(Winners will be announced on Monday)
Grow Your Fund is a daily post that gives you a chance to win prizes by checking in on all the various challenges you are participating in. You can choose to participate in one, two or even all of the challenges giving you even more opportunities to Grow Your Fund!
The Challenges
No Dining Out: The concept is simple, lower your family’s dining out bill and add the money you save to your fund.
Minniemizing for the Mouse: Get in shape for your trip to Disney by walking at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The average person walks 8 or more miles a day at Disney World. Your feet will thank you!
Not going to Disney? Don’t worry. You can participate too. Just commit to working out at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week!
Budget Challenge: Can your family stay on budget this month for groceries, entertainment, dining, etc? Do you think you could even challenge yourself not to spend a dime 5 days this month? Be sure to report on your spending vs your budget every day. The goal is to be able to add the extra money saved at the end of the month to your fund!
*If you haven’t set a budget yet, you might want to check out this post.
Decluttering Challenge: Is your stuff starting to overtake your house? Do you feel like your kids room is full of too much junk and not enough fun? If so, I challenge you to find a new home for just 25 items a day for the next 30 days. This could be 25 articles of clothing, 25 books you no longer read, 25 toys your kids ignore. Have a box for items to donations, a box for items to sell and throw the rest away! At the end of the challenge, have a yard sale and add the earnings to your fund!
The prizes
At the end of each month, I will pick FOUR winners who will each receive $25 to add to their fund. Look for the winners to be announced on the 3rd of each month.
How to enter
Leave a comment with the title of the challenges it is for. You can participate in one, two, three or even all four challenges. There will be one winner per challenge, and winners can win multiple times! It’s all done by using Random.org, so if your number comes up and you are eligible, you win! In order to be eligible to win, you must actively participate in the challenge for at least FIVE calendar days.
Click below for even more details on each challenge…
No Dining
- Take a look at your current dining out budget. How much did you spend last month going out to eat? That is money that could have gone into your fund instead! Try cutting your out to eat costs this month and adding the difference to your fund.
- Set a weekly dining out budget, if you resist going out to eat, add that amount to your fund instead.
- If you were seriously about to go out to eat (like had your coat on and was going out the door or pulled into the drive thru and then pulled back out), add the amount you would have spent to your fund.
- Going out to eat and using a coupon or paying with a gift card? You could add that amount to your fund too. For example… if you had a $25 gift card to Cracker Barrel and you used it, you could take $25 cash out of your budget and add it to the fund. Or if you used a $10 coupon, you could take $10 cash out of the budget and add it to the fund.
- You must challenge yourself. Try to spend less than you spend now. If you don’t go out to eat at all, challenge yourself to try new meals this month. As long as you are challenging yourself when it comes to your family’s eating habits, you can participate!
- You are allowed 1 freebie meal that you don’t have to count or report back to us about. Please report on everything else though so we can encourage and support one another!
- Free meals do not count against you. This is a challenge to spend less money going out to eat than you usually spend. If someone else is paying for the meal or you have a coupon to make it free, great!
- At the end of the month, you will need to comment on the very last post to be entered to win. I will choose the winner from that post and verify that you have commented on at least 5 days worth of posts. The comments must of occurred on 5 DIFFERENT days. Meaning if on the 30th, you commented on that post and then went back and commented on 4 days worth of posts, you would be disqualified. You must comment on 5 different posts on 5 different days.
Minniemizing for the Mouse
- I need to get fit for the mouse. My feet hurt so bad from all that walking and for once I’d love to experience Disney without being in pain. We are going in November, so I am hoping to make a big lifestyle change between now and then. I can’t do it alone and so I need the help from all of you!
- Check in each day and report on your progress. The goal is to exercise for at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. For those of us going to Disney, walking for those 20 minutes is a great way to not only get in shape, but prepare our feet.
- It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are moving!
- At the end of the month, you will need to comment on the very last post to be entered to win. I will choose the winner from that post and verify that you have commented on at least 5 days worth of posts. The comments must of occurred on 5 DIFFERENT days. Meaning if on the 30th, you commented on that post and then went back and commented on 4 days worth of posts, you would be disqualified. You must comment on 5 different posts on 5 different days.
