What's your favorite way of saving money?

[BostonTigger]

What's your favorite way to save money for your trip? I throw all of my change in a jar, which give me about $60-$70 by the time I leave. This I consider my traveling money. Now for the fun part, I like to figure how much I spend on eating out, ouch!, then take that and throw it aside. I also like to go and buy about $30 a week in Disney Dollars. So, how do you save money?



Steven

 

[Spirit Feather]

I am a huge coupon clipper and I have always wanted to take the money that I save by doing that and put it into a special account or something. I am going to start doing that. I have 8.25 so far this month.

We all put our change in a jar.

Rebate checks for stuff.

Oh, and if I return something because it didn't fit or something, I put that $$$ aside also.

 

[Debi]

I also put change in to a jar and roll it at the end of every month. In addition, whenever I buy something on sale either at the grocery store or at a department store (which I try to buy only things that are on sale). The "saved money" (the difference between the retail price of the item and the price I actually paid) goes in to the change jar. I also bring lunches to work rather than buying them there, and throw that money in to the vacation jar. This adds up the quickest.

Who's next?

 

[Kitten516]

We paid for our honeymoon last year in WDW with change. The only thing we had to pay for out of pocket was our PAPs. And we ate anywhere we wanted to, including one dinner at V&A. This year I am saving change, and I started saving Dollars. When we get change for a 20, or 10, or 5 I save all of the dollar bills and the coins, and those are mine. I already have enough for our pass renewals, and enough for a nice stay in a hotel, at least 4-5 days. And it is only May!

 

[rbuzzotta]

We put our change in a big jar. I cash it in the day before we go to WDW and split it between my 3 DD's. It is theirs for all the "little" things they just "need" to have at WDW. They usually end up with about $75.00 each. DH and I buy them a t shirt or sweat shirt as their souvenir.

 

[Magic2000]

We usually do the change thing too! Every year, upon returning from our vacation, I buy a big piggy bank - the kind that you have to cut open (that way, there's no cheating!). All change goes in the pig! As much as possible, I break dollar bills and then that change goes in at the end of each day. Any little rebate check we get also go in. My DH also helps by putting some real money aside each payday to pay for the big things. It really adds up and its fun watching the piggy get filled up. On the day we count the money, each of us tries to guess how much we've saved!

 

[Spirit Feather]

My dh is retired military. We decided to take all of our perscriptions to the closest military facility and see if we could get them filled. We drove 45 minutes to Wright Patterson Air Force base and they were able to fill all of our perscriptions but one--for FREE!!!!!! Our insurance co-pays would have cost us $300 for a 90 day supply and we got them all for FREE!!!! I am very excited about this. I always thought it would be way to much of a hassle to go up and get them filled but it so wasn't and the savings is incredible.

What we save on Rx's over a year will more than pay for our family's PHPs and the drive down including meals and hotels there and back.

 

[DVC-LEROY]

Love to save money any way I can!
Collecting change - gives us spending money.
I started saving stray $5 bills. Any time I have two - one goes into the savings drawer.
Garage Sale (we just had ours) - will pay for some special dinners and then some!
Constantly checking the posts - looking for new ideas, sales, price increase notices - all the time - and getting the best information!

 

[Julie 363]

We save change too. This year for our cruise each of my girls have their own jar, they are getting older and don't like the idea of one not putting in as much, you know how that goes! Has to be even at all times They are really pretty good at saving and it comes in handy to buy some things that they want.

 

[Boo'sMom]

My 2 DS get paid in Disney Dollars for the "extra" help around the house. Not really a way to save me any money, but it helps them to save for their souveniers, since the $ can only be spent at WDW.

 

[aide4]

In May of 2000. We put $25 from mine and DH paycheck (I'm paid weekly, DH bi-weekly) into a savings account. We went to WDW in February of this year, and the only thing we put on a charge card was the rental car. It was the first vacation we took that we did not charge up a storm!!! We were extremly proud of ourselves for accomplishing this!!!

 

[RobinLyn]

I started with an 8x8 inch box which has a top and bottom. I went looking for Disney gift wrap paper (with just characters on it) because I remembered seeing some at a Hallmark card shop. Well I found a cute Mickey/Minnie/Donald/Goofy wrapping paper and wrapped the box top and bottom, cut a wide slit in the top so we could put change or dollars in it. I leave the box out on a counter in the kitchen and everyone has gotten in the habit of contributing. The Disney wrapping paper keeps us in the saving spirit as it is a daily reminder we are saving for our up coming trip. I'm surpised just how much money is in there already!!

RobinLyn

 

[kristikae]

I became a secret shopper to pay for my vacations. When I get my checks from this I just automatically put them in the bank. It really adds up fast!

 

[Dr.Mickey]

We got this great idea from the boards -- and it has made a huge difference for us. We went to WDW in mid-February and have already saved $313 pretty painlessly for our December trip.

