I know this post is a bit lengthy, but I’d love it if you took a few minutes to read it. It explains a lot about me! Then be sure to comment or link up with your savings updates at the bottom! I LOVE reading them!
I’m excited to be sharing my Saving on a Shoestring monthly update–and this time the month isn’t even halfway through yet!
Since I shared last month that I reached my savings goal for the Cha-Ching! Christmas Club, I am going to be focusing on Project Cruise 2012 for the rest of the year.
Before I share my latest update, I wanted to talk a bit more about why Project Cruise 2012 has become my saving goal.
I’m actually giving myself a little Pep Talk here as well. Lately I’ve found myself questioning whether this is the right time to be saving up for a cruise. I mean…we just moved into a new home, the projects are looming, we have two boys who whose college savings accounts need to be funded, cars that will need to be replaced eventually, braces that will need to be purchased (no doubt!), weddings that will need to be paid for (or is that just the reception?) and the list goes on and on and on… (Kind of depressing, isn’t it?)
But that’s just the thing. The list does go on and on and on…there is a never ending land of future expenses just waiting to be explored. And if you are anything like me, when I consider this fact, the first thing to go is planned recreation. Date nights get eliminated, day trips to the shore don’t happen, vacations get down-sized.
I really don’t want that to be the way that I live.
Please don’t misunderstand me. It’s never a bad idea to look at your budget and determine what areas need to be downsized. And if it’s recreation that’s taking up too much of a chunk, then definitely cut back!
But for me, I find that unless I am super intentional in creating space for this aspect of family life that is very important to me (spending time together making memories), then it doesn’t happen. (This is the reason why we scraped together our pennies and took the family to Walt Disney World on my husband’s business trip a couple of years ago when I was 8 months pregnant. You can read about how we made it happen on my former blog here. Even before Cha-Ching, I still was a deal-seeking mama!)
Does every event have to be Walt-Disney-Sized-Fun? No. Way. Most of our memory making takes place completely free (or cheap!): free concerts at the park, watching movies borrowed from the library, hanging out with friends and family, barbecuing in the back yard. (This past summer, my 5 year old son and I made a Summer Fun List that was full of free and fun activities. Horse-back riding at a friend’s camp was definitely a highlight!)
But if we are:
- sticking to our budget (which we are!)
- and finding creative ways to save money (I am!)
- and future expenses are being planned for (they are!)
- and making room for generosity (Lots to say about this one! Too much. Look for a post soon.)
…then saving our pennies toward a cruise in a couple years sound like a SUPER fun way to celebrate!
And that’s all I have to say about that. 🙂
So here’s the latest on how those pennies are piling up:
Project Cruise 2012: We are still at 17%, but getting closer to 18%!
*****
How about you? Have you been saving and scrimping toward a reward or are you a part of the Cha-Ching! Christmas Club? Then leave a comment or a link below sharing your savings update. And then PLEASE encourage each other by leaving comments here or on the blogs listed. If we work on this together, it will be so much more fun!
AND just to add to all the fun going on around here, I will give a $5 Amazon gift code to one person who leaves a direct link to their savings post or a comment sharing an update on their savings. (I figure it’s just one more way to help you save on that shoestring!)
This giveaway will end October 8 at 1 p.m. EST. I’ll use Random.org to select the winning comment or link. Winner will be notified by email and listed on this site.
Note: If you have a blog, here is the HTML code for the Saving on a Shoestring button above:
<p><a href=” https://chachingonashoestring.com/category/saving-on-a-shoestring/” title=”Saving on a Shoestring”><img src=”https://chachingonashoestring.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Saving-on-a-Shoestring-button-1252.PNG” alt=”Saving on a Shoestring” /></a></p>
Wow so many people saving for future. Personally i never have been this dedicated to start saving for a good purpose. Thanks to my friend who introduced me to this site (thanks to Kaley also). I have recently started saving for my kid’s birthday party ( she wants to have it in bounceu) and i am glad i saved almost 90% off the moneyin just 3months . I can’t believe it is sooooo easy to save money on the things we daily need and use. Good luck to all.
From your site, I am learning to be very frugral and have a great start on savings for Christmas 2011.
Thanks for sharing such great tips.
we too are very frugal and savers…in fact, just yesterday I was somewhere that they normally take their coupons when it’s on your phone, nope not that day, they needed it printed and brought in. so I left the items there, I am not shopping w/o the coupon. as to the vacation, we save our money wisely, and have a vacation fund, and when we’re on the vacation, we know that living smartly pays off in our fun time, relaxation and family time. I’m excited for you to go on a cruise, have you ever been? we’ve been 3 times in our lives, and it’s awesome :)!!
