I know I haven’t posted this in 10 days. I have been so sick with the flu and I honestly just forgot to post it!
Grow Your Fund is a daily post that gives you a chance to win a gift card 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.
My Updates
No Dining: Hubby took Emily out on a daddy daughter date after church. They spent $9.58 at Wendy’s.
Budget Challenge: Honestly – we have all been sick for 2 weeks and I just left all the money in the checking account and whatever is left is going to go to replenish the ‘feels like crap’ fund. This is where I keep the money we need for medicines, doctor copays, etc.
Decluttering: Since I have been sick, the house has gotten out of control. I did manage to get all of the laundry washed on Friday and that was a huge accomplishment. Hubby was nice enough to put it all up for me.
Minniemizing: It is hard to stay on Medifast when you have the flu. When you are sick you just want to eat whatever you want, when you want. I didn’t feel like eating much at all, but I did drink a lot of Orange Juice.
I haven’t ventured to get on the scale yet because I am still recovering from the flu. It’s been a week now and I still have the worst cough. I have decided not to weigh until I have a solid week of staying on plan under my belt.
Medifast disclosure and details:
Medifast is not cheap. I know that. But being overweight isn’t cheap either. I spent a lot of time debating on if this was something that I wanted to share on my blog. But it all comes down to the fact that I want to get rid of this weight so that I can truly enjoy Disney. And if it is by the support of my amazing readers that I do it once and for all, then I need that. I am not encouraging you to try Medifast nor I am not saying that Medifast is the only or the best way to lose weight. I am just looking for support from my wonderful friends. If you don’t want to support me, please don’t comment. Just skip over the post. As Thumper said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” If you don’t want to offer your support or you are looking for support yourself, feel free to comment.
Medifast recently introduced a new customer savings program. If you use the coupon code, DISNEY56, and sign up for Medifast Advantage when you order $250+, you’ll receive 56 free Medifast Meals and free shipping! Medifast Advantage has a lot of perks, including free customizable meals and a free BlenderBottle® with minimum purchase.
*FTC Disclosure: Medifast provides their products for my personal use for free. I am not paid or compensated in any other way for mentioning their products (although I want to shout from the rooftops about my success which you know the results are ‘not typical’). All thoughts and opinions here on my blog are 100% mine. I am very inspired to be given this amazing opportunity, and I want to share my success with all my
readersfriends. Thank you for reading my blog. It’s because of your tremendous support and encouragement that I was given this opportunity. And that means more to me than words can say.
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!
Budget – Didn’t leave the house yesterday so no $$ spent!
Minniemize – My allergies are terrible right now so not too much done in this area. I really need to find something I can do inside and then actually do it!
No dining out – Made dinner at home and enough for 2 lunches for DH so no eating out the next few days for lunch either!
Decluttering – Sent a few books out for paperbackswap.com. I got rid of 3 books we won’t be reading again and I’m saving the credits for something we really want to read later.
Keep getting better, Kristin!
No dining out: We had a celebratory dinner on Friday night at Dairy Queen. Spent around $30. Then hubby asked me for a date on Saturday to thank me for how much I’ve been helping him at work lately. Of course, I said yes to that! $25 for a nice lunch out.
Minniemize: Doing well with walking the dog, and watching portions. Also took a long Disney training walk on Sunday with the family.
Budget: Gave myself a little extra to spend last week to buy groceries for breakfasts next week while we’re at Disney and snacks for in the parks. We can’t wait!
NDO – Skipped our usual out to eat meal after church. Had a picnic at home instead.
Budget – Under budget for the week.
Minniemizing – Walked 30 minutes.
Declutter – Cleaned out and organized deep freezer.
A picnic sounds awesome :)
Ok this is a little crazy as I KNOW I posted here yesterday but I can’t find it:P I’m now booked for Disney in 180 days and I want to save as much as possible before then!
Budget – I earned a $5 gift for CVS card on Viggle and “bought” with my grocery money so the $5 could go to my fund! $137 saved since March 4th!
Minniemize – Did some ball work today (my chiropractor wants me to do this but I don’t usually take the time…hoping I can work up to a good workout on it several days a week)
Decluttering – Cleaned out 1 of DD’s drawers and took a few shirts out our closet. Only a couple things for the yard sale but if I can get a few items each day we should have a pretty good sale this summer!
No Dining – We didn’t go out today (but didn’t plan to either so no real savings there)
No Dining: Does it count as dining out if the in-laws paid? :)
Budget Challenge: Unforeseen $150 car repair ate up all our gas money for the week. Had to rearrange some other expenses.
Decluttering: Finished all my baby sale items! WOO HOO!
Minniemizing: Re-injured my hip over the weekend, had to take a few days off because I could barely walk without limping.
Nope, doesn’t count!
I hope you’re feeling better :(
Decluttering – cleaned my son’s room to find out the book we were looking for was in dad’s work van – grrr. Got rid of a lot of trash and broken items and a few new items to donate to shoe boxes next year.
Budgeting – just opened my mail to a few rebate checks and a surprise win from Entenmanns for free Muffin Tops – $24.50 to fund.
