How do you save spending money for your cruise?

[cindsue]

Such great ideas! I have been doing the break the bill thing and the change from the broken bills, as well as any other loose change I can find, goes into a jar. But our jar is called the "margarita money" jar! I tried to get my hubby to put his change in the jar, too, but he refuses (think he's angry that he has to stay home, while us girls go on the cruise!) We are going to pay for excursions up front, with the exception of one (which is only $45 US). Contrary to the name of our money jar, we really aren't big drinkers, so that will save us even more $$$! To be honest with you though, I am terrible when it comes to saving money, even for something as terrific as a cruise. :( Best wishes to all and happy cruising!

[MrGolf]

Bonus for me. I usually get a very good bonus in February which means 10% of it paid off the cruise and the rest was put in savings and college fund. As for spending money, which I anticipate being around 1,500 for our cruise, we'll just eat out a few times less and pay the CC off when we get the bill.

[CBussey64]

We take the advice of Suze Ormond to always break a bill. We take the change from the bill and put into a special bank. Our son bought it for us for Christmas because he knows how much we love to cruise. It counts the change as it goes in so we can see how it builds. We also put everything we buy on our credit card with the cash back and pay it off every month. We take the bonus when it adds up to $100 and put it into our ING account to earn interest. We save all our coupon savings and any other "found money". Any time we get money that we don't expect, we put it away. So far this has worked for us to take 9 cruises.

 

 

Sorry but what is an "ING" account???

[tinyrose]

Our cat gets a weekly allowance the same as we do. But since he is not allowed out of the house and has no way of spending money, his $$ pay for our vacations! :) :D :p

[cruisinbuddy]

Well for me, I don't spend any of my change. Now being in Canada with $1.00 & $2.00 coins, it adds up fast. Plus when we get the checks back from dental coverage, they go in a bank account. I also save up American 1/4s for the slots. Whatever I take in 1/4s is what we play, no more. I've averaged $45.00 a cruise, heck this year DW pulled for $90.00 and we still had leftover from the original $45.00.

[Spaceytracey72]

We have a cookie tin leftover from Christmas. I ate the cookies (poor me and my waistline!) I stopped eating out (man, that adds up!), I think about purchases before I make them, in the aspect that, "I could use this money on the cruise" and other small things. The little things really add up. Even my five-year-old has stopped asking to buy toys and things because she LOVES to add money to our tin. We put in loose change and small bills at the end of each day. I even stopped hitting the vending machines at the college. I pack some fruit and bottled water in my bag. Saves $$ and my waistline! I am almost in need of a larger container for the cash! This is not counting the money in the bank we are saving.

[suziehmkr]

Our cat gets a weekly allowance the same as we do. But since he is not allowed out of the house and has no way of spending money, his $$ pay for our vacations! :) :D :p

 

Love it! We have 3 cats & 2 bunnies... I think I have found my new plan! :)

[samickgirl]

Sorry but what is an "ING" account???

 

ING is an online bank that pays interest and doesn't charge fees to use your own money. Right now it pays 3.5% here in Canada, 4.25% in the states, I believe.

[MinnesotaCruiserz]

We are trying something new this year. We have a wine jug that we keep putting singles, fives, and scratch off ticket winnings into. We can't get the bills out without breaking the bottle...anyone else do odd things like this?

 

We have a secondary savings account that we throw $200-$400 in every month just for vacations. This is way better than Fun Ship Dollars because you are getting the interest (I know its minimal interest) but its still yours. If we get in a bind, we will tap into it but we are very strict on paying ourselves back.

[Grampy]

I've been with the same wife for over 40 years. I have had the same daughter for 37 years. I have no alimony, no child support. My motto is, stick with your honey and you will have money... to cruise.:D

[Kkate]

My DH & I quit smoking & we put all the money we would have spent on cigarettes in the bank for vacations. It keeps you from starting to smoke again too if it means no more cruises. My doctor is happy too;)

[samickgirl]

I've been with the same wife for over 40 years. I have had the same daughter for 37 years. I have no alimony, no child support. My motto is, stick with your honey and you will have money... to cruise.:D

 

 

Awesome I love it:D

[bplazo]

I have a full time job as a server and save all my change. My sister has her own cleaning business so when I have a cruise planned I work for her on my days off for extra money.

[arby70]

We don't eat out much (not really any good restaurants here to tempt us anyway) and rent movies on dollar night. The rest is just plain old will power.

[VentureMan_2000]

I budget it ahead of time...