Budget Challenge
- Everyone needs a budget. Budgets will help you to be in control of your money without your money being in control of you. You dictate where your money goes and how it is spent.
- Don’t have a budget? I’ve written a few articles that should help you set one… How to Set a Budget and How to Set a Grocery Budget. You’ll find even more helpful advice under Getting Started Couponing and Your Fund.
- Each day, check in and let us know how much you spent the day before and if you stayed under budget or not. We aren’t here to critique your budget (unless you ask!), but we are here to support you in staying on track!
- Also feel free to include bargain brags. Did you find a great deal or do something creative to save money, be sure to share it with all of us!
- At the end of the month, you will need to comment on the very last post to be entered to win. I will choose the winner from that post and verify that you have commented on at least 5 days worth of posts. The comments must of occurred on 5 DIFFERENT days. Meaning if on the 30th, you commented on that post and then went back and commented on 4 days worth of posts, you would be disqualified. You must comment on 5 different posts on 5 different days.
Decluttering Challenge
- It doesn’t take long for the stuff to start taking over your home. The kids rooms start overflowing with broken, neglected and just plain weird no idea where they came from toys. Your stockpile starts to spread from the kitchen, to the hall, to your bathtub. You start finding that the home for more and more items is the middle of your living room floor. Etc!
- It can be overwhelming to take on the task of decluttering your home, but the end rewards are so worth the effort. To make the process easy, I challenge you to find just 25 items every day to find a new home for. Get a box labeled donations, one labeled to sell, and one for trash. Go through 25 items a day and either put it in one of the 3 boxes or find a new permanent place for it.
- At the end of 30 days, you will have an organized home and you can have a yard sale to add more money to your fund!
- Be sure to post every day that you have gone through your 25 items and found a new home for them. Don’t just put them back where they don’t belong.
- At the end of the month, you will need to comment on the very last post to be entered to win. I will choose the winner from that post and verify that you have commented on at least 5 days worth of posts. The comments must of occurred on 5 DIFFERENT days. Meaning if on the 30th, you commented on that post and then went back and commented on 4 days worth of posts, you would be disqualified. You must comment on 5 different posts on 5 different days.
Good luck!
Minnie: worked at our VBS kick off this afternoon! I was manning the bouncy house..
Declutter: worked in my closet today. Finally time to get rid of those high school tshirts!
No Dining Out: Ate at home all day. I love to cook but hate all the dishes :(
Minniemize: Played games with the kids on wii. Wanted to go for a walk or bike ride but it didn’t happen! Hubby bought a new wheel to fix our eliptical.
Budget: Stayed home so no money spent! (on a Saturday, and the kids still survived!) Oh and we got the $92 wheel for the eliptical on ebay for $25!
Declutter: Finally finished the garage! Our garbage can is full of about 100 broken toys :) Moved all the dad stuff to one side and kids stuff to the other side and organized! Also did ALL the laundry and ironed and mended EVERYTHING in my piles and got rid of more too tiny kids clothes. Oh and made cut offs of my sons jeans with holes in them. (Recycled and saved money!)
No Dining Out – Our goal for the month is to not eat out at all. I did have to remind my husband a few times this afternoon that this meant he couldn’t call for pizza, but so far, so good.
Budget – Our other goal is to not spend any money beyond our bills. We have a renter in our basement who pays rent and buys the groceries, so the goal is to save his rent for a trip to visit some family in August. So far, nothing spent.
Declutter – I have spent a considerable part of my time lately purging toys, clothes, magazines, everything. I’ve actually cleaned so much, I’m starting to get bored during the day. I still have a few things to do, but today was a maintain day.
No Dining Out
No dining out for us. Homemade pizza for dinner.
Minniemizing
Insanity and a light weight training video.
No Dining Out: I spent most of my day running errands, so I did grab something to eat while I was out, but I did SO much better than I used to. I ordered a small sandwich, but I didn’t order my usual large sweet tea because I had a bottled water with me.
Minniemizing for the Mouse: Same as above post. Much better eating day and I tracked everything.
