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!
Katie says
no dining out- Still feeling the effects of the migraine from Saturday so no leaving the house= no dining out on Sunday
minnimize- No workout..but it was Sunday so that’s ok. Did well with calories..maintaining my weight loss, no new pounds lost. I did spend some time cleaning the house so maybe that counts.
budget- Spent $3 bribing my child. I gave her .10 for every book that she donated to the yard sale, my classroom, or the library. She did not earn her allowance this week so I am taking the $3 from that part of the budget.
de-clutter- 30 more books dispersed somewhere else, more of kiddos outgrown clothes, a couple of misc. items. Pretty good day.
Cathie says
No Dining Out: made breakfast and lunch. not feeling well tonight so hubby said he’d take of dinner. He drove straight to the Golden Arches. I guess we need to revisit the no dining out rule.
declutter: I spent ALL day cleaning out my sons’ closets. I ended up with 2 totes, 3 large boxes and 2 garbage bags of things to sell. One bag of trash too. Yeah!
Minniemize: mini walk with the kids in the woods today.
Allison says
Dining: We ate at home today. We did go out Sat. night and used a b1g1 coupon.
Budget: Spent about $3 on a load of laundry
Minnie: ran a little over 3 miles
Declutter: put a too-big skirt into my bag for Goodwill
Gina says
No dining out- We celebrated our anniversary on Sat. so yes we ate out for dinner and had a wonderful time. The next day we went out for lunch after church,but my Dad paid for it so all good.
Minniemize- We wemt on a walk on Sat. and climbed a bunch of stairs to this lookout tower and that was a good workout. Sun. the only workout I had was cleaning. Ate a liitle more than normal as it was our anniversary and we ate at a nice restaurant with excellent food,but still pretty healthy like a salad made with produce from the farmer’s market,5 oz of filet mignon,roasted vegetables from the farmer’s market again. The not so healthy part was the fresh bread and the cheesecake for dessert. Yesterday we went to Culver’s which is never good for my waistline.
Declutter- Well have decided to start doing this one. We cleaned out my son’s bookcase on Fri. and he was willing to put away quite a few of them,but only wanted to get rid of one of them. It looks so much better now. I was too busy celebrating our anniversary to get any decluttering done this weekend.
audra catlett says
DIning Out- We ate at home today :)
Budget- I stayed within my grocery budget :)
De Cluttering- We cleaned out my daughters room.
Bethany M says
We did dine out yesterday after morning church, but our friends paid. Leftovers for dinner!
Candice says
Have the Grow Your Fund winners for August been announced?
Lois says
Dining Out: No dining out all weekend, we went camping. So the only dining out was eating outside.
Budget: I spent $12.17 all weekend, bought 2 firweood packs and ice. Oh wait I spent $14.17 total, because I bought $2 worth of food for the kids to feed the fish. It’s great to go camping…
Minniemize: I managed a 25 minute run over the weekend, up at 8,000 feet, which is tough to do.
DeClutter: I wasn’t home this weekend, we were camping, so no decluttering for us…unless you count completely cleaning out the pop-up when we go home.
Shannan says
Declutter- Weekend yard sale was a success, $150 to add to the fund!
Minnie- walking this evening while son is at play rehearsal
Lisa says
No Dining Out
No dining out for us today! Whole wheat Thai pizza tonight with leftover Thai pork. One of my favorites!
Minniemizing
Our family took a 30 minute bike ride together. I also started my first day on the TurboFire cardio program. So fun!
Tammie W says
no dining out-went out for anniversary but we were given a present to go to dinner and didn’t go over Yeah!!!!
minniemize-walked 2.5 miles
declutter-sold some items on craiglist
budget-did good at Target , walmart and giant eagle coupons worked great
Renee says
no dining out for us today.
minniemising…plan to walk this evening.
budget…trying hard to stay within budget this week.
decluttering…took a few things out of the kitchen and put them in the garage sale box.
Elyse M. says
Declutter- did 2 loads of dishes, some laundry, cleaned a bit
Budget- didn’t spend anything today
Minniemize- NEED to get back to the gym. I have a free YMCA membership. I really need to use it.
