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!
No Dining Out – We dined out last Thursday at my favorite sushi restaurant (which has an all you can eat sushi deal) to celebrate my surviving the school year (Thursday was the last day). My boyfriend had been planning this for a month, though, and setting aside a little of his spending money every week to cover it. And it’s only the second time we’ve gone out this month!
Budget – This week has been very good budget-wise. I just have the rest of today to make it through my “budget week”, and no plans to buy anything but the prescription food for my cat (she’s in the very, very early stages of kidney disease and the vet wants her eating this very expensive wet food, so that’s a specific subset of my monthly budget for meats and grocery staples, paper goods, cleaning supplies, etc, so it’s not coming out of my weekly budget for spending money, fresh produce, dining out and incidentals). As long as everything goes as planned and I don’t have to spend any money today, I’ll have almost $50 to add to my fund this week!!
Minniemize – This has actually been going fairly well for me this week. I’ve gotten out and walk/jogged 4 miles three times, and I’ve worked out for at least a half hour (yesterday for 80 minutes!!) on my wii three other times. I’m starting to feel the difference in my stamina, which is nice!
Decluttering – I haven’t done a whole lot of decluttering this week. Tomorrow I’m going to attack my DVD tower and weed out all the ones that we don’t watch on a regular enough basis to justify having them take up space. Then I’m going to go back to working on weeding clothes out of my closet.
No Dining Out- Did good! Made lunch before we went to town. Then chicken teriyaki kebobs for dinner when we got back.
Budget- Doing good so far. Did get rootbeer & ice cream for the kids for floats but used grocery money!
Minnemize- Not much yet. Gotta find time! Working on eating (drinking) breakfast. Made a smoothie.
Declutter- Folded about 8 loads of laundry and went through kids clothes as I went. Got rid of 1 big basket of stuff that is too small/didn’t go with anything.
Decluttering Challenge—-was out & about all day long—-no time to declutter—-will pick it up again next week (after VBS is over!!!)
Budget Challenge—went shopping today & still have money left in the budget—-will use it on thursday to buy whatever I haven’t been able to stock up on/get real cheap using coupons for our camping trip this weekend
Minniemizing for the Mouse—spent all day running errands & sweating to death (no AC in the house or car)
No Dining Out—none for us today
No dining out–
we were out for a walk and we walked by a restaurant and saw ceviche on the menu and it sounded so good so we went to the grocery store and got what we needed, and made it at home! It was delicious and cost much less!!
declutter–
dusted and totally cleaned out bookcases….and organized like crazy.
Decluttering – Went through the MASSIVE stack of magazines and weeded out the outdated ones.
No eating out – Cooked BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh tomato slices, and fresh peaches.
Budget – Bought 2 packages of Carefree liners, 2 bottles of nail polish, and a small bag of chips for $4.00. We continue to get FREE Frozen Coke refills with our Kangaroo mugs. Every time we fill them up we put $1.00 (per cup) in our Disney fund.
Minniemize-Usually we go for a bike ride but it was raining to this evening I did 1 hour of Wii Fit.
Decluttering- VA pick up called today so I went through my closet and my husbands and got rid of some more clothes!
Budget Challenge: Used blockbuster code to treat kids to three movies today (so not only were they free & the kids were excited, but also added $3 to Disney fund)! This is when budgeting has its perks!!!
Minniemize me – Got my 60 minutes in on the elliptical just before dinner tonight.
minniemizing
I’m going to Zumba tonight
no dining out
i made chili
declutter
nothing
budget
I took the kids out of karate for the summer so I’ll save $200 a month but I enrolled them in private swim lessons. I found a college girl who will teach them super cheap!
Minimize: Not so good today…so I’m gonna do wii fit tonight after DD goes to bed
No dining out: A great rice dish tonight made out of all things in our “stash”
Declutter: organized some of the bins in our basement – we didn’t toss but rearranging made us almost double the space!!
Budget: Dog’s vet bill was only $56….much less than I figured. We may actually be able to stay within budget this week even with that unexpected cost because there isn’t much I needed/want this week….
No Dining Out – No eating out for us yesterday! I made enchilada casserole for dinner had leftovers for lunch.