Budget Challenge: I set a grocery budget of $120 a week and I came in at $114 today at Kroger so YAY ME!
Decluttering Challenge: I cleaned out another pantry today and got rid of the “bad stuff” before loading it up with all the “good stuff” I bought at Kroger.
Good job on the budget!!
Thanks, Kristin! :)
No Dining Out: Getting Pizza tonight…used my gift card yesterday
Budget: Spent $1.05 using my Staples Rewards!
Minniemize: Walked
DeClutter: Cleaned the House
No dining out – we ate in all day, fun stuff I found on sale and had coupons for!
Minniemizing – working hard on this one. I am more Ursula-sized and will be making my first trip to MK in October, so I definitely need to get a move on!! Did serious housework today for about 5 hours!
Staying on Budget – thankfully something that isn’t so difficult. We have LOTS of no-spend days.
Decluttering – definitely something I need an incentive for right now. Definitely accomplished this one today!
Decluttering—I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets, our movie stash, and some of my stock plie to give things to our troops. My son’s daycare center collected items to send to the troops and I brought them 2 bags full of stuff. I am glad I was able to clean some things out but also to give to such a worthy cause was an extra boost to get me to look for more things. In the last week I have also listed 3 items on EBAY (first time using EBAY to sell anything). Hopefully I will make some money to add to our trip this October : )
No dining:
Still going strong! :)
Budgeting:
Paid all the bills for the month yesterday. Put $280 in savings and paid down $300 in debt. :)
dining out- no dining out yesterday for us but I had lunch for $2.19 at burger king after work today
minimize- did my yoga this morning and yesterday cleaned my girls room and playroom
declutter- put all my girls purses but 4 in a bin and left 4 out for play, pulled legos out and put in seperate bags, now I just need a few more bins to seperate toys and clothes for fall clothing sale. More money for Disney
Friday was not a good day for me to start these challenges. It’s my one day a week when I work late, so I usually have pizza for dinner, don’t exercise and am just plain lazy!
Didn’t eat out…the only good thing about yesterday.
No eating out yesterday and no exercising. Good and bad. :oP
No dining out…failed yesterday. Ate lunch out with the girls from work. We hadn’t done that in a long time so I couldn’t say no. Then, when I got home, my husband wanted to go out because we hadn’t been out anywhere except McD’s for a really long time. Ended up spending close to $40 for both meals, but maybe now we’ll be satisfied with eating at home for awhile.
budget…went over the budget yesterday for eating out and today went to garage sales and spent $70 for furniture for my son to take to grad school with him. This month is not starting out very well.
minniemizing…I DID get up and walked this morning. 6 o’clock am on a Saturday! It was so humid that my hands were swelling by the time I got home! I am going to really try to exercise everyday in July, though. Today I have been trying to eat healthier. Cherrios with blueberries for breakfast, homemade veggie soup for lunch.
decluttering…about to declutter my daughter’s book shelf. There is alot of junk on there. She loves it all, but maybe she won’t miss it if she doesn’t see it leave.
NDO- no dining out yesterday, had tacos. no idea what’s for tonight’s dinner.
MtM- mowed the backyard (too hot to do the whole thing-am doing the front yard today), went for a swim in our pond with the little one, and cleaned the house to prepare for 30 guests on the 4th.
Budget- after spending lots of money on Thursday, nothing spent yesterday
Declutter- continued cleaning up everything. went through the office to shred papers (it’s amazing how many papers i keep). also, hubby and i went through boxes of old momentos we have from high school/college. threw away a TON of stuff. when you have a little one…their life becomes your momentos…the things you have saved from your time aren’t as important (though we did keep some stuff to show the little one when older).
No dining out for us. We had frozen pizza.
Budget
Paid bills yesterday, boy it’s tight till I go back to school. -10 so I need to recoup that from grocrey or something else.
Minimize
On the Wii yesterday and helped at church with a big project for 90 minutes so lots of activity, probably off set by the cake balls I made last night, but oh well
DeClutter
Need to attack the garage this week, it’s 8:30 and 97 out already enough said, guess declutter will help with minimize!