Our “reward” that we are saving for is for my husband’s huge final test to get his Registered Nurse degree! We are paying for his schooling test-by-test….and after saving and saving, we are debt free as well. We have to save up enough for him to fly across the country to take a 4-day final exam to become an RN! He’s doing what he can by working full-time in addition to school; I’m doing what I can by being a frugal shopper and craigslisting, etc! For Christmas, I have been saving Amazon GC’s through Swagbucks, and keeping my eyes open for great sales/coupons as well as free photo gifts, etc. So far so good!
we have been saving for the kids college through that future trust credit card that socks away 1% every time we spend. i just got a letter it is closing down in 1 month!! i need to rethink that. saving is so hard…it really requires either obsessive intention or sneaky 1%s socked away when im not looking 🙂
i try to buy things 1 year ahead of time on clearances to help save money…its not easy!!
Our savings are going down, also. However, I did save $600 this week by pre-paying for 5 weeks of a summer 2011 ballet intensive in Maine for my daughter. Wahoo! Our inspiration years ago was Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University” and his radio talk show and books. If it weren’t for him, we would probably have tens of thousands in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. Instead, our only debt, aside from a very small medical bill, is our mortgage.
so i said i was saving my verizon businesslink rewards points for an llbean gift card, and with which i planned to buy a pair of cute mary janes that llbean has clearanced….except i looked the other day, and they weren’t there anymore (and my card hadn’t come in yet!)….. 🙁 so i hurried and called the ever-amazing llbean customer service and they were able to find one pair in my size, so i ordered them. guilty. but i do still have that $25 coming that i can use for Christmas.
I have been doing lots of online saving and it’s helping me with my Christmas gift buying and savings. I’ve been scooping up deals on Groupon and other sites which will buy more gifts for much less! Please keep the deals coming!
I try to save money by getting cheap or free items that I stockpile and over time I hope to have enough for christmas with not spending much..This economy is tough.
As a photographer and mother, I’m always looking to upgrade my equipment without taking food off my children’s table – haha! So any money I want to spend on photography stuff must come out of my photography earnings. I’m saving for a very expensive lens and am not very far (maybe around 10%) but I’m hoping that with some sessions I have coming up I’ll be making some headway soon!
My savings keep going down. I keep getting random bills but i think I am a bout 4% of the way to Christmas… Sigh….
Good job to you though!!!
By using your site and another money saving site, I’ve been able to get almost all of my Christmas shopping done early and WAY on budget. I have a son and stepson and for both birthday’s and Christmas’s, my budget was $100 total. I want to make them as special as possible and I’ve spent $75 for both children so far and there’s only a few things left to get. I’m so glad I found your site!
I haven’t added any money into my christmas funds yet so I’m still at 20.8% from my last update. But I’m hoping to get at least 30% by Christmas? *Crosses fingers* I’m hoping to go on a cruise next spring, so after Christmas, I’ll be saving for that!
We go on a cruise every 3 years. The day we get off the cruise we start saving immediately for the next one. My brother allocates part of his tax refund every year for cruise money. We have a small travel section on our buget, but it adds up. Our next cruise is in 2012 also and we are 1/3 of the way there.
We actually don’t have a Christmas savings since our families have simplified and don’t buy gifts for each other any more. It makes Christmas so much less stressful, and saves money, too.
~eunice b
tigergal01 @gmail .com
How I wish I had started thinking this way years ago! You are so on the right track with your financial planning!
I’m about halfway to another $5 Amazon GC from SwagBucks, which will bring my total to $50. And I just got 2 rebate checks, which will bring my Christmas Club account to $90! I will reach my goal by next month! 8-]
I think that your post was honest & thoughtful. My husband & I went on a 7 day cruise that he won from work 2 years ago. We would have never been able to afford such a trip & were so thankful that we were able to go. Through life experiences encountered this year, I have learned an important lesson. Life is short. We need to embrace those moments in life that make us truly happy. A vacation with loved ones sure sounds like one of these happy moments to me. Good luck on your quest of savings.
I think you must live life!! Yes go ahead with your plans and do something you enjoy, thats really living life . After having such a huge change in my life, you have a different outlook. We plan and save for a house why not a trip?