Budget – I did a lot of shopping while my 3 yr was at a 3 hr dance camp. I got a lot of stuff for hurricane preparedness and stockpiling, but I’m still within my budget. I updated my spreadsheet as well.
Declutter – Nothing for this one yesterday.
Minniemizing: Swimming at the lake
No Dining Out: Going well no money spent
De-Clutter: Cleaned out the garage threw away tons of stuff and organized much more.
Budget: Went grocery shopping to day bill came to $142 AND AFTER COUPONS ONLY SPENT $35 I am so excited!! I am still very new to couponing so this was as exciting as going to Disney for me…ok maybe not but I was excited!!
Wow! You did an awesome job!
Minniemizing
Played with the boys at the beach today and did an hour of cardio.
No Dining Out
No dining out for us. Herb roasted chicken and veggies for dinner.
BC…did some couponing at Publix today to stock up on the Oscar Mayer subs to freeze for school lunches this coming schoolyear. The budget savings won’t be realized until the fall, but at 25c per sub it is worth the output now.
Declutter – clean off daughter desk found a $20.00 bill she had lost – she donated half to the Disny fund for the family
Out to Eat – NO – Hot dogs and Mac n cheese and peas for Dinner
Budget – On track – Yes – We will find out if 6 months of budgeting is going to pay off – tonight – We look at the extra money we have to see if the kids and us have earned a weekend at the beach for 4th of July – I think we have gone above – I will let everyone know on Wed.
I love found money! :)
No eating out yesterday.
I walked up and down stairs 10 times and walked my employers dog a couple times outside yesterday. I was too tired to exercise last night, so I’m glad I got most of it done during the day.
DINING – Ended up with a QT drink $0.62
DECLUTTERING – Got TY’s sent and the mound of cards, projects, etc for them is now out of the house (I send a lot of cards and I was way behind).
no dining out.
Decluttering: I just got 3 boxes ready for the ARC to take tomorrow! I haven’t even gone through the kitchen yet, so hopefully I’ll get some more stuff.
No working out, really. Just trying to make a teething princess happy!
Decluttering: Cleared a little off of my desk
No dining out: Nothing since Friday. We had honey baked lentils over rice last night. Super cheap. It looked like, well, brown lentils, but was very tasty. Even the kids liked it.
Budget: DH has slowed down a bit on the projects. He actually returned a few items today that he didn’t need. Now I’m off to the grocery store. Hoping to stay under budget there for the week.
minimize – 20 min on treadmill
declutter – collected numerous little things i stepped on around the house & into the trash they went. I don’t know how the kids accumulate so many little plastic things!
Decluttering: While cleaning up I found an old debit card for an account we have not used since moving over 2 years ago. Called and found out I had a little over $800 still in that account. Can’t believe I could have forgotten about that money! Account is now closed, and a check will be mailed! Yipee!!!!! Nice chunk of found money to put into my Disney fund!
Wow! That is a great deposit into your fund! :)
No Dining Out: We didn’t eat out, but hubby apparently stopped for a snack during a road trip.
Minniemize: I guess we just won’t go there. I need to get moving some more. Perhaps today.
no dining out – we went out for dinner last night for my husbands birthday. With all the special events this month we have done surprisingly well at not eating out.
Happy birthday to him!
No dining out for us, we had bacon wrapped chicken rollups that are always a hit.
No Dining Out – Made a great potato soup in the crock pot last night. Yummy!
Minniemize – Still going strong losing at least 1 lb a week so far!
Budget – Went over budget for household items for the month, but I’m trying to keep it as low as possible to get through the month now. Now I’m teaching my mom how to coupon so she can get her SS income to go further and save to visit her family.
Declutter – Didn’t get rid of anyhting yesterday, but did find a local place to make donations too!
No dining out: No dining out for me yesterday!
Minniemize: I’m biking to school daily, and I’ve been keeping track of what I eat
Declutter: I’ve been so busy with summer school that I didn’t have time to clean up anything yesterday :/ BUT I did a TON of dishes, and put away a ton of clothes the day before!
