed a lot to lifestyle inflation. I used to eat out for lunch 1-2 times a month and only if I found a good deal for under $5 a lunch. In the last 1-2 years, I have been spending $12-$15 for lunch 1-2 times a week. Ridiculous (and yet, as I am typing this I am tempted *sigh*)

Anyway it sounds like you are on a good track! Hopefully you will also be able to use these tips to build an emergency fund so that you won't have the stress of living week by week.

 

[bettymae1121]

Goodwill/thrift stores for clothing, not just for the boys but for you, too! Shop there 1st then only buy at a regular retail store what you couldn't find at the thrift store. I had to have a new pair of khaki pants for work a few weeks ago and went to Goodwill first before heading to the mall. Found a pair of Brooks Brothers khaki's for $5, if they had every been worn at all, it must have been only once or twice because they were in GREAT shape! Pants sell for $90 at Brooks Bros! Even if I had gone to Kohls it would have been at least $20.

I haven't been able to buy for my own daughter yet (they don't have baby/toddler clothing, at least at my Goodwill) but once she gets into children's sizes in a few years I'll buy her stuff there too, they always seem to have a good selection.

 

[momofboyz3]

OP I just read through this thread and you have received great money savings ideas some of which I use regularly. What we did differently this past summer was switch our dates (we always go in July--high season) and we checked in on the first day of value season which was Aug 4. We were there for 11 nights and the hotel price difference saved us almost $600 and this was in a value ASMusic!

So, I priced out a vacation for you value hotel ASSports which I think your boys will love and at the beginning of value season. This is all rack rate but a 15% off room is always offered for this time period so cost will be less.

Aug 4-11 7 nights ASSports
7 day base park tickets (no water parks or hopping)
$2079.

With Quick Service DDP $3189
With Regular DDP $3721

As you can see the DDP adds a huge chunk which you can reduce by going oop on food. For my family of 4 adults we calculated that the qsddp is $160/day and $60 of that is for desserts and drinks so we never purchase it.

I totally get the pre-paid feeling of not having to actually look at prices and ordering whatever but in my opinion that comes at a high cost. Pack cereal, granola bars, bagels, microwave popcorn and light snacks in your luggage.
You can get a half gallon of milk at the hotel for almost the price of a single serve container. That takes care of breakfast and some snacks which is a huge saver.

Calculate cost of lunch and dinner according to where you will eat and put that amount on a gift card and use that to pay for the pre-paid effect. This way you will only pay for what you order.

We used this method this past Aug. and were able to do an 11 night stay for around $3500 not including transportation.

Wow! ThankYou so much for taking the time to do that for me. ThAt makes alot of sense and will definately consider changing my thoughts of when to go. The gift cards also sound like a winning idea that I didn't think of. Thanks again!

 

[MEM]

Goodwill/thrift stores for clothing, not just for the boys but for you, too! Shop there 1st then only buy at a regular retail store what you couldn't find at the thrift store. I had to have a new pair of khaki pants for work a few weeks ago and went to Goodwill first before heading to the mall. Found a pair of Brooks Brothers khaki's for $5, if they had every been worn at all, it must have been only once or twice because they were in GREAT shape! Pants sell for $90 at Brooks Bros! Even if I had gone to Kohls it would have been at least $20.

I haven't been able to buy for my own daughter yet (they don't have baby/toddler clothing, at least at my Goodwill) but once she gets into children's sizes in a few years I'll buy her stuff there too, they always seem to have a good selection.

Yep, DD17 and I were just at the Salvation Army Store in Framingham, MA (OP you might want to check it out!). For every 50 pieces of junk you'll find one keeper - I found DD an aeropostale wool blend zip front cable knit hoodie for $5.99 - pink and white stripes. She found herself a short trench coat with a questionable stain on it (that came out with Tide) - also $5.99. I found DS19 a denim barn coat with a flannel lining for $8.99 - like new. You have to enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I buy all of DH, DS and my shorts here, too. Shoes are a total bust, however.

 

[elaine amj]

Yep, DD17 and I were just at the Salvation Army Store in Framingham, MA (OP you might want to check it out!). For every 50 pieces of junk you'll find one keeper - I found DD an aeropostale wool blend zip front cable knit hoodie for $5.99 - pink and white stripes. She found herself a short trench coat with a questionable stain on it (that came out with Tide) - also $5.99. I found DS19 a denim barn coat with a flannel lining for $8.99 - like new. You have to enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I buy all of DH, DS and my shorts here, too. Shoes are a total bust, however.

I'm a thrift store junkie u get the best deals there...just have to be willing to wade through the junk.

 

[jedijill]

I just discovered YNAB (You Need a Budget) software. It is amazing! I knew I was wasting money and this program is helping me figure out how to stop that and use some common sense budgeting. I found it on sale on Stream a couple of months ago. I want to get beyond living paycheck to paycheck and get at least a month ahead and still save for vacations and all those gotcha bills...like the dental work I'm about to have done.

Jill in CO