Saving for Vacation

[disneydreamer98]

BTW....what happened to the wine in the jug?

[dzney4lyf]

Sad.....

[tracers]

We have been planning our 2nd trip (March 06) and my kids have everything under the earth already we started telling family members to give the kids Disney dollars for chirstmas and birthday gifts. This way they have spending money of thier own. This year they each have almost $300 to spend! That is a lot of $$'s for the kiddo's!
We do the coin jar too. Haven't touched it since March 05 .... getting too heavy to even move!

[mini-V]

These are great ideas! Anything that makes it possible to feed the addiction and not put stress on the purse-strings is so helpful!

[DissyLove]

I do the same sort of "coin trip" but with returnable cans (Here in Mich, worth 10 cents each). I have garbage bags full of them. I take them in, and with the amount of Diet Cokes I trip and the occasional beer can we get , it can add up! Last time I did this, I had $400 in spending money......

[butlers]

This trip we have been saving up for quite some time. My husband bought and paid off the Tickets for the airfare for 5 people, the hotel/room, and rental car. He likes to do things early so he won't have to worry. Me, i bought the Tickets for the park for all 5 us plus the park hopper. Almost paid for and will be by the time we go. I save a loose change i have found around the house, in my husbands pockets and such, put them in a bottle bank that is for my son's grades as well and keeping his room and bathroom clean... As far as spending splurging money. I try to save somewhere around 200 a pay check or definitely 200 just for disney for the month, been doing this since September of 2005. So that will hopefully give me some good spending money to take with me since everything else is taken care of and paid for...

[disneyveteran]

My kids have been saving for years, change they find anywhere, even my 6 year olds first tooth money went into the Disney fund. Every year when we go they each have at least $20 saved. Since our trip this year is already paid for, I'm already saving for next year. I've started making jewelry to subsidize my vacation. Since January 1st I've saved over $300. So this April will be my first time 14 trips that I will actually be able to buy a nice dinner for my entire family one night on vacation. I want to go to Le Cellier but they are pushing for Alfredo's.

[JMSuperHeroTeam]

today i found a dollar!!!! i love finding dollars totally unexpectedly.

that sounds stupid, but i was really happy, and i put it in our pig for disney world!!

yay!

our pig is our big ceramic piggy back which says "Maura & John's Pig of Love" on the side... it holds change and found money!

[Sam I Am]

One thing I do is using Direct Deposit from work, I can designate multiple accounts for different portions of my paycheck. So some small amount each week is getting set aside to savings account I don't have easy access to. When vacation time comes, it's ready to go (with interest) with me!

[iwannabeminnie]

Buying Disney Dollars is a great idea. Especially since they can't be spent anywhere but Disney! (I just have to leave them home when I go to the mall since the Disney Store is usually my first stop! Okay, I fibbed, my second stop. First stop is usually the ladies room.)

[lovedisprinces]

One thing that i do to save money is to actually pick up those pennies you see on the floor. I have found hundreds of them. And other coins too of course. It doesnt seem like a penny will get you anywhere, but it does. Enough to get somthing small. Of course its not going to be enough to geta disney trip but everything actually does help.

[lorilovestigger]

It seems like to do everything mentioned so far. I like to give my mom some money to put back for our trip. Then I know I can't touch it. My next trip is in December and is a surprise trip for my DH. We're going to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Since he doesn't know about it, it's hard for me to tell him to save also. At least I have until December to save.

Lori

[butlers]

ahh, how wonderful is that... trip to disney in december

[uratoon]

We do a couple different things.

Save all change in a Popcorn Can (you know those big ugly things from Christmas)

Save all $1's and (most) all $5's to put into the can

If I use a coupon for a free pkg of diapers or something I put the money saved into the can.

Every week when paying bills, I write a check to the vacation acct. (about $30-40)

My husbands check is direct deposit, so we had them put $50 a week into a vacation acct at the bank.

In my checkbook register I only use whole dollars. A deposit of 774.89 is registered as $770. If I write a check for $25.09, it is registered as $30. This adds up fast!! I keep the correct totals in Quicken and balance each month. About a week or two before vacation, I cash a check for the extra and then start over for next vacation.

Any bad habits that you have, smoking, chewing, starbucks, soda pops, etc. cut down or stop and pay yourself what you would be spending. A smoker who smokes 1 pk a day can save about $120 a month.

My dad has a need (I guess) to give me money every week. I have started keeping that money in a separate stash for my mad money. (scrapbooking stuff!!!!)

Child support - If you can save half of it each month.

And last but not least, UNCLE SAM!! We have been fortunate enough to get a return each year and we set it aside for vacation.

[SnwhtNdwrfs]

I sure could use some more idea---I am planning a trip for Thanksgiving 07 and need some good ways to save some money. I posted earlier that we would be using childcare money for our trip but DH wants us to get out of debt so we have to use that there. I would love to hear some good ideas on how to save money for this trip!