I saved my My Coke Rewards points all year and cashed in for a lot of their awesome gift card offers! When I got the gift card, I spent the value of the card and took the cash out of my fund. So for the $10 Dominos card, I spent it and took $10 out of the Dining Out budget and put it into the Disney Fund.
$25 Walmart gift card
$10 Dominos Gift Card
$25 Best Buy Gift Card
$10 – Earned (2) $5 Target gift cards with special promotions at Target
$7.50 – Rebate check
$7.91 – Spare Change
$10 Target Gift Card – Bought $50 worth of items at Target and got a $10 gift card with the coupon (no longer available)
$16.25 – I budget $150 a month for power. Since the bill was only $133.75, I am depositing the difference.
$43.99 – Cancelled our gym membership through the holidays. There is no way we can find the time to go for the next 3 months. Hubby works retail and there is no time! We decided to cancel it so we can rejoin with a better deal.
$26.12 – Disney Dream Dollars earned with my Disney Premier Visa this statement
$40 – Took care of my friend’s cats for a week (she went on another vacation with the inlaws). She insisted on putting the money into our fund.
$5 – Took advantage of this Totinos deal and finally got the payment
$2 – Rewards on my debit card for purchasing items at select retail locations
$5 – Hubby found it on the ground in a parking lot!
$233.77 added to the Disney fund for the past 4 weeks! $3466.49 saved since November 12th, 2011 (see past deposits here). Our goal is $3587. Going the end of January 2013 (see our pending budget here).
I want you to learn how to grow your own fund too! If you are new to couponing, start with the Getting Started Couponing Series, followed by the How To Start Your Fund series. Remember you can use these savings principles to save for anything you want from Disney trips to paying off debt to buying a new television. As the great Walt Disney said “If you can dream it, you can do it!”
This is my favorite part of your blog. Thanks for posting so many great ideas of ways to save money. Right now, we’re saving for hospital bills for baby #2, but hopefully it won’t be long until we can start our fund for our next trip!
Great job!! We are going for 10 days on 1/25! Check your blog every day for inspirational ideas. Keep it up!
Is the $16.25 you were able to deposit remaining from your power bill from gas, electric or both? Thanks,
Curious….
The Target & WalMart cards will most likely be stuff you use on a regular basis & groceries. The Dominos card will probably be from your eating out budget.
Which budget category will the Best Buy gift card come out of? Gifts? Entertainment? Souvenirs before the trip? (A new Disney movie to watch down on the way perhaps?)
Just curious because I tend to have that problem…. Our grocery stores will have a get $X back for buying $X in gift cards, but I never know how I’d use a Lowe’s gift card or a Nike gift card if I don’t need gardening supplies or new shoes.
Lowe’s also carries home decorating items. Use it to spruce up your living room with new curtains or maybe a cool lamp for the kiddos room. Tons of other stuff!
Congrats! That is awesome!
You are such an inspiration!
i JUST ADDED 30.00 FROM A GIFT CARD i WON AND 16.22 IN CASH BACK FROM A CREDIT CARD i USED TO PURCHASE a BOOK WITH
That’s great!
I save all mycokerewards, disneymovierewards, recycle bank points, and pampers and huggiescpoints and cash them in for Christmas gifts in November. This holiday season I gave lots of magazines and lots of shutterfly gifts this year through all my points! Saved me tons of $$. And I love shutterfly!!
That’s great! :)
Yay!!! Way to go! I’m saving all my coke reward points this year and seeing what magic I can work the weeks of Xmas that they do the awesome deals!
It’s definitely worth saving them up!
Awesome deposit! That’s so sweet of your friend to pay you for watching her cat. I’m working toward my goal for our Disney Cruise & Disney World vacation in Feb. 2014 (goal amount is $10,000!!!). I have used $495 from our fund for the deposit on the cruise, the remainder doesn’t have to be paid until Nov. 2013. I currently have $2075 in our account. It’s so nice to see how quickly the money adds up, we just got back from taking our kids & nephews to Disneyland in Sept. so I haven’t been saving long!
I want to let you know you are truely inspirational. I have been following you for a few years now and I have learned so much from you.We are currently on our way to saving for our Dream Disney Vaction this year. My husband is currently deployed and we can not think of better way of celebrating a homecoming then Disney style.Three days before my husband left for his deployment we lost our baby a just 9 weeks gestational a heartbreak I know you can understand. I am hoping we will be able to go Disney this September to celebrate both my husband the day our baby became Angel. Since he left in September I have already added 550.00 to our dream fund. I plan on making this Disney trip one of the most memorable ones we have had for our children and with your tips I will make this happen. Keep up your work!!
I love how you build your fund! We are going at the end of Jan, also. I am excited, it has taken me 5 years to save. I saved by buying all my kids clothes at yard sales and when they out grew them, I resell them and that money was my fund. plus anything I sold either at consignment sales or on craigslist, etc. We have 4 kids, so a trip for us costs more than the avg family. We are staying at Pop Century.
That’s a great way to save up your fund!