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!
Gina says
No dining- We went out for pizza yesterday because it was a holiday and we had just gone for a hike and were hungry and because that’s what we use to do in the old days and my husband was feeling nostalgic. Couldn’t afford,but boy was my husband and son happy! So guess I’ll count it as my free day.
Minniemize- Went for an hour long hike with the family.
Declutter- Having too much fun with the family to work on that,but my son and husband did wash some windows.
Cathie says
No Dining Out: packed breakfast and lunch (leftovers) for work today. Made dinner -pasta primavera with chicken- using all the yummy veggies our neighbors keep bringing to us.
Minniemize Me: walked for 25 minutes
Declutter: none today.
Renee says
no dining out for us again today.
budget…no spending day! Doing pretty well with the budget this week.
decluttering…nothing today…yet.
minniemising…ate less today but should have moved more!
Lisa says
No Dining Out
No dining out for us, although we had 6 doctor’s appointments today so it was tempting! We had a simple dinner of grilled turkey, steamed broccoli and leftover garlic mashed potatoes.
Minniemizing
Completed day 2 of the TurboFire program. Loving it! Also did weight lifting tonight.
Wendy Y says
Budget – success in the grocery department. Now to get hubby on board….
Declutter – we worked on the garage tonight…to make room for hubby’s new toy (see above reference in budget….)
Minimize – not so good today…ate a VERY large brownie due to above references…grrr.
No dining out – told hubby we can never eat out again – ha!! Tomorrow will be a better day Kristin…i needed to vent somewhere! LOL
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Vent away! It takes time to get on the same page :)
Bethany M says
No dining out yesterday. Ate at a friends house for a cook out. Good labor day!
Elyse M. says
Budget- Didn’t spend any money today
Declutter- got one piece of furniture out today
Dining out- Ordered pizza last night, enough to last several days
Minniemizing- No
Heather says
NDO- Breakfast burritos out, lunch and dinner at home.
Budget- picked up a few items from cvs and the grocery store. managed not to purchase anything that was not necessary!
Minniemizing- Took the day off to hang with the family.
Declutter- Gifted a christmas gift that my son never played with to a boy who needed a bit of cherring up!
Hillary Wallace says
I’ve been missing out on posting because I had a baby this weekend!! It’s been a busy few days around our house!!
No Dining Out: I finished the grocery shopping Friday evening (before going into labor early Saturday morning!), so we’ve been able to eat at home since getting home from the hospital.
Budget: Doing alright. There have been a few unexpected expenses, but nothing that we didn’t have the money for (more diapers in a smaller size for instance…baby was smaller than we expected!!)
Minniemizing: Does having a baby count?? Haha…no exercise for me yet, but I have lost at least 20 pounds this weekend!!
Decluttering: I’m not quite sure how we managed to get a messy house while being away at the hospital, but we did…so today (while feeling great this morning!) I got the house cleaned up, my latest stockpile purchases organized, and trash tossed. All the baby clothes, accessories and necessities have all found a home!
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Aww! Congratulations on the baby!!
Jennifer Jackson says
Dinning out- no eating out for us tonight…when hubby gets home he is cooking fish that we got for 3.99lb at Price Chopper yesterday
Declutter- cleaning out closet and have a bag of clothes to drop off tomorrow.
Budget-have not left the house so spent nothing today.
Beth Anne says
I couldn’t enter over the weekend our hotel didn’t have internet :(
Eating Out – Over the weekend we only ate out once we cooked all our meals in our hotel room to save money.
Exercise – I think my family deserves 10 votes for this one. Over the weekend we went to Universal Studios and the Disney Water Parks. I can barely move today! I forgot how much work/walking Water Parks are! It’s been forever since I’ve been to one! But man I think I walked enough to last me all month!
Declutter – Does going through my 300 emails and RSS’s count?
Budget – Working on this one. Thought we did good only spent $300 (including hotel) for the weekend in Orlando. Working on getting on a budget. Will do a publix run later tonight.
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
I bet the Water Parks were awesome! Wish I could have gone! :)
Clare C. says
NDO: We spent the weekend with family at Orange Beach, AL and enjoyed a great time with Tropical Storm Lee. We took all of our own food there and took turns cooking. Since my dad paid for the condo, we treated for lunch on the way home. Spent $49 for 3 adults and 4 kids to eat at Cracker Barrel.
Minniemize: Stuck inside all weekend but just took the dog for a walk today after I picked him up at the kennel.
Decluttering: Out of town all weekend so didn’t do too much with this.
Budget: Planning to work on this tomorrow to really get a plan together for the month.
MM says
NDO- nothing yesterday, had chicken nuggets and fries in the oven (not a nutritous meal, but a very busy day)
MtM- had volleyball practice to prepare for our scrimmage (even on Labor Day the girls wanted to have practice) also put up 3 acre pig fence to move the pigs
declutter- organized my gifts i’ve been stocking up for Christmas…i’m definitely in the Christmas spirit…it drives my husband crazy b/c i’m already counting down for it
budget- spent 0 yesterday.
Krista says
Minimize – walked 30 minutes with kids & dog
Declutter – it’s still warm here, but I made a first pass of summer clothes that I know won’t fit the kids next year. Large box ready for donation pick up later this week.
Heather H says
No dining out for us, we had yummy skewers with some steaks and some veggies from our garden.
