Vacation Challenge Weeks 6 & 7

I have two weeks to catch up on, however, not too much to report.

I began the week(s) still needing $155.86.

I earned

$20.50 Writing Projects
$14.99 Ebay (sold two pair of pants that I paid 50¢ each for..not too bad of a profit!)
$13.58 from Office Depot rebates

Total=$49.07

That leaves me only needing $106.79!!

Woohoo!!

I have no doubt that I will have it all by time we go on vacation in two months!!

I have a couple of more items on Ebay that I am anxious to see if they will sell - you will know next week if they did or not!

Have a great Thursday!!

Vacation Challenge-Week 4

My week was better than last week, but still far from the first two weeks. The writing for me was scarce again.

I started the week still needing $222.86.

Writing projects - $27.50

Ended the week still needing 195.36.

I have several things to put on Ebay..so I need to get motivated and do so.

I did score a couple of good deals at CVS this week..

1 Crest Pro Health on sale for $3.29
- I used $1 off coupon + $1 CVS Extra Care Buck
2 Battery Operated Oral B Toothbrushes on sale for $6 each.
- I used 1 $3 off coupon + 1 BOGO free coupon

Total for all before coupons = $15.29

Total after coupons + tax =$5.61

BUT the best part is that I received
$9.29 back in Extra Care Bucks (If you are unsure what ECB's are, they work just like dollars at your CVS Pharmacy!)

So I have almost $9.29 to roll over into their next deal!!

Plus I got in on the Target frozen food deal this week and purchased 7 frozen food items, of course, used coupons on all 7 and scored a $5 Target gift card for a later date...

Not too bad, not too bad!

Vacation Challenge-Week 3

So my week was not as productive as I would have hoped, at least in regards to earning money for our vacation.

In fact..I am a little embarrassed..

Writing projects - $8.50

I started the week still needing $231.36


Ended the week needing $222.86

However, I scored some great deals at Target this week using coupons found on their website.

For $7.90 after coupons I scored..

-Pair of jeans for myself
-Long sleeve shirt for my 3 year old
-dental floss
-toilet paper
-Ibuprofren
-Pantiliners
-All Purpose spray cleaner w/ bleach
-Fabric softener
-Dishwasher gel tabs
-Pencil sharpener for my daughter


The jeans were a great deal...they were on clearance for $4.98, but I used a $5 off women's jeans that you can find here. You can print each Target coupon twice, so I scored two pair of free jeans!!

For the other items check out Money Saving Mom's Target coupon match up!

So while I hated that I did not do so well earning money for our trip, I was able to save money on our budget.

Last night I heard someone say "A dollar saved is better than a dollar earned because you don't have to pay taxes".

I feel better......

Vacation Challenge Week 2

Last week I told you about my vacation challenge.

I need $440.70 to pay for the activities that we are wanting to do.

The previous week I earned $97.34.

This brought me to a new total of $343.36.

This week earnings went down like this..

$15- I won this from our family's Biggest Loser challenge (I am all too excited to share that with you later!)

$50- This is actually in the form of a Visa gift card that I was not expecting. It was a reward card from our bank!!

$47- From writing projects.

The total for the week is $112 Woot!! Woot!! I am at almost $210...getting close to my half way point!!

I am loving this challenge!

My Vacation Challenge To Myself

I love a challenge, don't you?

My family and by "my" I mean my family (husband, kids and I), my mom, my sister and her family & my brother and his family, try to a vacation all together every other summer or every couple of summers.

We decided that this summer would be "our" summer to go. We are an ocean/beach family. There is something about standing on the shoreline, looking out into the open water and thinking abour our Creator. I am in awe at His creation of our world everytime.

ok..ok back to the challenge.

My sister and her husband graciously offered to take care of everyone's lodging.

I know, right?

That is probably the biggest expense when it comes to vacations.

She rented each family a condo in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Yes, she is an awesome big sis!!

Well, as you may remember my husband and I at the beginning of the year made some financial goals and we would like to stick to them, so I knew that I needed to become creative in how I was going to save for our vacation.

With us all staying in condos, for the most part we will be eating in, with each family taking turns hosting dinner. So I will be using my regularly budgeted grocery money that week for food. There will be a few meals eaten out however.

Gas will be the same, we will use our regularly budgeted gas money that week + a little more. Not sure how much more, it will depend on the price of gas.

So we need to come up with our "fun" money. There are some attractions that we know that we would like to do while there which involve purchasing tickets. Multiply that times six and some of the adventures can be pretty costly.

But we want to do them.

So I have made it my mission challenge to have these completely paid for before we leave.

I do this so that we do not touch any savings.

I do this so we can stay on track with our goals.

I do this because it is fun - I love challenges.

A couple of weeks ago, I went online to get prices for what we are hoping to do while there..other than spend a ton of time on the beach.

I came up with the total....gulp...$498.70..YIKES!!!

After digesting that..I went online to find coupons..surely there are coupons or at least group rates, right?!

There were coupons for all, but with one activity it was cheaper to do a group rate.

I brought my $498.70 down to $440.70.

Still alot of money.

But I knew/know I could do this, so I started last week.

I amazingly came up with $97.34!!!

I am almost a quarter of the way there!!

YEAH!!
Here is how it broke down:

$9.60 - Ebates

$17.33 - Ebay (I reflects ebay/paypal charges already subtracted)

$66.00 - Writing Projects

$4.41 - I am not sure where it came from!

I will let you know how I continue to do....