I found a new way to "save" for a cruise

[torchd]

I do my own version of keep the change own my own through the bank

[Quasar1011]

After reading all these great ideas, there ought to be a "cruise critic piggy bank" for sale in the store- or better yet, a "cruise critic treasure chest"! :D

[terracool]

Yeah, because the interest earned in a bottle at home is AMAZING! :rolleyes:

 

I applaud the initial idea. It must be such a nice feeling when cruise month comes along and you have no bills to pay! BRAVO!

 

Also, just beware that saving coins will cost you 8% if you use a coinstar machine to cash it in. Some banks (fifth third did it years ago, not sure if they still do) will allow you to cash in loose change free of charge.

 

I also do the change jar. When I get two containers full (about $500 give or take), I do not use a machine to roll it. I let a kid do it for 6 or 7%. I get the wrappers and they roll the coins on my living room floor while they have TV on. Sometimes it takes more than one sitting, but I don't care about that. It is a perfect job for a 10-12 year old or so. Never had a problem with a miscount, either. It's tough for kids that age to find things that will pay. I get my coins rolled and the kid gets $35 or so instead of a machine. They love it.

 

I might try the $5 trick. That sounds like a winner.

 

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[CruisinMermaid]

I allot myself a certain amount of pocket money every two weeks and if I have any of it left I throw it into my vacation jar. I also recycle so anything I get from that goes into the jar as well. I've saved about $600 since January.

[Jasalth]

My best way of saving for my cruise is actually fun for me also! I am a stay at home mom. I found a WaH company 2 years ago, that isn't doing like surveys and such like that. The pay is horrible, but is 2-3 hours a day, I can make over $500 a month. I don't have to go anywhere.. or pay for clothes or gas or food to work. You only need an internet connection.. and to be honest, making an extra $3-4 an hour is better than playing games on Facebook or something!

 

I also will have those days you just walk into the kitchen and go.. I don't want to deal with this and order a pizza or go out. Not anymore! I can cook dinner for under $15 for 4 of us any day of the week.. pizza or eating out? $40-$100! Now every time I DON'T go out to eat, bite the bullet and cook, I transfer $10 into my vacation account. Not only am I saving the money for vacation, I am saving an extra $15+ dollars in general!

 

Also to be honest.. my husband hates our car with a passion (though I love our little Fit!!). I looked into recently how much we still owed vs it's value, and realized.. I can get a brand new 2012 car that has more power for my husband AND more room than our Fit and have a payment of about $40 less a month. Now.. if my husband will not have a 70 hour week, we can go look at them!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Sounds like a good idea.

[spcopps]

:D

We are cashless too now.

 

Our bank (Wachovia) does a WaytoSave account. Everytime you use your ATM/Check card it transfers $1.00 to the WaytoSave account. Just this month, I saved $57. I would never just transfer $57 to a savings for a cruise. It is hard enough just saving money for emergencies. I love this account! I never miss a dollar when I use the card.

 

I bet most banks have something like this. I have heard of some rounding up the change and putting it into a savings account.

 

This is the same thing we do...our Wachovia is now wells fargo but they kept the way to save...we average 50-70 per month saved then do an easy online transfer the week before vacation :D

[nj1983]

I have a credit card (royal Caribbean) and just realize I have amassed enough points that I can use several ways. I choose to use for $250.00 on-board credit. My universal (At&t) business credit card points were exchanged for $800.00 worth of royal Caribbean gift certificates. You can use your cards for everything and pay off at the end of the month.

[casino-queen]

I have two credit cards, and one of them is a rewards type card I use just like a debit card for gas and groceries. I enter it in the checkbook as CR instead of Dbt and when the bill comes it's already been deducted so just write them a check. Then use the points for cash or a plane ticket. Also, I round up every purchase in my register. This adds up to hundreds of dollars for the year, and I never even miss it.

[Britt7670]

We've decided to go to the ever popular envelope system and to get away from using our debit card for everything. We have our monthly expenses set up through our bank's bill pay system each pay period (we get paid on the 15th and 30th) and take out the left over balance in cash. We divide the cash into envelopes - gas, food, going out, etc., and whatever is left over, gets placed in our cruise envelope. Trust me, its a lot harder throwing down 3 20 dollar bills for something rather than simply swiping your card!!! You get to see the money disappear and it really makes you think about how you spend ....now I understand why my grandparents always had money for their vacations, regardless of the economy!!! :D

[CourtneyLovesCruising]

My best way of saving for my cruise is actually fun for me also! I am a stay at home mom. I found a WaH company 2 years ago, that isn't doing like surveys and such like that. The pay is horrible, but is 2-3 hours a day, I can make over $500 a month. I don't have to go anywhere.. or pay for clothes or gas or food to work. You only need an internet connection.. and to be honest, making an extra $3-4 an hour is better than playing games on Facebook or something!