Budget: I went grocery shopping on Sunday and spent $24 total. I am especially proud of myself for getting 10 pasta roni boxes, 4 Activia yogurt 4-packs, and 1 gallon of milk for $9.90.
Good job on the minniemizing!
DECLUTTER: (my 4th post) I did some major decluttering. I went into my garage (scary place). I went through 5 bags of junk. I filled a laundry basket full of papers and cardboard for my recycle can. We have curbside recycling with Recyclebank so I am proud to get points for my hard work.
Decluttering – the 25 items per day are getting a little harder to find, however, I went through my spice cabinet and got rid of some really old spices (about 15). I think I will start working on my desk today.
MINNIEMIZE: (my 4th post) I have had a hard week (last week), but now I am getting back on track. I have done 60 minutes of cardio!
No Dining Out: Grilled Hotdogs and Hamburgers for dinner
Minniemize: ran all around yesterday with the girl I nanny for. Played Tennis
Budget: No money spent yesterday except $2 on an emergency coffee
DeClutter: Still working on this around the house.
I couldn’t have stumbled across this at a better time! Thank you SO MUCH, Kristin! We’re planning a trip for November or December 2012, and I need to lose about 130 pounds before then, so the Minniemizing For The Mouse will especially help A LOT! (I plan on doing all of the challenges though). After our last trip to Disney in November 2009, I vowed I wouldn’t go back until this weight was GONE. There’s just no way possible to walk around such an enormous place carrying so much weight. The next time we go, I want my family to have to keep up with ME, instead of the other way around. Thanks again!
No dining
We ate at home last night. Tonight we will eat out but we aren’t paying for it. It is my little sister’s th birthday.
Minniemize
I walked yesterday at lunch. I am doing better with my portion control and I am 10 days without soda!!
Declutter
I went through my cabinets and getting ride of everything that hasn’e been used in years. While I am at it I am wiping the cabinets down. Getting 2 birds with 1 stone.
Decluttering: Ended up being out of the house unexpectedly all day yesterday…so nothing got done. Really will focus today and report something good back in the morning!!
No dining out – Plan on going to ChickfilA today and using some free coupons and a gift card. My son needs to play and get some energy out.
Budget – Will do some shopping today with coupons. My goal is to spend no more than $40 today.
Declutter – I have my decluttering/organization bible study today. Hopefully that will motivate me more.
No Dining Out- None
Minniemize- Swimming
Budget- No mroe spent
Declutter- removed 25 items from the livin room :)
Decluttering
Got rid of quite a few things yesterday after cleaning up after my daughter’s playdate
No Dining – I am so proud of how we have been doing. My son had surgery yesterday and normally I would have automatically gotten takeout. Instead I make a chicken and rice casserole on Sunday and just popped it in the oven to eat for dinner. It was even easier than having to go pick something up!
Minniemizing – This is the challenge I am struggling with. I have been stressed out and eating everything! My husband is on vacation this week so we decided we were going to take a walk every day so at least that is something.
Budgeting – We are doing well tracking what we spend so after we have a month of expenses tracked we are going to examine what we can cut back on. We would love to save more for our son’s college education so hopefully we can find areas to cut.
Decluttering – Yesterday I took a picture of 3 pieces of artwork that I no longer want and sent the pictures out to my sister in law’s to see if they are interested. If they aren’t my plan is to send it to my friends and then donate them if no one is interested.
Hope your son is recovering well.
Every time you start feeling really stressed & start thinking about food to calm you down, go do something else for 15 min. (set a timer if you have to), that way you get your mind on something else & when the timer goes off, you won’t be thinking about eating. I used to be a stress/emotional eater, too. This strategy has worked wonderfully for me. Hope it helps you as well.
Hope your son is doing well!
no decluttering, ate a cupcake (only one! and had soup for dinner to compensate) for my eldest’s birthday, on budget, took the kids to mcd’s, but had free meal coupons from their summer reading program
No dining out: Had Hummus & Turkey Wraps, Special K Cracker Crisps (delicious) & grilled squash.
Minniemize me: Did weight training by lifting 45 lb. 4 yr. old. Water, green tea, portion control.