Things I should do Now to save for Dec trip....

[Aliceacc]

I'm putting more time into my freelancing, but that's slow going because the submission/acceptance/payment cycle is very long with many publications. In the meantime, I'm taking some crappy work through Textbroker in my spare time because I can bang most assignments out in 15-20min and every little bit adds up.

Colleen, could you tell me a little more about Textbroker? I've done a lot of freelance writing in the past, but somehow have never come across them.

What sort of freelance do you do? I'm mostly educational, with the occasional parenting article thrown in.

 

[kswildcatsX5]

I have us paying with cash for almost everything All the spare change goes into separate containers. Nickels and pennies together, dimes in a 2 liter bottle, and quarters in another. We aren't going until May 2015 so we have longer but I figure every little bit will help. It will be fun to see what our change amounts are.

 

[crisi]

You probably have already done the stupid little things but:

Turn down the heat in the house and tell the family to wear sweaters. Blanket your water heater (which costs money for the blanket, you won't get ROI on that in a year). Make your own laundry detergent, cut half the meat from your diet (if you make casseroles with pasta and/or rice, you can cut meat easily - when you are used to putting a pork chop on a plate, its harder). Cut back on shampoo (and buy the cheap stuff), cut dryer sheets in half. Drop cable (with Netflix and Amazon - we buy about $10 in current TV shows a month through Amazon and don't have cable). Clip coupons for THINGS YOU USE, and buy off brand for those things you can. Ask yourself when you buy anything if you need it and need it now, or if you can put off buying it until "after your trip" (you'll probably discover you don't need it at all). All of this is penny stuff, but the pennies do add up (well, cable will put a dent in the budget). Review cell phone plans, insurance, etc.

 

[jennyst]

Depends if you are working in real life or not. If you plan to work online, I suggest that you check out AdSense or some advertising site that will pay you to setup a site and display ads on it. If you do it right you could be on your way to earning 1000+ a month which would add up. If you are working in real life, I suggest cutting back not so important expenses such as physical things for your kids.

 

[faith]

News show today had money saving tip.
For a year put $1 in jar first week. $2 second week, $3 third week, $4 fourth week . You get the idea.
Should generate some extra cash for spending money on the trip.

 

[Nayan]

You probably have already done the stupid little things but:

Turn down the heat in the house and tell the family to wear sweaters. Blanket your water heater (which costs money for the blanket, you won't get ROI on that in a year). Make your own laundry detergent, cut half the meat from your diet (if you make casseroles with pasta and/or rice, you can cut meat easily - when you are used to putting a pork chop on a plate, its harder). Cut back on shampoo (and buy the cheap stuff), cut dryer sheets in half. Drop cable (with Netflix and Amazon - we buy about $10 in current TV shows a month through Amazon and don't have cable). Clip coupons for THINGS YOU USE, and buy off brand for those things you can. Ask yourself when you buy anything if you need it and need it now, or if you can put off buying it until "after your trip" (you'll probably discover you don't need it at all). All of this is penny stuff, but the pennies do add up (well, cable will put a dent in the budget). Review cell phone plans, insurance, etc.

Grab a small notebook and write everything you spend down, from that cup of coffee to a quick fast-food stop to a pack of gum. You would be amazed at how much you spend without even realizing it! It all does add up and cutting much of it out can save some huge money.

 

[crisi]

Also, put all of the kids activities on the table - piano lessons they hate - do you feel they NEED them? Traveling basketball - are they really that good - could a park and rec program let them play for a fraction of the cost? Dance - would a non-competitive studio be a better deal than one where you sink $1,000 into recitals and competition? I'm always shocked with the families I know who are struggling, yet the family needs a hotel room in Winona for a hockey game.

Look at your habits as well - color your hair at a salon? A box of color from CVS on sale won't give you salon results, but will also not be as big a hole in your budget (and if you are lucky on how your hair takes color, with a little practice...I regularly get complemented on my home baylayage - its sort of strange to get asked the name of your colorist to answer "Loreal - or whatever is on sale." Spring for a manicure? Do your nails at home and go in once ever six weeks to get someone to trim your cuticles (or find a manicure friend).

