What do you do to save???

[bee86]

Hi all,

I know it's a bit personal, I don't mean it too be!! Just a bit of fun and maybe we might get some new ideas from each other,
my question being what do you do to save for your trip?? What little things do you pull back on and you find add up to help pay off the cost of your holiday/spends

The reason this has popped into my head is that I'm back at uni(sitting exams ) and I realised that before Christmas I was spending a shocking amount eating out for lunch or dinner with a sandwich and tea sometimes racking up to €8/approx £6.50. Five days a week you are talking €40/£34.
With €1300 left to pay off my trip before April 26th I really can't being splurging so much.
So this semester I have went out and did a big shop in tesco and cooked loads of meals and froze them so that will stop me eating out so much or spending a lot on unnecessary takeaways or trips to the corner shop!!

Also for Christmas my Dbf got me a kor water bottle which filters tap water as I was spending so much on bottled water!

Any good tips that you have used before or worked for you??

 

[fabulousfive]

I'd love to learn some tips from others too!

 

[wilma-bride]

To be honest, I don't really cut back on much to save. Maybe I'm lucky enough not to have to or maybe (more likely) it's because I don't actually do that much that I could cut back on.

The things I do, though, are that I save £2 coins. I put them in a Terramundi pot. Every time I take money out of the cashpoint, I withdraw an extra £10 and that goes in a separate Terramundi pot. I also save 20ps and, when I have enough, I pay them into the bank, draw it out in paper money and put that in the pot too.

DH and I have a savings account that we pay into regularly, each month, which is called 'Next holiday'. That is our slush fund so, whenever we book anything, the money comes from there. If it isn't in the slush fund, we can't book it.

My DH only has one rule when it comes to holidays and that is that he will not, absolutely no way get into debt for a holiday. Nothing goes on the credit card that we can't pay off straight away and we never book a holiday unless we know we can pay in full before we go. As long as I stick to that rule, I'm in his good books

 

[willeve]

I'm with you Wilma-Bride, we only book if we have the money or know it is on the way! On top of holiday saving, I also put £60 a month away towards holiday spends so I don't have to find it all at once.

 

[fabulousfive]

and I have a savings account that we pay into regularly, each month, which is called 'Next holiday'. That is our slush fund so, whenever we book anything, the money comes from there. If it isn't in the slush fund, we can't book it. My DH only has one rule when it comes to holidays and that is that he will not, absolutely no way get into debt for a holiday. Nothing goes on the credit card that we can't pay off straight away and we never book a holiday unless we know we can pay in full before we go. As long as I stick to that rule, I'm in his good books

Last year we had a fund just like this and I said for no reason will we touch this except for our vacation money. Well, we used it all for home repairs, car and health issues. I suppose we should have a separate fund for that too then. But how do you allow it to grow and not touch your "slush" money when so many other needs arise throughout the year? We need help with that!

 

[Kath2003]

Last year we had a fund just like this and I said for no reason will we touch this except for our vacation money. Well, we used it all for home repairs, car and health issues. I suppose we should have a separate fund for that too then. But how do you allow it to grow and not touch your "slush" money when so many other needs arise throughout the year? We need help with that!

You don't. If you need the money for those things, the holiday is the first thing to go. If you have a good year and it all goes well, you go to Orlando. If not, never mind, maybe next year.

We travel on the cheap. Far easier to come up with £600 per person than thousands.

 

[wilma-bride]

Last year we had a fund just like this and I said for no reason will we touch this except for our vacation money. Well, we used it all for home repairs, car and health issues. I suppose we should have a separate fund for that too then. But how do you allow it to grow and not touch your "slush" money when so many other needs arise throughout the year? We need help with that!

If there are other things that arise, that we cannot fund from anywhere else, we would absolutely dip into our holiday fund. Holidays are a luxury - a necessary luxury (for my sanity) but a luxury nonetheless. We are quite lucky in that our home is fairly new, cars are reliable and we have our health (touch wood for all three) but we wouldn't hesitate to put those things ahead of a holiday if the need arose.

 

[flortlebap]

Stopping drinking alcohol saves us a lot of money.

Forward planning food for the week and not eating takeaways or shopping every day - including making sure I have enough work lunches for under £1 each week so I don't spend £3 on a sandwich every day.

Little bits but they all add up, just by planning more and drinking less we are saving at least £100 per month

 

[SilentK]

After we cane back from our 'once in a lifetime trip' for our honeymoon I realised I had to go back! So I quit smoking, at the time that saved £100 a month. I also worked a lot of overtime and saved that money.