 

I also will have those days you just walk into the kitchen and go.. I don't want to deal with this and order a pizza or go out. Not anymore! I can cook dinner for under $15 for 4 of us any day of the week.. pizza or eating out? $40-$100! Now every time I DON'T go out to eat, bite the bullet and cook, I transfer $10 into my vacation account. Not only am I saving the money for vacation, I am saving an extra $15+ dollars in general!

 

Also to be honest.. my husband hates our car with a passion (though I love our little Fit!!). I looked into recently how much we still owed vs it's value, and realized.. I can get a brand new 2012 car that has more power for my husband AND more room than our Fit and have a payment of about $40 less a month. Now.. if my husband will not have a 70 hour week, we can go look at them!

 

I am doing a WAH project too! My husband and I have committed to spend a minimal amount of time each day for 140 days before our cruise, making $10 a day. That more than pays for our cruise, transportation and spending money and then we aren't out any money we are ahead a great vacation! My WAH project has been such a great answer for us many many times. We moved across country a few years ago after using the project to save a little here and there.

 

I also do Mystery Shops. They pay between $5-$100 a piece. That money goes directly into our cruise savings!

[delluser]

I play my own version of "survivor" in my kitchen. Once every 6-8 weeks I allow myself to only cook/eat food we already have in the house. Other than milk/fresh fruit...I don't go to the grocery store that week. We generally always have plenty of food in both the freezer and pantry. The menu does get interesting, but the savings are huge and they go into my cruise fund. I can easily save $100-$150 by doing this!:D

[sweetcupcakegrl]

I found a wonderful way to do this, when my grand kids say to us what we want for christmas, I say a gift card to AAA or a gift card to Princess. Then there is another one, for your friends, give me cash for my cruise.

Bring in your own little bottles of booze in the suitcase if you can. We are non drinkers so we like to have smoothies instead. I do not have to be silly, I am silly all the time.:D

but we do not celebrate any holidays except for anniv or birthdays, we do not gift out gifts for other who have more money than god itself so we have given away many cruises over the years to the kids, I have several of them. first marriage had 8 and second marriage I have a few more. so we are one big big happy family.

We take the kids every five years on one lifetime trip where ever they want to go. In two years they want Disney... so that means that 18 of us are going on disney cruise ship... wonder what I can do for 7 days besides fight with pluto.

well thats it folks... I am the coupon queen too... but if I can not use it, it does not get bought.

so all the change that comes with pennies and nickles and dimes goes back to the cruise ship. for grandma to play her chaching.

[daddy32701]

I ve cruised before but wanted to ask have anyone ever tipped what the wanted to the staff and not what was suggested? I have never dine that before so I was wondering that would help you cut back just a little. Before everyone gets their undies in bunch and all for tipping the staff, but sometimes some staff you never see and know exactly what they do to get a tip.

[vabchtraveler]

I ve cruised before but wanted to ask have anyone ever tipped what the wanted to the staff and not what was suggested? I have never dine that before so I was wondering that would help you cut back just a little. Before everyone gets their undies in bunch and all for tipping the staff, but sometimes some staff you never see and know exactly what they do to get a tip.

 

Actually, I always allott an extra amount to tip in cash directly to my cabin steward at the beginning of the cruise. Does it get me anything extra? Maybe --- Then I tip in cash again to the steward and waiter. I'm only talking $20's but these folks work about 11-12 hours a day to provide excellent service at little pay and virtually no time off. And the ones you don't see - room service in the kitchen -- assistant steward -- maitre'd who runs the whole dining room show - everybody works. You certainly have to do what is right for you but lessening their tips would not be right for me.

 

But, here's one thing that I do instead. We aren't big drinkers but love mimosas - on most cruise lines you are allowed (1) 750ml bottle of wine (champagne) per carry-on and also a 12-pack of soda. We bring a light-weight pitcher for mixing our brew and grab orange juice from the Lido deck. We also pre-order 'secret' cabin liquor. This is not well publicized but is available on most lines. We order a bottle of Bailey's ($6 a shot on deck) and a bottle of Rum or Vodka for the cabin. It's not as cheap as getting it at the store at home but it's much cheaper than having it poured at $5 and $6 a shot plus gratuity on deck, too. Perfect for lazing around on the balcony or as a pre-dinner drink.

 

Here was our biggest savings - my travelling friend and I both quit smoking 3 years ago. With cigarettes now topping $5 a pack -- well, for me that equates to $150 per month. I can do a lot of cruising on $1800 a year -- and I do!! We each set up savings accounts to make sure we captured those savings and didn't fritter them away - our banks transfer the amounts from our payroll deposits into our travel funds. Simple as pie!

