Extra Cash for the House of Mouse

[welshraz]

After not much deliberation and persuasion, we are going back to Orlando in November. This will be our third trip in two years and I've promised the hubster that I'll work out how we are going to pay for it...sell a kidney maybe?? :nonono::nonono::nonono:

Does anyone have any tips/suggestions/tried and tested methods for getting a little bit more cash for their hollibobs? I'm planning on doing some eBaying as I have A LOT of clothes that aren't really doing much except taking up space in my wardrobe, and probably a carboot or two once the weather improves. I'm willing to tackle anything expect babysitting!

I already have a full time job, so stuff that I can do around that would be fab.

Ta!

 

[Kath2003]

The only strategy we use is to save each month as soon as we get paid. With work, we don't have time for other money-making projects! We don't buy extras like lunch at work, coffee, magazine etc and put the majority of what we would have spent on gifts for each other toward the trips usually. We also have a household budget that I stick to.

I also hunt for the best deals and have a budget set out before we book anything. If we can't do the trip within the budget, we don't go, and save more for a larger budget. We make compromises to go such as indirect flights, staying and eating off site etc.

Sorry to sound dull; I prefer to think of it as practical...! We love our holidays but they would be or first cut back if money was needed elsewhere.

 

[megan2461]

hi, we saved all our change and two pound coins that really adds up, we paid for our park tickets doing that last year, we also joined quidco, and have had a lot of money back we used it for car insurance and travel insurance, you can get some good cash back deals

 

[DLPDreams]

I got a jar to save £2 coins in - forgotten what they are called now, but you have to smash them to get the money out at the end. Having said that, we started filling it about May time last year and it's only about halfway full . The thing is, £2 coins are quite hard to come by tbh. I think if I were doing it again, I'd try £1 coins. It does say though, when full (not sure how full, full is!) they hold about £1000 in £2 coins, so going off that, we must have about £400-500 in ours now, but it's only 6 months until we go so I can't see us getting that much more, or completely filling it by that point.

Old fashioned, but we actually save a set amount a month in another account which will all go towards our spending.

I have started ebaying things too.

And Quidco or other cb sites are good - we've had about £400 since booking our holiday (£250 of that was cb from WDW for booking - with that, we bought $ last summer when the rate was high - so pleased we did - it's nowhere near enough but it's something). Any quidco money goes into the WDW fund.

We still have a life - but if we go to the cinema these days we try and do it via Groupon vouchers or for kids films, we go when it's cheaper for them etc.

Oh and my main one - shopping at Aldi - done this for ages now but it's saved me a fortune! I love Aldi!

 

[pickers1982]

Agree quidco is good. Not sure if you get takeaways but could stop those(good for the wateline and wallett!)

 

[Laurafoster]

We just generally cut back. A lot of the little luxuries we used to enjoy we cut out. (takeaways, nights out etc). We cut back on Birthdays and Christmas too, me and DH now have a really small budget to buy each other (so just a fun gift) and the rest goes in the savings account.

We also use Quidco a lot and that can add up. We too have a savings pot (I just got a cheap disney tin from pound land) and anything extra I make/save goes straight in the tin along with any spare change. As and when this is full it gets paid in and I get a replacement.

 

[welshraz]

Thanks for the responses! I'm going to check out this Quidco thing as it's not something I have tried before.

Any other ideas out there??

 

[Rach78]

Same as many others we shop in Aldi, don't buy lunches, coffees etc. DH and I don't buy for each others birthdays, we live off a strict weekly budget which I take out in cash and any left over goes in pot.
I carboot, sell on e-bay, use Quidco.
I make cakes and have the odd stall, all money goes towards holidays.
I am currently doing a 500 day saving plan (most people do 365 day) where I have a grid printed out with the numbers 1 to 500 (1 = 1p, 500 =£5 etc) in each square. Every day you have to out one amount in a tin and score the square out. I only have about 100 squares to go and sad though it sounds, nothing gives me as much pleasure as scoring out one of my squares!!
Me and dh were talking about this all this the other day actually as we think some people think 'how can they afford to go to Florida again?' but I got rid of my car, we never eat out, don't go out, don't drink, I don't get nails done or hair cuts etc. The only expenditure we have is gymnastics, ballet etc for the kids and any days out with kids are always cheap. I really don't care as to me it's worth it to go to Florida but other people don't see the day to day sacrifices we make. and judge us.