No Dining Out – Husband took the 2 boys for father son time @ Denny’s with a gift card bought at Christmas 25% off. No money out of pocket but a nice memory for them.
Minniemizing – I exercised housework style for 3 days and walked the other 2.
Decluttering-cleaned out refrigerator
Budgeting-filled out & mailed in 2 rebate offers
Good job!!
NDO – none today
budgeting – 3 days left on this, so far so good
minniemizing – skipped my daily walk :(
decluttering – sloooooooow progress
minniemizing- nada
declutter-good gravy! I guess I can count cleaning out my front flower bed as both minniemizing and decluttering- now if I can only find the time to do the side beds, the back beds, the property line beds and the mailbox beds. Who thought that many flower beds would be awesome? I’ve got a long to do list!
No dining- We ate at chick-fila on Saturday while out running errands. Other than that no dining out- bacon pork chops, mashed potatoes and asparagus for dinner last night.
Budget- basic budget- went way over for on groceries and misc supplies BUT got some great deals- $15 mickey mouse sheet set and restocked toilet paper, paper towels, tissue etc. I also had to replenish lots of stuff like deodorant, face scrub etc. So it will even out in 2 weeks.
Disney budget- on target. We completed test drives this weekend. Cincinnati has an autoshow which my dh loves- for some reason this year we got invitations to test drive 5 vehicles for $25 prepaid visas and one of them was $50. This will be some “fun” money on vacation.
Budget – doing great so far….we’ve been right at the budget mark for the last couple of weeks.
Oh, I’m super sorry you’re so sick, Kristin. It takes a lot out of you. Hope you can get some rest.
NDO: Ate at Subway for date night with hubby, spent $13 (did the deal for two footlongs — I ate half of mine and saved the other half for lunch the next day — and I drank water).
Decluttering: The whole family got into cleaning the house on Saturday — felt great! Threw out 3 big bags of trash and have some clothes piled up for donation!
Minniemizing: Went with my friend as a guest to her trainer workout at the gym. OMG, my arms are so sore! Still trying to do P90X — it’s very tough, but I lost 5 pounds the first week!!!
Budget: Started using the Dave Ramsey’s envelope system (my “wallet” came in the mail from Amazon last week)! So excited to track everything and use cash! One of the envelopes I labeled “couponing” — I only used $3 out of it on Sunday for my deals at Walgreens and CVS!
I love Dave Ramsey :)
Budgeting – doing good on the grocery budget. Only 3 more days till pay day and I can replinish the fund.
Minniemizing – I tood the dog for a walk yesterday. Maybe that will help!
No Dining Out – We ate at home all weekend. I did take my mkids to get icecream after we wwnt to the park. That was $3.99. So happy we are saving!!!
Budget – We are doing so well! I went grocery shopping and only spent $70 this week!!
Decluttering – Cleaned house and all laundry done!!
No dining out: My husband and I went to dinner on Saturday. It has been a long time since we have been out alone together, so it was worth the $30 spent.
Budget: We are doing really well on that. It has helped that my husband got a new job closer to home, so we are spending less on gasoline. We also had a really mild winter, so our natural gas bill for heating has been lower than expected. Nice to have that extra money
Minnimize. Doing okay. I really could be doing better
declutter: got one of the bedrooms all cleaned out this past week. Curtains washed, closet organize, etc. Feels good, now on to the next.
No Dining: Brought our lunch to the Museum of Natural History so we didn’t have to buy the expensive food there!
Budget Challenge: Blew the weekly budget by hitting Costco but got several items that will last for at least 2 months
Decluttering: got the house picked up and everything currently has a place
Minniemizing: walked at the National Mall on Sat
No Dining Out: We are at the beach next week, so we’re pretty much planning on eating out for dinner every night. However we brought plenty of stuff to eat breakfast and lunch at the condo.
Budget: We’ve been saving for this trip, so it’s all in the budget!
Budget: We had our Family Budget Committee Meeting last night and realized we were under budget. We were able to fully pay off a medical bill without tapping into our monthly budget. We had a little celebration and did a little dance. lol.
That’s awesome!
So sorry you’ve all been sick Kristin! Glad to hear you’re doing somewhat better.
No Dining Out – We went to the Rodeo Carnival yesterday and I don’t even want to think about what we spent there. (-: But I’ve got my menu plan for the next few weeks and we’ve been doing pretty well about eating in.
Budget – I need to get back on track with this. I’ve been slacking alot. I have still been using coupons (some) and i know I’m mostly on track if not on track.
Minniemizing – I’ve been trying to eat healthier and do some crunches and jumping jacks whenever I change my baby’s diaper. I’m still nursing so I can’t cut too much out but I know I eat too muc anyway so I’ve been focusing on making sure I leave a few bites on my plate. So far I’m down 2 pounds.
Decluttering – My house has gotten out of control from me being lazy. I did go through the mail the other day and get rid of a bunch of that.
No dining out: for the past three weeks we have stay in and used what we had in the cupboard only to buy milk, bread and fruit!