 

Also, we plan our trip to the nth degree - how much it will cost for taxis, travel food, shopping, excursions - everything. No splurging! We are island intensive and sometimes we take the ship's excursions -- and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we go on our own with local transportaion and other times we find alternate on-island tour arrangements. But, research is the key to both a good time and a good price - in my mind.

 

One last thing, we Christmas-shopped in old San Juan last year. We then got boxes from the grocery store and packed everything up and took it to the post office and sent it home. We'd have been looking at heavy charges (an extra $75 each) on our luggage leaving San Juan, otherwise.

 

Happy Cruising, Everyone!

[wwjd1947]

I came across this thread and decided to read how everyone saved for their cruises. We recently booked a 16 day TA from Rome to Galveston and we paid for our entire cruise fare with Capitol One points. We use several different credit cards to accrue points. We always pay off the balance in full every month and switch cards often to avoid annual fees. We also are flying free to Rome using our American Airlines air miles. Last year we flew to Sydney for our 35 day cruise around Australia and New Zealand and flew FREE. If you are disciplined and pay off your balances monthly, credit cards can get you great travel deals. I never have cash in my wallet, only credit cards because every dollar I charge I know I am closer to another free cruise!

[JKJG3]

We have a Carnival whale tail specialty drink cup on our bedroom dresser. We put all our spare change in it at the end of the day, and I usually put my $1 bills in there at the end of the week. On the day we leave for our cruises; we stop at one of those machines that turns your change into cash, and use it for cabs, tips, excursions, shopping, etc.

 

We cruise once a year, so it usually adds up to quite a bit!

[JKJG3]

We also buy $100 in fun ship certificates every time we get paid and add them as OBC. Very nice to see when you get there!

[enborgle]

Wow, wish I had the info for these WAH opportunities!

 

Right now I work a second job on a casual basis and all of that income goes to the cruise, as does any OT I make at my main job. We also use the change jar system.

 

One more thing that we've just recently started doing is, since we live in the frozen North, we have $50/week built into our budget for snow removal (that pays to clear two heavy snowfalls). Each week until we leave in April that we DON'T use the entire $50, the remainder goes into the cruise fund.

[iahawkize]

One suggestion from my post was to forgo a big macmeal ($5+) and that grande mocha latte ($5)! Once a week gets you $520 in one year Twice a week and you have an inside cabin. Do the math! Then you won't have to scrimp on fun stuff on the cruise!

[penguinscott]

I have a side job doing mystery shopping that pays a few hundred dollars a month. That income goes directly into my cruise account.

 

This year may be different, tho, as I just got a 12 month furlough from my real job, so I may have to use some of my second job funds for living expenses. We'll see.

[Quixotic]

We are another cashless family (or nearly) so the change thing wouldn't work too well for us. What we did was establish a bunch of accounts on ING Direct and designate one as our Vacation Fund. We allocate $500 per month to the fund.

 

Of course, in an emergency, we could wipe out the fund and simply not vacation. But it's allocated this way so we can plan. I love to travel (and I already travel plenty for my job) so I fought hubby about this until he agreed to this allocation. He likes to travel and always has an amazing time on our trips, but he has a very hard time spending money on anything discretionary and I am a total spender. So it's a bone of contention in our house.

 

When we booked our FOS cruise (we just came back!), we only had five months to save/plan for it. Hubby really felt uncomfortable because normally we save for a year up-front and don't go into debt. The timing of the trip was important to me and I was willing to go into debt (very briefly -- we'll pay it off by the end of Spring at the latest). The total cost was $7K for this trip (airfare, incidentals, pre-cruise stay in Florida including KSC tour, cruise, excursions, post-cruise stay at WDW for 4 days with tickets and deluxe dining, etc).

 

What we are doing now is having me be loyal to one or two airlines for work so I can rack up more miles. We're also switching credit cards.

[Lunatic_mic]

What we've always done is; since we get paid each Friday, and some months have 5 Fridays in them, the fifth Friday is considered vacation money. Our budget is set for 4 paydays each month. Also when entering amounts in the checkbook I round all figures up to the nearest dollar, all those unregistered cents add up, it is the equivalent of the pennie jar if you are living cashless.

[torchd]

What we've always done is; since we get paid each Friday, and some months have 5 Fridays in them, the fifth Friday is considered vacation money. Our budget is set for 4 paydays each month. Also when entering amounts in the checkbook I round all figures up to the nearest dollar, all those unregistered cents add up, it is the equivalent of the pennie jar if you are living cashless.

You do EXACTLY to the T what I do!!! :D

[SoozeS]

what we are doing is paying EXTRA on monthly bills like an extra 50 a month on the electric/gas bill, untill one whole month is paid extra, then i move on to phone bill, get that one paid a month exta, then car and so on and so on, untill my husband and i have both of our last paychecks before vacation COMPLETLY for vacation.

 

Love this idea! :)