 

[CAL2]

hi, to be able to save enough money to go to Disney we have to work exrtas. i work full time but i also work as bank staff doing a saturday night shift 2 or 3 times a month. DH also picks up any overtime at work. without doing this we could not afford to go.
cal

 

[DLPDreams]

I didn't see it all, but there was some good money saving tips on Watchdog last night - if you can watch it on catch-up I think it's worth a look.

It mainly looked at things like saving money on insurance by shopping around but also by using cashback sites when switching as you can get quite a bit back.

It also talked a lot about food as many people's budgets go on food. It gave pointers for buying groceries - things like rather than buying fresh berries which can be expensive - buy frozen as they are often fresher and actually much better value i.e. £2.00 for a punnet of rasps as opposed to £2.00 for a frozen bag with 5 punnets worth in! Same with veg - frozen broccoli etc. It's something I've never considered tbh but I will in future!

HTH

 

[ROBEAR84]

I got a jar to save £2 coins in - forgotten what they are called now, but you have to smash them to get the money out at the end. Having said that, we started filling it about May time last year and it's only about halfway full . The thing is, £2 coins are quite hard to come by tbh. I think if I were doing it again, I'd try £1 coins. It does say though, when full (not sure how full, full is!) they hold about £1000 in £2 coins, so going off that, we must have about £400-500 in ours now, but it's only 6 months until we go so I can't see us getting that much more, or completely filling it by that point.

I'm going to try to do this. Really need to pop out and get the tins! The children both had them last year and saved almost £100 each spending money from Jan-September with pocket money and birthday money, they had much more self control than me so I'm going to take a leaf out of their book this time!. Santa brought them new ones to save for DLP and as I've not got ours yet I've been giving them all my £2 coins as pocket money which I'll swap out when they open them... I will honest!

I think I'm going to get one for £2s and one for £1s. Hoping that by the time booking opens next year (for 2017) we'll have a nice chunk of the hotel costs at least.

Feeling determined! hope it lasts

 

[LeaversOnTour]

There was a saving "game" on here a few months back (maybe longer).

Basically everyone added what they had saved to a thread - whether it was 20p they found done the back of the sofa or the £50 cash back they got. Seemed to be a bit of motivation for bit of competativeness.

I have seen some people who for instance when they get their till receipt from ASDA (or anywhere) and its says you saved £5.24 they add that to their jar.

If they walked instead of getting the bus they added the bus fare to their pot.

Quidco is good. But if you are selling clothing i would try facebook selling groups as with all the fees ebay take off you you'll get next to nothing.

Kids could have a clear out of toys and bits (again FB might be more fruitful)

I paid for my daughters 5th Birthday party £700 with FB sales

 

[DLPDreams]

I'm going to try to do this. Really need to pop out and get the tins! The children both had them last year and saved almost £100 each spending money from Jan-September with pocket money and birthday money, they had much more self control than me so I'm going to take a leaf out of their book this time!. Santa brought them new ones to save for DLP and as I've not got ours yet I've been giving them all my £2 coins as pocket money which I'll swap out when they open them... I will honest!

I think I'm going to get one for £2s and one for £1s. Hoping that by the time booking opens next year (for 2017) we'll have a nice chunk of the hotel costs at least.

Feeling determined! hope it lasts

Good luck Ro! My Mum got me a tin type one (with Mickey & Minnie on) from B&M I think - I did start saving 50 & 20p's in there but it didn't last long as I am always looking for change for school or something! I like the terramundi type clay ones though as they look quite pretty too - mine has 'Holiday Fund' on it. The girls got cheap 'paint your own' piggy banks for Christmas to save some money in - we need to make a start as there isn't much in there atm!

I've just sold two items on ebay for £20 - so I'm going to take the cash (collection items) and exchange for £2 coins and put straight in my jar on Monday!

 

[cheryl.UK]

Every time we don't get the take away one of us suggests, £20 in the pig

£2 coins, be strict never spend one = £300 in our pig per year

Every single day, all coins in my purse go in the pig

Every time we get a discount we were't expecting, goes in the pig (e.g. we wanted a new oven. It should have been £520 but we found it on sale for £400 so we could afford it. When we got to the shop they had a deal so we got it for £370. £30 went in the pig.)

if we had expected to spend money, for example on city centre parking (£15 per day) but we didn't go.....you guessed it £15 in the pig.

