Vacation Fund?

[jchrapcyn]

Any creative ideas for raising money for the vacation fund? I need to come up with $1800 by Aug for the room and flight. A garage sale isn't gonna cut it! (well I'll probably have one anyway)

 

[Jessica527]

Did you get a tax refund? How about change jars laying around? Anytime you purchase something with a coupon, put the extra in a jar...? Get the Disney Visa card and start getting reward dollars from your purchases?

Or plain old...have $50 a week transferred from your checking to a savings account for the trip.

 

[lizabu]

$75 a week should get you to $1800 by august. Maybe one day or 2 nights a week working at a fast food restaurant? A paper route? Is there a craft you're good at and can sell on Etsy?

 

[Marionnette]

You have 4 months to raise $1800. That's $450/month or close to $113 per week - not the $50 to $75 per week that the pp alluded to. For that kind of money the only thing that I can think of would be getting a part-time, seasonal job. Try applying at your local gardening center. Or see if there is something at Lowes or Home Depot.

 

[Disney845]

Any creative ideas for raising money...

~ donate a body part?
~ nude model for an art class?
~ salvage scrap metal?

I am assuming you wanted something more "interesting" than the obvious idea of getting a 2nd job, working more hours, etc.

My office complex is in a commercial park. Behind the offices/warehouses is a storage facility. Every week they clean out units (I assume people didn't pay on) and throw stuff into the dumpsters in our complex. Every week one of my co-workers goes "dumpster diving" (literally backs his truck to the dumpster and uses the bed to jump into the dumpster) and he then scavenges for saleable items. He also knows the routes for the different days of garbage pick up in our city and goes out early in the morning driving the routes looking for things on the curb before the trash gets picked up. He is constantly holding yard sales with his finds.

He has found some pretty interesting/valuable things in his dumpster diving. A few things I can think of off the top of my head are a working treadmill, an autographed football, a jewel encrusted dolphin shaped zippo lighter, a working miniature (dorm size) fridge, lots of furniture and office supply stuff (thrown out in our own complex).

One sad story is that he saw a man out near the dumpster one day (not from our building complex) saying that he was looking for his family/wedding pictures. He was behind on paying the storage unit and they had thrown his stuff out (they were nice enough to tell him what dumpster to look in). My co-worker remembered seeing them in the trash the week before, but the dumpster had already been collected.

 

[An_Island_Girl]

Do you have kids? If so, maybe you can sell some of their old cloths on eBay? The last time I sold my daughters' dresses that she had outgrown, I made close to $1000.
Some brand name toys sell well too! Look around, you never know what treasures your house may hold.

 

[mommy2sixpumpkins]

As for the garage sale, depending on what you have (brands, large items etc) you may get more money for them on Craigslist or Ebay. I had a high end treadmill that I tried to sell at a garage sale. No one wanted to pay a below than fair price for it so I posted it on CL and got more than I originally wanted to get out of it. Don't short change yourself on the nicer items. Name brand clothing goes better on Ebay from what I have found vs. those garage sales where people are looking for a deal.

What about a paper route?
My neighbor was wanting to raise money for something and he went around and did yard work for $5 an hour. He was a hard worker and raked a ton of leaves and pine needles for most of the neighbors and made quite a bit of money. People did pay more than he had asked for and they already have him lined up for this year. Not sure if there are yards that need mowing etc. but it may be worth something to look into.

When you do have your garage sale, make some cookies and sell them with bottle water and sodas. We made a killing off of those items especially when it was hot.

 

[crazelion]

I do rewards programs. It a lot work. But usually do it when watching TV or kids outside. If the rain ever stop. My yard is pure mud right now.

I do the simple rewards programs. I like swagbucks and quickrewerds.net is my fav.

The rewards board have a huge thread on this with a lot tips on how get start. it thread start by harveygirl.

 

[jchrapcyn]

thanks for all the ideas- I figured out I need to pick up 10 extra shifts at work to make it happen but OT is hard to come by!

 

[erincon23]

Do you have a giant CD collection that you rarely use? My DH has amassed something like 400 CDs, and now that he's put them all on his Zune, they're just dust collectors. We've sold two batches to secondspin.com (and a few to abundatrade.com) -- I just got a check yesterday for $183 for 91 cds (which included a 20% coupon bonus). It's pretty easy to do -- enter the UPC codes from the CDs and they'll tell you how much you'll get for each CD. They even take "club" cds-- BMG and Columbia. Feel free to PM me if you need additional info.