Now we're back from trip number 3 and saving to move out of our shoebox and into a house (hopefully). We have very strict budgets for everything and put a set amount away for the car, presents/ Christmas etc, everything after this is saved. We don't go out a lot but take aways are our downfall.

I make sure to use Quidco and Topcashback, I look for sales and discount vouchers before buying and also I'm a member of a survey site.

 

[Rach78]

We are a family of 4 and were finding that our supermarket shop was increasing and increasing each week with the cost of food rising and it got to the point we were spending about £120 on food from supermarket. That did include all our lunches though. We switched to shopping at Aldi and our weekly food is costing about £80 instead!
We also struggle to cut back as to be honest myself and my dh really spend next to nothing in a week. We have friends who question how we can afford to go back to Florida for a second time but we never eat out, we don't drink or smoke, don't buy birthday/xmas presents for each other just the kids, only buy clothes for necessity, dye my own hair etc(we sound so fun don't we??) We save as much as we can each month instead. I also have a terimundi for change and we try and clear out regularly and do car boot sales as well. I also make cupcakes in my spare time and hire a stall here and there. This can make me up to £100 a time.

 

[Azza1987]

I have a shoe box that every Sunday I empty anything that it's my purse that's not a spare £1 coin (for trolleys ) or a £20 note. That seems to add up nicely!

I stopped buying my lunch from Tesco every day and instead get up 10 minutes earlier to make a salad or pasta that have saved me about £10-12 a week.

I stopped my expensive magazine habit from buying 3/4 magazines a month to just one & I make it last! That's about £10 saved.

I also have a monthly shopping budget, £260 for me, BF & the cats! I go to our local market on a Sunday for cheap meat/veg & I get everything else in Lidl! I've learned not to forward plan meals so much and just get whatever is on off.

We have restricted ourselves to one takeaway & one meal out a month too! Which is mainly because over Christmas we porked out a lot so it more for our waistlines!

Instead of spending our weekend in town, when we would always purchase something we go for a walk or see friends etc!

I am also someone who now dyes my hair at home Instead if the £90 salon price!

It's the little things that add up even if I have had to forgo a few things, it's all worth I for some time off at Disney!

 

[cheryl.UK]

I save £2 coins in a Pooh Bank, it's a rule in our house, none are ever spent.
Every day I empty any change into a piggy bank.
If I make any specific savings at the supermarket, e.g a coupon for £10 off if I spend £50, the £10 pound saved goes into my Mickey bank. I've had 10 of these vouchers sent through the post since November. Likewise if I expect to spend money on something, a night out or a takeaway and it doesn't happen, the money saved goes in the Mickey bank.

The month before we go, we start to eat from the freezer and the cupboard and cash in our Nector points for the rest of the shopping saving ££ at the supermarket, which, as you've guessed, goes in the Mickey

My mother in law and mum give us $$ for Christmas gifts.

Every couple of months, I empty out my savings and exchange them for $$, so i'm not tempted to spend them. We usually save around $1500 every year like this which goes a long way towards our spends.

 

[queendisney]

we save everything over and above what is our normal income. So if I do extra hours I save that. DH also has a part time job (very irregular) where we look after holiday dogs! We have 'puppy Parker' at the moment and his money will go to the holiday fund as well. I also put any £1 and £2 coins into a tin that I have to open with a tin opener if I want to get out! I am determined to have my holiday!

 

[Ciorsdah]

DVF and I have very different attitudes towards holiday saving/spending. He will book and pay up. I will research, save and book/pay!

We are both lucky that in previous years we both earned guaranteed bonus' through work, but as I've changed my employer now I don't have a bonus (booo). But i get paid 4 weekly which means once a year I have an 'extra' pay, which will be getting put in a savings account.

We shop at lidl for veg and I order a meat box or go to a farm shop for our meat. £30 in meat lasts about a month as the volume you get is far greater!

Any time I take cash out, when I use the note, all silver change gets put into 1 pot and copper into another one.

There is a place near by that gives you 50p per kg of clothes so I have a clear out every few months and make a few ££.

And other than that I budget myself £250 for 'fun' spends per month from my salary, after bills etc the rest is sent to my savings account

 

[Vickyrowe]

I coupon a lot , Also I make large portions of meals bulked out with cheap veggies ( 1 pack of mince makes 6 big portions of Spag bol), I'm on a diet so I have stopped snacking so I save a surprising amount not buying crisps / chocolate.

