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!
Susan says
Didn’t eat out.
Didn’t exercise.
Sat on my butt all evening!
Bad, bad girl. : (
Coral says
Dining out: Took lunch to work (I took it every day this week!), had left overs for dinner.
Budget: Spent no money
Minimizing: Still wasn’t feeling well so didn’t exercise again. :(
Christine says
Kristin, the area that I live in people have started a group on Facebook that people can post items they have for sale, giveaway or things that they are looking for. It has been a hit!
Kelley says
Declutter: Found my 25 things and realized I was running out of room to store my garage sale goodies. This lead to cleaning everything out of the garage and reorganizing it. We have a table set up for me to take all the donations and sale items right out there now plus we ended up to unload TONS of things in the garage. Some staight to the dump, others to the garage sale, and others to donate. A great day of decluttering!! Thanks for getting me started!!
Denise says
No dining out – Had a pot luck at a fun sew day with friends for lunch and made dinner.
Minniemize – Did not exercise today because I slept in.
Budget – Had to buy diapers. Ugh. But doing well so far this month.
Declutter – Went through my “stash” and am giving to goodwill.
Cathie says
Minniemize: Took the kids to the zoo today (for FREE – Grandma has an annual pass). Did lots of walking!
Declutter: Rounded up the kids duplicate gifts from – I hate to say it – Easter. Yes, they have been cluttering up the house since Easter. Returned them and put the cash into their bank accounts.
Katie R says
No Dining Out: Was in Disney the past few days and had lunch at PortoBello at Downtown Disney yesterday. Not cheap at all but well worth it. It was WAY too hot outside and the food was delish! Great Italain food.
Budget: Did really well. Only bought a French Bag at Epcot on clearance and a postcard. Also bought a round of drinks.Took many pictures instead of spending my time and money buying things!
DeClutter: Went through part of my coupon binder while riding in the car and separated all of the expired coupons that I’m getting ready to send to military families overseas. I’m on vacation, so there’s not a ton of decluttering I can do right now!
Minniemize: Definitely walked a few miles. I had blisters from my North Face walking sandals! Next time I’m wearing gym shoes to the parks even though they are so hot and bulky. Does anybody have suggestions for cute and lightweight gym shoes that are still somewhat stylish?
Lee says
Budget- spent $10 of grocery budget at Aldi
Dining-our one night of dining out (used bogo coupon at local mexican restaurant)
Kymm says
no dining- For some insane reason I woke up super early yesterday morning and did all these crazy chores- I prepped meat for 2 meals- taking ground beef, dividing it and spicing it up for mammwich (dh’s favorite) and taco meat for tostadas. We had mammwich last night with fresh corn on the cob and fries.
declutter- part of my manic early morning cleaning is that I cleaned off the sink and threw away tons of junk- it was disgusting!
Budget-Dh got a new job! We are back on track!
Minniemizing- can’t do it all in one day! ;)
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
I love Manwich!
Bethany M says
No dining out yesterday.
I exercised last night for about 25 minutes on the Wii Fit.
Hillary says
Decluttering: I did it! Got the final 3 boxes unpacked from my master bedroom (after 6 months of living here!) and all the items either thrown out (I threw away at least half of the junk in those boxes!!), ready to be donated, or put in a good place around the house. Now my corner is ready for a new rocking chair for our new little one!!
Minniemizing: spent time outside walking the dog and playing with the little guy. As much as I love the sunshine, I’m ready for fall weather so walking outside will be cooler and easier!
No Dining Out: Had stew and homemade biscuits for dinner last night, going to my parents for dinner tonight to get ready for our baby shower tomorrow!
Budget: didn’t spend anything yesterday, no plans to spend anything outside the budget today. Possibly getting gas before the weekend, but that’s budgeted in of course!
Donna B says
Decluttering Challenge—have the kids in each of their own rooms cleaning & I am in my room cleaning—sure we can find plenty to throw away & plenty to get ready for the yard sale
Donna B says
Budget Challenge—-no spending today—still have a little left over for the week!!
Donna B says
Minniemizing for the Mouse—spending all day going up & down my steps carrying loads of laundry that need to be folded & put away after being washed
Donna B says
No Dining Out—none for us today—ended up eating out last night because we didn’t have enough time to sit down & eat at home between a drs appt in Charlottesville & getting the kids to their VBS Family Night on time!!
Denise says
budget – we are on budget this months…still have money for my next week
declutter – cleaned out my office – purged way more than 25 things
no dining – went out to dinner with cousins – my freebie – kids and hubby ate at home
minnimize – no exercise for me. :o(
Amy W says
No dining out:
No dining out yesterday! Sandwiches for lunch, and we grilled out with steaks, pineapples, and baked potatoes. :)
Minniemizing:
Stayed under calorie budget!
Decluttering:
General straightening up and laundry.
Budget:
Spent no money yesterday but made over $50!!! :) I got a $40 check in the mail from doing surveys, and I returned the unopened paper products at Party City from a baby shower last week= $12 more dollars!
Clare C. says
No dining out: Nothing yesterday. Had sloppy joes and cole slaw for dinner.
Minnemize: Walked the dog after dinner.
Decluttering: New family room furniture arrived yesterday so got rid of the 3 old pieces.