No dining out: Had lunch out with my mom yesterday at a favorite restaurant but she treated. I have no idea if we’ll be out eating today. Today is my birthday and my husband and kids planned, shopped for, and will be preparing any meals at home. So far, my girls made me bacon-cheddar scrambled eggs with chocolate glazed donuts. Yum! They even did the dishes. :)
Decluttering: I cleaned out my biggest kitchen cabinet on Thursday. I only found one thing to get rid of but it is much better organized now. Hubby and I also cleaned out our bathroom cabinets and got rid of quite of few items in there.
Happy Birthday!! :)
No dining out-used cash on hand to feed kids at the peach festival, without running to the atm beforehand
minnimizing for the mouse: we are going for a family walk today.
budget. making a cash plan for the month today.
declutter: 15 minutes planned for the office space.
Minnie: 30 minute Pilates DVD
Declutter: did over 100 yesterday, made each kid do 25 then I cleaned out the kitchen of plastic cups from restaurants. I hope that counts as an extra cause we have double family reunions and fireworks today!
No Dining Out – made hamburger & Mac and Cheese for the family for dinner.
Minnimizing for the Mouse – We just went to Disney this past month, but with my extra pounds, I was wiped out everyday! Going to walk the dogs twice a day now that I am home all day. (I’m a teacher) I hope to lose 60+ pounds by the next Disney trip!
Budget – So far, so good. Paid two major bills and put money into savings accounts.
Declutter – Went through daughter’s clothing and pulled a bunch to donate. I’m going to purge my closet next week.
Minemizing for the Mouse: without biking to work in the summer, I need more exercise–yesterday the kids and dog and I went to the dog park, but need a more consistent routine.
Minniemize-ran 3 miles and did three 10 minute Golds Gym workouts.
No dining out-Hubby went out to lunch from work. Kids and I did not go out and grilled chicken and shrimp for dinner.
We are de cluttering and having yard sales…and making a fund of eating out money we would have spent….trying to teach the children about saving for Disney so we can all have a very magicial time when it comes to our trip in two years!!!
* I had posted, but don’t see the comment, so hopefully this doesn’t become a double comment *
No Dining Out – We ate breakfast in, but went out for lunch and dinner.
Budget – No grocery money spent this month so far.
Decluttering – Lots of work done on this one yesterday! Woohoo!
Sometimes it marks them as spam. :( If I see it, I will just delete the previous one. :)
Decluttering: This one has been slow-going for me, but the results are starting to show, so that’s motivating. Goal for today is another 10 items!
No Dining Out: Another good day for us…I made a homemade pizza and a nice lettuce salad for dinner.
July Total Spent: $0.00
No Dining Out : Breakfast tacos for breakfast & new steak recipe, homemade french fried & Corn on the Cob for dinner! (Threw THAT steak recipe out – but we still ate it!)
Budget: Completely out of/off budget for the month due to too much fun on vacation!
Minniemize: Gave the dog a bath! (I think that should count!)
Decluttering: Not too much progress, but hoping to tackle son’s room soon!
No dining out…
and Decluttering…we are preparing to move. So the less there is to move, the better.
no dining out, on budget, no decluttering, ate well
No dining out: Had Grilled Ranch chicken salad & whole wheat crackers.
Minniemize me: Couponed at 3 diff. stores. That was a brain workout…lol.
No dining out:
No dining out yesterday! :) Had a bowl of cereal lol. About to go pick up my husband at the airport!
Minniemizing:
Cleaned the house all day yesterday and battled the HUGE crowd at the commissary. For a second I thought it was almost Thanksgiving!
(payday + 4th of July) = crazy commissary
Budget:
Bought way more than usual, grocery-wise. Bought ALL of my husband’s favorite foods for his homecoming :)
Decluttering:
Cleaned the entire house! :)
I’m sure your husband will be very happy with all his favorite foods! :)
No Dining Out – I was really tempted to dine out last night and instead made Camp-Out Hoboes which the family declared to now be their favorite – who would have thought?
We are trying the no dining out this month. If we do dine out out it will be with gift cards we have won.