What's your favorite way of saving money?

[tmli]

My husband thinks this is the most bizarre method of saving he's ever heard of. But I like scratch tickets so I am always buying one here and there plus I get them for birthdays etc. Instead of cashing in winning tickets I save them. Last year the day before I left I cashed them in and had almost $600. Like everyone else I also save change and that gave me another $700.00. I Also save any tax refunds, gst credits and child tax credit cheques. I actually don't even cash them so I'm not tempted to borrow from it.

 

[aimeesmom2]

buying disney dollars ahead of time... I would buy $30 a week and we are leaving in 3 weeks and have $500 to spend and it didnt hurt at all...

 

[suevee]

My husband is in the Navy Reserves. He was supposed to retire this year but was stop-lossed. Meaning we don't know WHEN he will be released. We were really looking forward to his retirement and had taken his military pay out of our monthly budget. So when we learned he was not retiring, we opened up a savings account with the Navy Federal Credit Union specifically for WDW vacations and directed his military pay there. This is an account we cannot get to easily.

He gets a little over $200 a month after taxes and insurances. Right now he is doing his 2 weeks active duty, so we will get more like $1400 for that. His company gives him 15 paid days to fulfill his military service so this is "extra" money for us. Also we can use Sog rates which stay the same all year. (There is no value or peak rates.) We are planning two trips next year. One in Feb 2003 and the other in either June or October. We plan to get APs. Hopefully his military pay will take care of all our expenses. Next year with APs, Shades of Green rates, and his military pay --- going to WDW twice for a total of 20 days will be cheaper for us than going to the beach for one week!!!!

 

[MELSMICE]

I put aside money for Disney $ every week.

We save our change also.

To those who said they are "dippers" into the change jar, you need to get something that is completely sealed & will need to be broken open when it's time to use it. Way less tempting to "dip"!!

 

[Disneyolic]

This thread inspired me so! We already save $25/week in our regular saving account for vacation but now I added a jar to our counter decorated with Toy Story stickers and started throwing in change. I did a sneaky thing yesterday and let my 2 yo DS take the jar to his grandparents. They immediately threw in a bunch of change and dollar too! I'll have to try that more often.

 

[ReneeQ]

Someone told me about this before - take a large can that juice comes in, like Hawaiian Punch, Juicy Juice, etc, that you open with the punch can opener by putting two holes in the top. When it's empty, peel off the label and wash with hot hot hot water. Let dry for a few days.

Once a week, or as often as you can, put a $5 bill (or larger) in by rolling it up tightly and dropping it in. If you save five dollar bills or larger it really adds up fast. There is no way to dip into it. The bad thing is that you're not sure how much you're actually saving (unless you write it down somewhere).

You can decorate the can if you want.

 

[ZPT1022]

-We have been saving our change and our $1 bills. But we put them in cleaned Disney juice bottles! We thought that with the giant pictures of Pooh and Mickey on it, it would be a reminder of what it was for if we got tempted to "dip" into the jar. So far it is working, my fiance is in such a habit of throwing all the change in the second he comes in the door from being out shopping, we have even ended up with some $5s.
-We also had a big surprise at tax time and got back more $$ than we thought we would, so that immediately went to the travel agent.
-Now that we are getting closer to the actual trip, we intend to go and get travelers checks at AAA (free for members) when we find outrselves with unspent money at the end of the pay period

 

[zakatak]

Start with $40 and usually end up ahead anywhere between $100 and $450... all the profits go into the disney fund... I've been twice and so far have $300+ dollars... and I have just started!!

Karen

 

[rjordan]

I, too, like to save all my change in a jar. Also, I have a vacation club at my bank that a certain amount gets direct deposited from every paycheck. It really adds up fast.

 

[jmminarik]

Well, beyond 'saving' on room costs by buying into DVC, we 'save' by putting money into our money market fund before we pay bills. This isn't just for Disney, but for any financial savings goal.

Other than that, any money wifeypoo gets from icehockey score keeping goes into our slush fund.

-joe

 

[aide4]

We paid for our Disney trip by taking $25 from each paycheck (Dh biweekly and i weekly) and putting it into a savings account. We were able to go in February of this year and the only thing on a charge card was a rental car.Everything else we paid in cash, when a good deal on plane tickets came up I was able to buy them, etc. It worked out well for us!! We also did the change jar thing, which helped out also!!!