[wework2play]

No five dollar bill that crosses our hands gets spent. It goes right into the jar. Easy to save $50 and up a week that way, and you hardly miss it. That's for the spending money

 

For the actual vacation, I automatically put 5% of my take home in a special vacation savings account that I have to mail the money too, and make a 1 1/2 trip to the bank to get out - makes it inconvenient to get to and it doesn't get spent until it's time to pay for the trip. :D

 

 

I love these ideas. Saving your fives, and setting up a special account. I take a lot of call with my job, so every paycheck, anything over my base pay, I put directly into savings. Adds up fast. The problem is, there are always sooooo many ways I can think of to spend it! :p I need somthing dedicated just to vacations.

[kellywhitehills]

most my tips and and hubbys loose change go in the big jelly belly jug..So far we have 3 filled have no idea how much is in them...I am guessing it will pay for all our excursions..:)

[patrice1]

We never spend change either, and it all goes into the "cruise" jar. Do some freelance writing that goes to vacation $, use our tax refund for deposit & pay $X a month till it's paid, get a $50 Funship dollars each pay period for S&S, and pay all excursions in advance. For entertainment, we do alot of free stuff here & fortunately we live in Old Town & can walk everywhere but to work. We don't eat out much - really hard to do here :o - but save it for special occasions. When we do eat out, we try to do it for lunch, as it's much less & we can try different restuarants.

I also get a check-size expandable file for each cruise & have a tab for each day for money needed, maps, copies, internet tips, etc. For instance, each sea day has casino money (yeah, we're huge spenders - a roll of quarters each!):o

[sparky.mi]

I stuff envelopes. Every week when I get my pay check $20 goes in one envelope for spending money and $30 goes in another to pay for the cruise for husband and myself. I also set up a Christmas club through the bank and put between $20-50 in a week. We always do our cruise in late January or first of Feb. The Christmas club will help to pay for final payment of cruise and the rest just go into savings at the bank. It is nice because you can't take it out until they send the check in the mail first of November. If you can't afford to put any in that week not a big deal. Thats what I do. Also save loose change and bottle return money.:D

[mattmdv]

We save our change here too, then about 2 weeks prior to the cruise, roll it, and off to the bank we go.

Also, we have a gallon size plastic jar, some snacks/pretzels/or something came in it. I "Super-Glued the lid in place, then took a small metal rod, heated up one end, and melted a small hole in the lid. We have to roll the dollar bills up rather tightly to fit thru the hole, but like another posted stated, they unroll once inside the jar. Come time for the cruise, there's more cash for whatever.

I also save my aluminum cans for recycling, right now, in this part of Ohio, aluminum cans are going for about $0.72 per pound. It takes 16 cans to make a pound. I crush them (My Big Old Foot Method), to get more in a bag. You'ld be surprised how fast the pounds add up too.

Every little nickel helps for the big cruise!!!!

 

Good Luck!!!

 

Matt

 

P.S., Liked some of the other ideas I read here too, will probably use some of those ideas too.

[VentureMan_2000]

use our tax refund for deposit & pay

 

I'm doing something different with my tax return to give me an On Boeard Credit of $100.

 

I decided this year to purchase 100 shares of Carnival Corp stock with my tax return... since it just lost over 10% this last month... and that will get me an On Board Credit of $100 for owning CCL stock (for a 7 day cruise).

 

The $100 OBC is like a 2.2$ return on my money. In addition, the dividend return rate is about 2.4% on my money. Even if I sold the stock at the same price a year from now, I would have made about the same as having it in savings.

 

Of course... I'm hoping that I purchased an undervalued stock that has a chance to grow...:D

[jw4jg1mg2eg1]

After the past 2 years of doubling up on the bills to have an entire check to take on the cruise, my husband decided this year we would do things different. He works (as a civilian) in Iraq. He takes an advance out of his check each month & saves it for us. There isn't any place to spend this money at Camp Anaconda except the commissary. But, I was just talking to him & told him about buying the Funship Dollars(I think that's what they're called) & I think we'll do that next year so THANK YOU for that suggetsion!:D

Chris...I'm gonna check out that ING thing also! Thanx!

[by_u_nurse]

The way we save money for spending on the ship (we started this with our Pride cruise) is that we ordered Funship Dollars. They can't be spent around home, so it isn't as tempting as money in a savings account. I purchase them throughout the year and redeem them on the ship.

 

There is no expiration on them? That's really a great way to save if so!

[mprucha]

Like alot of others, we have a separate account that we opened to save for vacations. We set it into our budget just like utilities, etc so that certain amounts automatically go into that account. Plus, if say one of us gets a bonus at work or something which happens with my DH and that company frequently (couple times a year) we automatically pretend this money doesn't exist and it also goes into that account. Every few hundred helps and before you know it, you have plenty to enjoy your nice vacation and usually start thinking about the next one.

[addictedtothevr6]

We are trying something new this year. We have a wine jug that we keep putting singles, fives, and scratch off ticket winnings into. We can't get the bills out without breaking the bottle...anyone else do odd things like this?

 

instead of buying scratchers, but that money in the jar. me thinks you will get more that way