Budget: Spent another $3.50 at the grocery store so just over $20 for the week now. Wonder if we can stay under $25…
Angela N says
Budget – Getting adjusted to my new cash budget this week. Spent $22 on groceries this week.
No dining – Staying home today. Frozen pizza for dinner.
Declutter – Still working on my bedroom and sorting things into boxes: Toss, Sell, Transfer, Keep. That is my project for the week. Next week I want to tackle my biggest problem, paper! I will have to set up a home office system that works better than my current one. Also, probably taking items to consignment next week and having a garage sale so lots to do. Too bad I work Monday and Tuesday.
heather h says
No dining out for us, we had hamhocks and beans in the crockpot.
Meagan says
No Dining Out: since yesterday was my bday I ate out all day but for FREE!!! Went to Panera in the morning and got a free coffee and pastary that was on my card. Then went to IHOP for lunch with a friend and used my free birthday coupon for the Rooty Tooty breakfast and went out for dinner to Applebees and my friend paid!
Minniemize me: was to full to exercise
Declutter: clean out the car
Budget: with all my free food I am under budget right now!
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Happy birthday! :)
Meagan says
thank you :)
Rachel W says
No dining out – went and got a corned beef from the grocery and pulled a cabbage out of my garden for dinner tonight – yum!
Minniemize – taking a walk while my son rides his bicycle today!
Budget – renting a FREE movie from Blockbuster for entertainment tonight with a code!
Declutter – working on a huge pile of papers I need to go through – at this point – I’m sure 25 things are junk mail for the trasth!!
Katie says
No Dining Out – A Busy night last night but we didin’t run to McDonald’s. We had Chef Boyardee and Easy Mac Cups on the go.
Budget – We had to get my high schooler’s graphing caculator, backpack, and Latin dictionary but we had the rest of her list through school sales. We also had to get our 4th grader’s earbuds (for computer use). We did pretty good considering we had to get these things for her list.
Declutter – Our yard sale is tommorow so we spent yesterday and today going through the basement. Later today, we are selling the kid’s bikes.
Minniemizing – I didn’t do to much today considering tommorow I’ll be in the sun all day; don’t want to waste my energy! But, I did get a few minutes done of Wii Fit.
Julie H says
No Dining Out – No eating out for us yesterday. Leftovers for lunch and quiche for dinner.
Budget – No household money spent, but I did work on a price book so I can work on my Sam’s club list
Declutter – I went through some mail and shredded and recycled as needed.
Kristen D. says
No Dining Out: We ate in! :D. Yayyy! Gonna have to eat out today though, but it will be the first time so far this month (we’re gonna be on the road).
Budget: Doing GREAT so far, haven’t spent a dime that wasn’t on bills!
Minniemize: Did great on my eating goals and even exercised a tiny bit!
Shannon says
No dining out: As tempting as it has been all week to eat out, with two birthdays coming up this month, I resisted and we ate tostadas.
Budget: Didn’t spend a dime :-). Went to CVS to get some diet coke and left without anything b/c I forgot my wallet.
Stephanie S says
Dining Out: Today is my birthday, and so I will be dining out to celebrate, BUT I have my birthday freebie coupons printed and ready to use!
Budget: Same as above post. I don’t plan on spending anything on my birthday celebration. (Hopefully). :)
Minniemizing: I had a seven pounds loss this week, bringing my total to 16 pounds GONE!
Decluttering: I spent yesterday cleaning and decluttering from 9AM until 3PM, so I got a ton of things done.
Bre says
Happy Birthday!! :)
Stephanie S says
Thank you, Bre! :)
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Happy Birthday!!!
Stephanie S says
Thank you, Kristin!
Tammie W says
no dining out-no dining out for us yesterday yeah!!!
minniemize-feeling a little sore from yesterday’s workout but did yoga this morning to stretch
budget-bought the 3/5 peanut butter and ragu from cvs but also bought hoppers at 20% off for my girls too oh but magic coupon machine gave $2 off chips so it cost me 50 cents for a whole bag. spent $20 at acme and got some great produce and stuff
declutter-nothing
bonnagirl says
NDO – hubby and I both ate at home last night and packed lunches yesterday.
Budget – I spent $0 yesterday!!!!
MM – walked on the treadmill for 30 min yesterday.
Declutter – didn’t get a chance to work on this yesterday.
Denise says
No Dining Out: leftover Tuscan chicken from dinner last night for lunch
Minniemizing for the Mouse: Running a 5K tonight – called Lost Dog 5K – raises money for animal rescue
Budget Challenge: lots of free trial size degree deod., cascade, tide, and head and shoulders with coupons from Walmart yesterday
Decluttering Challenge: my mom is in town and decluttering challenge complete (well at least for now until my family messes up the house again :-)
Tonya says
No dining out: We had Chicken Paella & a salad. Hubby took leftovers for lunch.
Budget: Spent $0.
Minniemize me: Portion control, green tea, water
Bre says
No Dining Out:: Made tacos at home :)
Minnniemizing:: Did some much needed yoga. Feel soo much better!
Budget:: Went to walmart and got cascade, travel tide, dawn dish liquid and reach floss for free.
Declutter:: My boyfriends work saves bottle lids and for a certain number collected it allows a little girl to get free chemo so we emptied out our stash yesterday :)
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
That’s awesome!