I have also taken the decision to halve the amount of riding lessons I take , it kinda sucks but I know this holiday is the last one for a while and riding will always be there. So I save £20 a week straight away .

I am hoping to have £600/ $1000, we are on the dining plan , so it will purely be spends, with the odd cheeky cocktail and I have been eyeing a Dooney and Burke for a while ( I'll just hide the price tag from DH)

 

[Wozi]

Like most others, I save and put £100 minimum away each month (although £50 for holiday & £50 for Christmas), I don't buy coffees, treats or lunches at work and instead drink water or instant coffee/tea, and take my own treats and lunches into work. I've also stopped going to my lovely expensive hair salon, £50 for a cut & blow dry when I can get it done at the local college for peanuts, same goes for a manicure. I also send my hubby shopping as he sticks to the list, I don't and we end up with lots of extras in the trolley. I'm also doing lots of overtime (currently work school hours 4 days a week), so working just an extra 5.5 hours a week soon mounts up. We also save £5 a week for the children from their pocket money, so they have spending money. Then we have the usual loose change pots dotted around the house. I've also started selling old clothes, toys, books etc on a local buying/selling page on FB, saves on the ebay/paypal etc fees.

 

[GirlDreamer]

Me and my fiance are on a strict budget. We've actually given ourselves a monthly allowance as well. And even though we budget £200 a month (£50 a week) for food, we can usually get everything we need for £20-30 a week. We shop at asda and we get a lot of the Smart Price products as a lot of it actually tastes nice. The last couple of shops we've actually gotten vouchers from ASDA because they weren't able to stay 10% cheaper than the other shops. We've also used the www.mysupermarket.co.uk website to make our shopping list, as it'll let us know about any offers, or let us know about a cheaper product than what we've chosen. If we then choose the cheaper product it'll show how much we've saved. But it'll also show what the total would've been with the other shops (Tesco, sainsburys etc).

What helps us with the budget as well, is that as soon as our pay comes in, we'll put the savings right into the ISA, so it's harder to touch it.

 

[tinkerpea]

We have a disney terrimundi pot and all our £2 coins go in plus any spare notes at the end of the wk,
We have been selling on fbook pages and actually made £110 in old toys to put in the pot,

We actually have had to have a good look at our finances as we spend a stupid amount on crap! Like ice cream lol and eating out ALOT to the point nandos knows us by name and always seat us as soon as we arrive in when the Q is 30 mins long for a table!!

We have our proper savings that Wong get touched,
Then we have our savings for emergency s Nd holidays,
The holiday this trip has cost us an insane amount!
£4300 in flights
£6717 for SSR tickets and ddp
£1100 for 7nights universal
£600 for universal tickets
Then spending money of around £2500 odd lol

So we are now getting serious about the saving as we have the accommodation to pay by April haha...
Holidays have gotten crazy expensive, so if we want to go next year after this June's trip we have decided the money has to already be half in the holiday fund by the time we want to book it.

We move in 3wks and our re- posting money will go straight on the trip, then dh goes away for 4 months so the boys & I won't spend half the amount we do now!

 

[marcgiu]

We did are going to WDW in Feb and added a 3 Night cruise on. To pay for the cruise (and some additional spending money) we decided to do a combination of things

- 3 Boot Sales , got rid of loads of unwanted goods and raised £300+
- Ebay , Sold loads on eBay and again put this into the pot.
- Lunches at work , simply made sandwiches to save around £20 per week
- Kids Birthday and Xmas Money. My Kids have enough toys/electricals so this year we asked for money towards our trip. We used around 50% of it for the trip.
- Change , we collated all the loose change and took to to the bank , raised around another £100.
- Xmas Job - My wife took on an xmas job to pay for xmas and add some towards the trip.

We managed (Since Oct) to gain about another £1800 towards our holiday. It was hard work but we really feel now that we have earnt the break

 

[fizz13]

I've set us an incredibly tight budget and I plan out 28 dinners with ingredients before I go to the supermarket.
I have a pot for £1 & £2 coins.
I started up a business from home in November selling products & am making sure that any money I make is going straight to the Disney fund, otherwise it would get swallowed up.
we don't go out for dinner, no takeaways, I don't know when I last went to the cinema. I don't get my hair done at all or nails.

it's not for everybody, and to most I really shouldn't be going back to wdw as probably we can't afford it. but it means that much to me that I don't mind not having a Chinese or going out