Everything goes on the table - there are no sacred cows to start with. Figure out what you are spending money on that is not important or necessary and cut that. For the important and/or necessary, figure out if you can make it cheaper. When we cut cable, we determined that the list of shows we had cable for would cost us about $200 a year buying the shows one by one off Amazon Prime - our cable bill was $1200 a year.

 

[Colleen27]

Colleen, could you tell me a little more about Textbroker? I've done a lot of freelance writing in the past, but somehow have never come across them.

What sort of freelance do you do? I'm mostly educational, with the occasional parenting article thrown in.

Textbroker is a site where website owners post requests for content and writers can accept what jobs interest them based on their rated skill level. The pay isn't very good, around 2¢ per word to start (you can set a higher rate later, but I've been advised to build up a good portfolio there first), but the jobs are far from complex. Lots of 300-500 word "6 Things That..." and "Review of..." requests intended for company websites/blogs. Very formulaic, not very in depth or detailed, and easy enough to do quickly.

I used to do mostly business copywriting - web site content, newsletters, press releases, direct mailings, that sort of thing for local small businesses. I kind of burnt out on it around the time I got pregnant with my youngest, though. It was hard to turn down work but then I'd end up with more active projects than I could comfortably handle and it started creeping into having some of the same downsides as if I was employed out of the home. So now I'm pitching parenting, gardening, and travel articles the old-fashioned way, getting a lot less work but far more able to keep it on my terms.

 

[Aliceacc]

OK, thanks.

I'll probably pass on Textbroker, but your post did inspire me to look into some new freelance writing. School is reasonably sane at the moment, and I always enjoy a new freelance assignment.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Disney_Ohana]

My main focus right now is on income - How can I bring a little more in that we're not counting on/budgeting? We live pretty simply so there's really no painless cuts that could be made on the expenses side of the equation, which makes bringing money in the more practical means of working towards our goal.

I've never done network marketing until now because of its bad wrap. I recently enrolled in Purium. First because I wanted to get healthy, second because I wanted to be able to earn my investment back. I've been doing it for 25 days now. I've lost weight, feel amazing, I've made my investment back, was able to pay the monthly braces payment from my commission and put away some $$$ into my Disney fund You can research more about it on your own and if you'd like you can inbox me. It has been an unexpected part time income and I'm doing it very very very part time.

 

[DisneyDenis]

Consider making your ticket purchase at Orbitz thru ebates for 10% back. Use a credit card that gives bonus rewards for booking travel to get even more back.

I just checked and there is a drawback to doing tix via Ebates>Orbitz.
Basically you get a link to a voucher. Voucher is presented when going into the first WDW park. PROBLEM: Can NOT use MDX to make advanced FP+ ressies on rides. For Example: Buy tix thru UT, then you can enter them online in MDX (My Disney Experience) and be allowed 3 Fast Pass Reservations in a selected park for each day per ticket.

The kiosk for fast pass times in park might be mobbed and hard to find a good time when you do get to it - if there are any fast passes at all for what is wanted because others have taken those ride-times weeks advance.

You could get stuck on long lines for attractions/rides. A trade off on the 10% savings.

 

[disfanforlife]

Unless, you can trade the vouchers for tickets while there and save them for a future trip. But that is tying up money in tickets. I am going to do this but I don't mind buying ahead. I was thinking of buying more before next price increase anyways.

 

[Marionnette]

I just checked and there is a drawback to doing tix via Ebates>Orbitz.
Basically you get a link to a voucher. Voucher is presented when going into the first WDW park. PROBLEM: Can NOT use MDX to make advanced FP+ ressies on rides. For Example: Buy tix thru UT, then you can enter them online in MDX (My Disney Experience) and be allowed 3 Fast Pass Reservations in a selected park for each day per ticket.

The kiosk for fast pass times in park might be mobbed and hard to find a good time when you do get to it - if there are any fast passes at all for what is wanted because others have taken those ride-times weeks advance.

You could get stuck on long lines for attractions/rides. A trade off on the 10% savings.

If you're staying in an offsite resort, you cannot make FP+ reservations ahead of time. You can only make them on the day that you visit the park. Not everyone visiting Disney World stays in a Disney Resort. So, while your concerns would be true for onsite guests, it won't make a difference for others.

BTW, some have reported success with linking the tickets for their voucher to their MDE account but it took a lot of work with Disney's IT dept. to do it.