Someone suggested using envelopes to save money. You can make them Disneyfied like some folks do for Mousekeeping Tips with Disney ClipArt. We made out an envelope for everything that costs money that we want to do. On the outside of the envelope, we write what we are saving for (ie-dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern). In the top left corner, we write Need: $50. Under that we just have tick marks for every dollar we put in. The rule at our house is, you must have at least a dollar to add. We use the security envelopes and seal them when we have reached the Need mark for that event. Then we go onto the next envelope. We started with the smallest amounts first, so that we would really feel like we were doing something -- kinda gave us a jump start. Remember, there are only 2 adults in our party, so you would have to adjust savings accordingly. We may be over on some and under on others, but past experience has been our guidance.

We have envelopes for the following:

Behind the Seeds Tour ($12)
Mousekeeping Tips ($32)
Dolphin Food for SeaWorld ($24) -- my wife could spend much more on this activity
Breakfast at Boma's ($45)
At least one meal at Garden Grill ($50) -- we probably need enough to cover 2-3 meals
Dinner at Chef Mickey's ($50)
1st night hotel on the road ($50)
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern ($50)
2 Way Radios ($60)
Beaches & Cream ($85) -- we probably need to up this one, too
Parasailing ($100)
Dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse ($110)
4 Breakfasts at Cape May ($170)

And the one that scares me:
7 Nights at the Beach Club ($1400) -- if the Swan and Dolphin do the Starwood Points + Cash again, we plan to stay there instead

We still have a long way to go, but it is more encouraging this way (for us) than just dumping money in a jar. When we seal it up, we know if there is an emergency and we need the money, we can get to it -- it just seems more out of reach than our old saving jar. We tended to dip into that too much.

Any extra in my wife's paycheck goes in. Any rebates. She steals ones out of my wallet. Any refunds (put everything on our debit card -- so it is already out of the account -- why not put it in the Disney fund instead). I don't feel too bad about not having the money in an interest bearing account right now with rates so low, but in the future, I would not be opposed to having the bank hold this money either.

We hope to have a garage sale soon. We ask family to give us Disney Dollars instead of "presents" for Christmas and birthday. I just got a credit card that earns travel points for my business. With an expansion this year, I hope to earn lots of points before we go to possibly use at the Swan & Dolphin or our hotel on the way down.

If you have a family with children -- you might try paying them in Disney Dollars and have them be responsible for paying for one "fun" family activity with their Disney Dollars -- something inexpensive so they still have souvenir money.

Have fun saving! It sure beats debt. But, we will probably put everything on our credit card that earns travel points and use this money saved to pay it off. That way, we are saving towards our next trip, too!

 

[PlutoPal]

The same way you do, by throwing it in a large jar and changing that in cash a few days before we leave.

 

[margaritabnl]

I am SO impressed with all of you! I have absolutely no willpower at all. I started saving change as soon as I read the tip on another thread but I have dipped into it for lunch money already.

For our past trips we have always had the kids do extra things around the house so they could have their own "mad money". We would give them $10 for cleaning the car out, $5 for putting their laundry away, etc. Of course I would have go and do it all over myself but they really got into it.

They really got into having their own money last year when we spent a week at HRH/US/IOA. My DD6 saved more than my DS9. The best part was seeing how careful they were with "their" money. Things we thought they would buy they put down to "wait for something better".

For our WDW trip next May, we will tell our family to give Disney Dollars for Easter gifts instead of movie passes or Blockbuster gift cards.

My son learned his lesson last year when my daughter came back with more souvenirs and leftover cash and he had just a few things and was broke! He has decided to save all money he gets from after X-mas until we go May 3.

 

[disneyfan551]

...but I'm a Barbie collector & I am returning Barbies that I don't personally want (most are for sale-if I ever get around to it...) to the stores! I took back 15 Barbies last Saturday for $400+!

We went to WDW in April with our families and now we're planning a girls only (& babies!) trip in Dec. - our 1st Christmas trip! Now, if we can just tell our DH's...

 

[Disney Talker]

I work all the overtime hours I can and we use that..DH does not get as much overtime but he does volunteer to work on holidays he would normally be off for the double time. We also throw in money from our tax refund if we can....

 

[Mosttrue]

We save Coins as well and we get disney Dollars! Disney Dollars are great, if you can't seem to keep your hand out of the jar. All you needs is someone to pull you back from going into the Disney Store at the mall. And you'll be great!

This year we are moving right before our trip so I'm cleaning out everything and have a huge yard sale! And i'm taking all the money made from it and using it as fun money for our trip!!

I'm so excited!!! We are going to have so much fun..

Lisa

 

[BabyMo]

We also save coins in a bucket. We bought a coin sorter that puts the money in rolls, so now we just put the money in there. It's a great investment.

Since about October, we've saved $130 in coins.

Also, we clip coupons and take advantage of things on sale at the store. the best thing ever is when we buy something with a coupon that is also on sale at the store.