No Dining Out- Haven’t gone out today. Went out to lunch yesterday but my friend bought.
Denise says
No Dining Out – Eating all meals at home today.
Minniemize – Went jogging with my son today. He is in cross country and totally killed me!
Budget – spent $23.46 at Walmart. Did some price matching and a few coupons.
Declutter – Cleaned kids rooms and have some stuff for goodwill.
Donna B says
Decluttering Challenge—none today—hubby has today off–YEEEEAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!
Donna B says
Budget Challenge—-no money spent yet this week (but need to buy new sheets for my bed—hoping hubby will pay for them so they don’t come out of my budget)
Donna B says
Minniemizing for the Mouse—-went to a local park & taught the kids how to play croquet (with a set we bought my husband for Father’s Day)
Donna B says
No Dining Out—hubby took us out to Sonic for lunch —so it didn’t come out of my budget :)
Natalie says
No dining out: The hubs is going to be grilling for us tonight!
Budget: No money spent today. Doing good to start off the month
Minniemizing: Just got back from the gym. Hoping to lose 2lbs this week!
DeCluttering: About to get on that…
Jennifer says
Dining – we ate pizza last night.
Budget – still doing good!
Minnie – took the day off , but still lost 2.5 lbs for the week!
Kristen D. says
Budget: Spent nothing yesterday!
No Dining Out: We stayed in :) Yay!
Minniemize: No exercising, I’m feeling very blah.
Decluttering: Sent a LOT of junk that was sitting around off with my dad to be “scrapped”. YAY for helping my family make a little extra cash and getting rid of junk! woot woot! :D
shannon ferguson says
growing your fund
I went to cvs friday and did the gas card deal adnd was able to put 10 dollars in my found money account. wish this gas card deal hadn’t come to an end
shannon ferguson says
Decluttering
I have been working on getting rid of stuff. I worked on my computer desk and was able to eliminate a bunch of scrap papers and old computer games the kids don’t play anymore.
Vickie Jones says
Budget doing good, we made a big purchase Saturday but we had been saving for it so now our savings is a bit low, time to rebuild it!
Minimize – Took yesterday off
MM says
NDO- nothing yesterday
MtM- finished the lawn I didn’t get done the day before because it was tooooo hot. ran 1/2 mile with little one…how come toddlers can run the whole time and not be out of breath?? :)
budget- spent 0 yesterday
declutter- cleaned out my spices and baking cabinets since i tend to literally just toss everything back in there. you’d think i’d learn! :)
Heather H says
No dining out for us, we are working on cleaning out our freezers so we used up some chicken thighs.
Heather says
NDO- breakfast lunch and dinner at home!
Budget- No money spent yesterday!
Minniemizing- I take the weekends off from working out. Relaxed ALL day!
Declutter-vacuumed out the cars!
Kristin says
declutter: Went through the closet in our study/office and got rid of a TON of stuff.
no dining out: Stayed at home all day yesterday to avoid the rain. Made a boston butt in the crockpot to make pulled pork sandwiches – it was very good!
budget: No spending yesterday! Hoping to get back on track since august was a budget buster for us
Julie H says
No Dining Out – No eating out for us yesterday.
Budget – Tracked my spending and doing well so far.
Decluttering – Well, my husband lost his credit card (again) while on vacation by himself so I had to get rid of mine too. Does that count? I don’t even want to think about all the autopay stuff we have on there.
Kimberly Broughton says
Declutter–my husband and kids helped clean the house yesterday! I finally yelled loud enough!
Minniemize–took the day off
No Dining Out–Ate at home all day!
Budget–No spending! Used a Walgreens RR to buy something I was being paid for–more $$ into the fund!
Angela N says
Declutter – Well, we just had at least 20 acres burn so I guess that was some natural decluttering:(.
Budget – Gas spent going back and forth to our burning property.
No dining – Supposed to make a birthday dinner for our son today.
Lee says
exercise…40 minutes of water aerobics
budget…$37 of grocery budget spent (lots of new veggies to try…fennel, swiss xhard)
declutter…pantry clean-up; nothing pitched, but close dates items moved to the front