Ways to Save Money 101

[M. Eisner]

Look under the couch cushions for nickles and pennies
Look under my friend cushions when I visit
Don't eat at Disney World
Cancel phone service and only correspond with pigeons
Donate my blood plasma
Raise your own cattle and slaughter them yourself to save at the butcher

 

[barbeml]

So many wonderful ideas.

Here are some of mine:

1. Whenever I get a rebate, expense check or money from someone who owes me, I cash it and put it in our giant crayon bank (that is our dollar bill and change jar).

2. I also put $100 from my salary in the crayon every month. We never miss it.

3. I am a member of MyPoints. Since I buy almost everything on line anyway, shopping though their links earns me hundreds in gift cards every year. Gas cards, Target cards, Starbucks and Rainforest Cafe are good for travel.

4. We have the AAA Diamond Advantage credit card. That earns us 5% off at the pump automatically--really helps the gas bill these days. lso, that card earns $50 voucher on every $5,000 spent, and you can buy Disney merchandise, hoppers, pakcages, etc. at the Travel Store with one or more vouchers.

Barbe

 

[pjlla]

These suggestions are A. very obvious and B. mentioned many times before here on the Budget Board...... but they bear repeating!

Eat two (or more) meatless or budget meals a week, such as rice and beans, oatmeal (Yes, for dinner!), scrambled eggs and toast, cheap mac/cheese mix.

Give up a costly habit.... smoking comes to mind first. Also, the daily cup (or three) of coffee or latte. Make it yourself at home before you leave and take it in a thermos or give it up all together. Give up the soda/snack machine at work/school. Keep a box of granola bars in your desk drawer.

Pack your lunch a few days a week. It's easier than you think!!

Hang your laundry outside whenever possible. (Here in NH that is a valuable suggestion, as we have very expensive electricity!).

Avoid those random trips to the mall for entertainment. You KNOW that you end up spending while you are there!!

Make it a challenge to yourself to see how many days you can go without spending any $$. (I think my longest is about 5 days!). Obviously gas money to get yourself to work is exempt from this challenge!

PAY OFF DEBT!!! Credit card charges are beyond outrageous!!

When you have accomplished a few of these items, reward yourself with a big deposit in your vacation account!! ...........P

 

[HenDuck]

I have to agree with the last poster who said to pay off credit card debt.

I never carry CC debt, but this last year, I changed jobs just before Christmas. I had a 2 pay period lapse because of the new job's payroll system and so I ended up getting azero interest credit card to see my through that period and the holidays. NEVER AGAIN!!!

My balance was not even that high, but it hurt like heck paying it off these last few months! And all I kept thinking is I could've been putting this money in my vacation fund.

Well, lesson learned. The CC will be paid off next month and I'm not going to do that again, NO MATTER WHAT!

So the moral of the story is not to get yourself in unnecessary debt because it makes saving for Disney (or anything else) nearly impossible.

Rant over. Thanks for listening!

 

[arminnie]

If you have a car on your trip I would check out the souvenirs at WalMart before buying anything at the park.

The one on 192 has a large Disney section and even had official tshirts for $5 today. The spray fans were about $11 as opposed to $16 or $17 at the park. I know you can get them even cheaper than $11 but these were actually Disney ones - different from the park but still had Disney characters on them.

This is a super WalMart with groceries that are very reasonable. I bought a 100 oz container of liquid laundry soap for $2. That beat trying to transport it on the plane or pay that much for a single use package at a laundromat.

It was a fairly large Disney section right up at the front of the store. I didn't look at everything but boy did they have a lot of different Disney items - very cheap.

 

[PB'sMOM]

I recently changed homeowner's insurance-now paying $700.00 less a year out of my escrow. My mortgage co. did an escrow ananlysis(at my request) and now my house pyt. will be $100.00 less a month-Yeah. It usually always goes up some-taxes, ins.-nice to have it go down-at least for a year.

Cindy