 

[2binak]

-Sell some things on Craigslist. People are willing to pay more on CL than at garage sales and you don't have to deal with shipping like you would on ebay.
- Take some old gold jewelry that you never wear & that doesn't have any sentimental value to local jewlers to see what they would pay for it.

 

[ericlovestechrat]

If you live in a state that gives bottle refunds...go for a walk or a drive. People throw their bottles all along the side of the road. Wear rubber gloves! But you can make a few dollars a day in just a couple hours.

 

[jchrapcyn]

Do you have a giant CD collection that you rarely use? My DH has amassed something like 400 CDs, and now that he's put them all on his Zune, they're just dust collectors. We've sold two batches to secondspin.com (and a few to abundatrade.com) -- I just got a check yesterday for $183 for 91 cds (which included a 20% coupon bonus). It's pretty easy to do -- enter the UPC codes from the CDs and they'll tell you how much you'll get for each CD. They even take "club" cds-- BMG and Columbia. Feel free to PM me if you need additional info.

Oh I would LOVE to do this let me tell you- but DH is still fanatical about his CD's I bet he has 500- I might start sneaking them on half.com

what is Zune? is it like iTunes?

 

[crazelion]

Oh I would LOVE to do this let me tell you- but DH is still fanatical about his CD's I bet he has 500- I might start sneaking them on half.com

what is Zune? is it like iTunes?

Zune is similar to ipod touch

 

[Tink2Day]

~ donate a body part?
~ nude model for an art class?~ salvage scrap metal?

(thrown out in our own complex).

May I suggest she nude model for an art class BEFORE she donates the body part? (scars and such would decrease the fee)


Very imaginative, but I think the traditional ways might work better (though not as much fun).

Flea market, selling merchandise but no fleas.

Actually collecting cans, hiring out to do yard work now that it's Spring, clean houses for friends and neighbors (and make sure you get paid).


GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[southern_redhead]

Use coupons - for anything you can. Shop sales. Better yet, shop sales with coupons! LOL

Don't spend change! I sort mine as I get it. At the end of the day, I empty pockets and wallet, etc, and put quarters in one baggie, dimes in another, nickels in a third. You'll be amazed how fast that change adds up

Don't spend ones...a slightly larger spin on the above. I try not to spend ones, they go straight into the basket with my change bags. Again, adds up fast. We typically don't even notice that we aren't spending them, the stuff we use change and ones on is just junky stuff like snacks and sodas from vending machines.

Pack your lunch. I used to buy frozen meals or the heatable bowls of soup. Now I just pack up a little left over dinner and take it with me. That's $2 a day in my pocket (well, my basket LOL)

Anytime you end up NOT spending money that you were going to spend, put it in the fund. For instance, I was going to take my car through the carwash which costs $7 and the vacuum costs $2. I ended up washing it and detailing it at home and put the $9 in my basket. Or, I have my house cleaned weekly but, sometimes, the woman cancels on me for the week...those times I clean myself and put the money in my basket. That rarely happens but it's a pretty big chunk.

 

[LoriABil]

We have a savings account. We each put $50 every paycheck in. This works out to about $150 a month (DH gets paid monthly, I get paid biweekly).

We also have a change jar. When full, into vacation savings it goes.

But the biggest deposits come from coupons and shopping. At the bottom of the reciept, whatever it says "You Saved" whether from coupons or sales goes into savings as well. At Kohls, it said we had saved $239 the other day buying a vacuum cleaner on sale + 30% off. That was a chunk, but it made us feel better about our budget buster. In cases like that, we might skip a 50 payment to the fund to offset the cost.

I also had to get new tires. I am getting a 70 rebate and into the find it will go.

We started this after our last Disney Trip in September and now have over $2000. Well, we started with $600 we brought back from a trip to Vegas for our anniversary, but you get the picture!

 

[jchrapcyn]

OMH I thought our tax refund was going to be $600 but DH just told me it is $1600!!! woohoo!!!

 

[disney_me]

We have planned our next trip far enough out so we can save. We do the change jar thing everyone puts all of their loose change and any one dollar bills we might have by the end of each week in the jar. Also we have cut back on going out to eat. And I feel our biggest money saving deal is staying off site! We are renting a house with my 2 other sisters and it's only costing us $300.00 each for the week!

What ever you do good luck.

 

[Minnesota!]

we put $120 every check into a specific savings account just for vacations.

we save all our change. We have a huge bucket in our room that it all goes into at the end of each day. I cash it in every 6 months or so and it's usually between $200 - $300.

Mypoints for gift cards

I sell our old textbooks on Half.com

Any "found" money goes into our vacation account - tax returns, bonuses, etc.

Any time either one of us gets a raise, I increase the % of money we are putting into savings