Katie says
No dining out- Terrible, McDonald’s for breakfast as we were heading out of town for the day. We did bring lunch to the amusement park, but ate dinner there. $30 out of the grocery/food budget. My pantry is well stocked though, so we should not need a ton at the grocery this month.
Minnimize- Terrible also, too many calories, all the wrong kind of foods and no real exercise. Will make up my 5 mile walk and 9 miles on the bike throughout the week, actually I am behind two days because of last week.
Budget- $60 in gas, $40 in grocery/food, $51 in spending/fun money for the park admission and a t-shirt for hubby. Not terrible so far.
De-clutter- Not much today, we were gone all day. Did get rid of some of that pesky cash hanging out in my wallet, lol. Oh, I also cleaned out my van while my hubby was driving (not a lot, just some junk mail, napkins and such that gets left behind).
Denise says
No Dining out – Had breakfast at home. Bread in oven for sandwiches for lunch. Going to make chicken fajitas for dinner.
Minniemize – went for a jog. So nice to be outside early in the morning.
Budget – Not going anywhere today, so won’t spend any money.
Declutter – Threw out a bunch of expired coupons.
Where are the winners to this challenge posted? Last month was my first month, I’m not sure where to look.
Amy W says
No dining out:
No dining out yesterday! Slept in and had a super late breakfast, skipped lunch, and I made chicken and vegetable bake along with some steamed broccoli for supper. :)
Minniemizing:
We walked a lot while shopping most of the day, and then we went for a long walk after supper. Such a fun day!
Decluttering:
lots of laundry
Budget:
Doing well so far this month! We did buy some fake flowers yesterday so I could make an arrangement.
CJ says
Minniemize
We were on vacation so I didn’t actually exercise, but we did do alot of walking at Silver Dollar City and everywere else.
No dining out
We ate out all weekend but did keep it cheap.
Budget
we have done pretty good. We actually didn’t spend all of the money I had set out for the trip to Branson. Now we are saving to go to Branson one more time around Christmas then Disney World in October 2012!!!
Beth says
No eating out- We had leftover sloppy joes and veggies last night and had the rest of the meals at home.
Decluttering- found another bag worth of stuff to take to goodwill.
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Sloppy joes sound good!
Donna B says
Decluttering Challenge—starting to tag & box stuff for the yard sale on the 17th—will throw out stuff as I get to it in the boxes
Donna B says
Budget Challenge—need to go grocery shopping later today—will post results afterwards
Donna B says
Minniemizing for the Mouse—gotta start tagging stuff for our yard sale on the 17th so I’ll be toting a lot of boxes around for the next 2 weeks!!
Donna B says
No Dining Out—no eating out for us today—-gotta stay home & get caught up on the schoolwork we missed yesterday with Daddy being home
Julie H says
No Dining Out – We had donuts for breakfast and fast food for dinner. But we had leftovers for lunch. Daddy’s back and I’ve got a meal plan for the week so we should be done eating out for a while.
Budget – Tracked my spending
Amanda says
Declutter: Going through bill drawer. It can barely open as it’s so unorganized and FULL. I’m sorting it today! I want to tidy it up and make it easier to access this drawer and not get overwhelmed or lost!
Dining Out: We simply can’t afford to keep eating out when I’ve lost energy to cook. I must find creative ways to make easy affordable meals on those not so energetic days! Crockpot soup and homemade bread for dinner tonight! No eating out.
Budget: We must implement this into our lives ALOT more often! I’ve been terrible at spending what money we have left after pills and other expenses because it’s there. Have to set a limit on spending for myself even if it’s for the house or the kids. Must have a budget for nearly everything!
Additional note: Just started a Vacation fund today!! Spent 15 min searching around for change and so far we’re up to $25.63 in our vacation fund. We’re a family of 5 and NEVER have been on a vacation!
Lois says
Declutter: I threw out 20 pieces of old mail that was accumulating yesterday. Not huge, but something.
Minniemize: Off to ride the exercise bike since the kids are sleeping in bed. It’s something.. I may throw in some weight training too.
Dining Out: We ran and got lunch after coming back from the camping trip, but it’s part of the camping budget, not our regular budget, so we ok on the dining fund this week.
Denise says
No Dining Out: I did eat out but it was Chick-fil-A’s free breakfast. Brought it back to my desk to eat with my free Simply Orange Juice
Minniemizing for the Mouse: Bootcamp work out at lunchtime today
Budget Challenge: Discounted grocery meat shopping: Shoppers has the chicken on sale on Saturdays and Bloom has their beef on sale on Sundays. $35.00 for 8 chicken breasts (natural organic- no preservatives); 4 pounds of 90% lean ground beef sirloin; 4 pork tenderloins; 1 single lonely pork chop
Decluttering Challenge: still working on the garage
Michele says
Decluttering – Got rid of two HUGE garbage bags full of stuff in my dd’s room!
No dining out – Made homemade gluten free pizza last night and watched football!
Budget – No money spent today!
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
You’re doing great!
Angela N says
Budget – I’ll hit the drugstores today and try to figure out when I am going to can pears.
Declutter – Need to finish getting consignment clothes ready to go and drop them off. Need to clean out the refrigerator.
No dining – We cooked out yesterday and have lots of letfovers in the fridge.