Budget Challenge: To keep this up for another 3 weeks
Declutteing: I have a room a day program were I just clean that room and declutter at the same time
Minniemizing: I set up a table at a kids resale this past weekend to see some of the clothes the twins have out grown. very successful!
Kristin, I am glad you are feeling better. I hope you continue to get better.
I’ve had a great week.
Minniemize: On Sunday I did the Running of the Green Lucky 7K (4.35 miles, although my watch said 4.4, probably because of the weaving in and out of people). I did it in 41:42, which means every mile was under 10 mins. That is a first for me!!
No Dining Out: Hubby made dinner on Sunday, Chile Rellenos, black beans and a big salad. Saturday we did a bunch of yard work and my daughter had a playdate, so we took everyone out for pizza. $25 (I looked everywhere for a coupon before we left too, and couldn’t find one)
DeClutter: I started on the basement. I hung up a bunch of the kids old clothes to get ready for a sale, threw out 2 big bags of trash, put all the gift bags in one big bag (well 3 actually…1 for b-days and 2 for Christmas). I recycled old cardboard boxes. Not done, but its a start.
Budget: We went a little over the household budget because we decided to build up a garden area in the back yard so we can grow our own veggies, which will save us money over the summer. Everything else is in check.
Being sick is horrible…hope your family feels better.
No Dining out- stayed home and ate frozen tortellini
Decluttering – sent several boxes out to charity and a couple bags of trash out to the curb. The top floor of my house is decluttered, now onto the main floor.
Budget – still on track, budget is still tight with unexpected car expenses but I still hope by summer time to have enough to start my disney fund
NDO – cooked and ate in all weekend, we also made out our meal plan for the week so we wont’ be tempted
am working on losing weight – rode bike at gym for 30 minutes today…am trying to learn to love sugar substitutes…not going so well
no dining out- we did dates with our girls I went to Taco Bell and My husband to burger king. Great time one on one with our girls
minniemize- stepping up the exercise a friend let me borrow windsor pilates and I bought jillian michael butt and thigh workout. Doing good worked out 4 times last week
budget-doing great so far saved about $30 in coupons yesterday
declutter-decluttered my husband office yesterday that was a project he painted our closet so I decided to help him out
We actually booked Disney last Sunday!!! We’re going in Sept and I’m in a huge saving mood now! DH isn’t “into” Disney so he’s not as on board but I have 181 days to get my ducks in a row!
Dining – No dining out today! I was afraid DH might want to go out after church but we came home and had our meals here!
Budget – I had some credit in my Amazon account and my mom wanted to order something (she isn’t online) so I ordered for her and put the $37 she gave me for the item into our fund!
That is so exciting that you booked your trip!
No dinning out: Tonight I ate left overs from a meal purchased for me so not only was it free one time but twice!
Minniemize Me: I bought The Biggest Loser Challenge for the Wii last week… I’ve been doing that to spice up my workouts, instead of just the walking. Did my 20 minute workout earlier this evening!
Sorry to hear you’re still sick… hope you feel better soon..
I hope you get to feeling better real soon!
Budget – no money spent.
Dining – no eating out. I tried a new recipe for some baked chicken tonight.
Declutter – nothing decluttered lately, but I’m about to start a massive cleanout for a yard sale. Of course the money earned will go in the Disney fund!!
Minnie – started P90x with my husband last week. So far so good! I haven’t measured or weighed lately.
Good job!
Oh no! So sorry you have all been sick! We got in bad a couple of years ago and I was sick for 2 months-talk about your house going to pot. It was terrible!
NDO- Well yesterday we had my son’s birthday party and we ordered pizzas and I made the sides and today we had a free meal after church so that was good.
Minniemize- There was cake and ice cream and pizza and fruit salad at the party and I ate it all,but in small portions and then we had that good lunch at church with salad and pasta and garlic bread,but once again small portions. I have not been working out this week as I had an out of town guest staying with us and had to finish everything for the party so no time and I guess it’s showing as my son said today(who I might add is a very sweet and complimentary boy who tells me I’m pretty all the time)”Mommy you are getting fatter-are you having a baby?” Yeah maybe I should workout this week.
Declutter- Lots of decluttering going on! Threw away lots of stuff,but now my son has all these new presents soo….
Budget- Because of my son’s birthday we have already maxed out our eating out budget and our misc. budget,but doing ok for groceries and gas so far
Being sick for 2 months would be horrible! :( I hope you’re better now!
no dining out…ate all meals in this week.
budget…way under budget for the month.
minnimising…getting better about this.
decluttering…having a garage sale April 6th so it’s time to get busy!
It sounds like you are doing great :)
Minniemizing: No working out on Sundays but I did have soup for supper while the rest of the family had pizza and breadsticks. I bought a pedometer last week and I’ve found that to be very motivational.
Budgeting: Under budget in all areas so far this month
That’s great! :)
Decluttering: No major cleaning on Sundays
No Dining Out: We got take out after church tonight but Sunday nights are factored into the budget.