We are quite 'manic' about it. We call this money holiday tokens. Every year we save around £2500 - £3500 this way. Pays all our spending money

 

[disney2014plan]

£2 coins are more available now - they seem to disappear going towards Xmas when everyone is saving them I guess.

Agree with shopping around (moneysavingsexpert site is great), and putting any supermarket "receipt money" e.g "this week you gave saved £1.42" away in a jar that you can't access without breaking it.

The ceramic jars are called terramundi jars.

Again, each time you forgo a bus fare/coffee the money goes in the jar. Or give yourself an allowance for the week and whatever is left over goes in the jar.

Good luck!

 

[scoobydooby]

I put some spending money away every month as soon as I am paid. Save £2 coins in a terimundi pot. It seems to take forever to get past the fat middle part of the pot!!!!!! Save coppers and 5p's which tend to come to enough to buy our breakfast at the airport and a bit of duty free shopping too. With regards the cost of the holiday I just pay for that from wages/savings. I never book until I can pay everything in full but this is a rolling savings programme so this isn't generally an issue. I have done one car boot sale for Disney spends. Made £200 so well worth it but it was an appalling day out TBH

 

[Donald Ducks wife]

I have a budget every month for everything to do with the house, and I also put away a set amount each month towards holidays (usually Disney)

To get more money together, every time I come home from shopping or that, I empty my purse of all the lose change into a sealed tin thing. but if I need change for the bus the next day, I leave that in the purse, but all the odd bits go in the tin. it usually comes to about £100-ish a year from that tin, and that's £100 I didn't miss as it was all small change to start with. And that usually pays for our food, well some of it, last time I used it and we treated ourselves to snacks at the airport and on the flights

 

[bex7583]

lots same as above empty purse of all coins daily ( i cheat this abit and will break in to a new note where possible when paying for things then i end up with more change in the purse)

our biggest weakness is a takeaway or eating out , if we discuss going out or getting a takeaway and manage to resist we will put the estimate cost in the jar if we really want a eating out fix we try go to our local brewers fayre they do kids eat free for breakfast so can go have a huge brekkie for 5 of us under £20 and be full for most of the day this

any ebay or fb sales go in the tin

shifts i have done as overtime i try seperate from my main wage and save
i also do avon along side my other 2 jobs just friends neighbours and people at works, kids school sometimes i get a good order sometimes not so but the way i see it even on a bad book a £10 is $18 ish so better than none at all.

 

[1andrea]

The only way we afford to go to Florida is by being strict!!

Each month me and my partner out £250 each in a bank account for food shopping and on the same say it goes in £200 comes straight out and goes into the Florida fund.

We then use the remaining £300 to buy a £30 M&S gift card and a £180-£200 Asda gift card which give us a bit extra as we get them discounted through work by about 5-6%. The rest we spend in Home Bargains and Costco.

We shop in the reduced section and special offers where we can. I use my supermarket.co.uk and have price alerts for things that I buy lots of so when they're on offer I stock up. I never buy a jar of coffee full price!

I have a Tesco credit card and all of my monthly spends go on here which I earn club card points on which I use for deals, usually Pizza Express, days out or I double them at Christmas in the Tesco club card exchange and buy a few extra Christmas bits. I pay it in full each month as its only used for day to day expenses so I don't incur interest.

If anything goes wrong with banking etc I complain and any fees/ compensation I get goes towards Florida.

We hardly eat out at all. My mum bought me an actuary and now I can make healthy chis at home which are as nice as the chippy. We use our M&S gift card for our weekly treat.

I check prices of everything and quidco everything.

I sell on Ebay but I need to do a car boot sale but I've been putting it off for 2 years as I hate the cold!

We go every year so we buy annual passes and stagger our trips to get two trips from them.

We also buy clothes and gifts in the outlets on holiday, I don't save anything on the gifts as I have a set budget per person so my for ends and family just end up with more!!

The thriftier I am, the thriftier I become, until I spend it all in Florida!

xx

 

[ROBEAR84]

We then use the remaining £300 to buy a £30 M&S gift card and a £180-£200 Asda gift card which give us a bit extra as we get them discounted through work by about 5-6%. The rest we spend in Home Bargains and Costco.

Thanks for this! I can get discounted gift cards through work too, have never really bothered looking and didn't realise I could get supermarket ones until I just checked! Going to start this come payday