How I saved for Disney!

I need to start this post of by saying. that this is by far the hardest post I have ever written. Certain aspects were difficult to get out of my brain and in writing.  I hope none of it is to confusing!

I need to go ahead and establish the fact that I am a self proclaimed Disnerd! In case you are unfamiliar with that term, it just simply means I am a Disney nerd.  I love Disney!! I love watching the movies, shopping at their store (I even went to the one in Paris, France), and going to Walt Disney World.  We took our girls to WDW Christmas of 2011 and I have been looking forward to going back ever since.  If I had my way I would go to WDW every year, but that is just not something we can afford. In June of 2012 I got the bright idea to start saving up to pay for the next trip. I made up my mind we would not go back to WDW until we had saved up every dime of money needed for the trip.I have heard so many people talk about taking vacations, how much fun they had and then that they racked up huge credit card charges or depleted their checking accounts to do it.  I was determined not to be one of those people. That got my mind to working on ways I could save and ways to make extra money.

Ways I saved:
1. Automatic deposit into savings account: When I made up my mind to start saving for our return trip to WDW the first thing I did was go to the bank and open up my Disney account. I started having $25.00 a month automatically put into that account from our checking at the first of each month.  If I never saw it, I never missed it. I did this for the first year and then had it fixed to go into our savings instead. Now that our next big trip is being saved for I will go back to the bank and have that process started all over again.

2.  Change from purchases:  This step should be pretty self explanatory. I would pay for as much as possible with cash and then take my coin change and put it into a special jar (not the 52 week challenge jar) and then when I had enough I would deposit into my Disney account at the bank.

3. Sales/Price Match: The next two parts of the plan may be a little confusing for you, I am still not quite sure how I even kept them up. After each visit to the store I would come home and look at my  sales savings and price matches (price matching only applies to *Wal-mart purchases.). I would take all of them, add them up and divide them by 3. Then what ever that amount was would be written down in my little notebook under each months heading and then at the end of said month I would transfer that amount out of our checking into our Disney account. For example: Let's say it was July, I had went to the grocery store and with sales and price matches I saved a total of $12.00. I would divide that savings ($12) by 3, giving me an answer of $4.00.  I would then write that $4 down in my little notebook and at the end of July I would transfer it plus my other savings from our checking into our Disney.
*Wal-mart now makes this process so much easier with their savings catcher plan. You just put your receipt info into their system and they will check other competitors and give you the difference in price. No more holding up the line to price match!

4.Couponing: My couponing process works almost identical to my sale savings/price matching process, with one small difference. Instead of dividing my savings by 3, my coupon savings would be divided by 2. For example: Lets say on the same aforementioned July trip, I saved $7 by using coupons. I would divide that by 2, for an answer of $3.50. That amount would be written down in my notebook and then transferred from my checking into my savings at the end of the month. I know that in reality that the last two steps are still coming out of my checking, but I figured if I saved all that by working my tail off to coupon, price match and look for sales, I deserved to put some back for something special for us. Some months I would only put back a few dollars, but there have been some months that I would put back almost $100.00 using these two steps.
(I understand that the previous two things may not be possible for everyone. You may not be able to use them at all or may even have to start off dividing them by a higher number. I am just giving you the idea of what worked for us.)

5. The 52 week savings challenge:  This part of the plan was very easy to begin with, but then became very challenging as the year progressed. The point of the challenge is to save money that week for whatever week of the year it is. For example: Week 1 would be $1, Week 25 would be $25 and so on and so on. It was very difficult to save up those last 4-6 weeks with Christmas going on, but somehow I managed. I do plan to start this step over again for 2015, but will be switching up the weeks of June and December. I am hoping that will make saving easier this time around. (The following chart  is very easy to follow)

Ways I made extra money:
1.Consignment sales: This is a simple and easy way to make extra money. I have only used consignment sales to get rid of clothing/toys, etc., that my kids no longer have a use for. You can find a local store that will give you a flat price for all of your items, or like me. you can find a church/community consignment sale where you tag and price your own items and they sale them for you.  I don't always make a lot at these sales, but as I have said many times before, "Every little bit helps!".

2. Inbox Dollars: I signed up for a free account with http://www.inboxdollars.com/. The site has all types of ways to make extra money, but I just use it for the emails. All you have to do is click the purple confirm email button and you get two cents for each email. Yes, it does take a long time to build up your account, but for a few minutes each day I find it to be worth it. I have already redeemed my first amount of $30 and am working on my next.

3.Cleaning houses: I currently have one house that I clean, besides my own, my moms.  I do this twice a month and put back half of what she gives me for the Disney fund. The other half my cousin always gets for my twice monthly pedicures. Hey, a girl has to do something nice for herself every once in a while.

4. Picking up/Collecting cans: This is most likely the one thing my teenager hates, but my eight year old loves.   She loves the idea of cleaning up the earth and each can represents money to her. We have a couple of families in our church that keep all of their soda cans and bring them to us about once a month.  My daddy always picks them up for us on his walks and when we see one on the road side we try our best to get it.When we get a big trash bag full of cans we take them to the local salvage shop and sell them. It is never much, most of the time we will get around $1.20 per bag, but it all goes to help us reach our goal of Disney World.

5. Taking on extra baby-sitting jobs when possible: I have a full time job, stay at home mom and Tink. I keep this cute little 2 year old who is just the sweetest thing. The money I make for keeping her always goes toward the monthly tuition and piano bills for the girls. Every now and then I will get a phone call, text or message from someone who needs an emergency babysitter. If possible I always take the job and then put all of the money into the Disney fund.

6. Apply for and use a Disney Credit Card: I applied and received a Disney CC right before we went in 2011. I have let my mother and my church use it to order gifts and then paid it off at the end of each month. I have also used it to pay for this up coming trip and have been paying the bill off each month. By using this card I am earning 1 Disney Reward dollar with every $100 spent. Right now my account is at $100 Disney Reward dollars. I am planning to redeem them about a month before our trip to use while there.  I have never done this before so I am not sure how it will go. Hopefully there will be no problems and all my dollars should be put on  a Disney gift card. 

*There has been one more way I have gotten extra money for Disney, that doesn't really fall into saving or   earning.
 I ask for Disney gift cards for my birthday and Christmas this year. I was fairly certain that our trip was going to be taking place in 2015 and since the gift cards do not expire, with a late birthday and Christmas at the end of the year, asking for these as gifts made perfect sense.



I wish I could say that we meet our goal in December of 2014, but we are short $400.00. All in all, I managed to save a grand total of $4,100.00 in the last two and a half years.  All the money for Disney, gas and souvenirs was saved, but we are still saving up for Sea World. I have no doubts that I will be able to get that saved up before we leave. It feels so good to know that we can take this trip and not owe a dime when we get home!


It may be a vacation to WDW or to someplace else. It may be buying a new car or saving up for a down payment on a house. It could be anything that you are wanting to save up for and I hope that by sharing what I did it can help someone else reach their goals.

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

The Next Chapter

As we close out this year of 2014 it causes one to reflect back over the year.  I have to say that the year has been an interesting one.  We started off with our oldest being in remission and celebrating her 14th birthday. Oh how thankful we were to see that day! It continued on with doctor appointments, check-ups, three of us being sick with bronchitis and the news of the passing of a very sweet person that I had barely begun to know.  We also got the news that Grace's wish to go to Paris was going to come true and we began the process for the trip.  We celebrated birthdays, our anniversary and went on our family vacation to Washington DC.  We faced the grief as the one year day of the loss of our baby Quinn came around in June.  What an emotional time for me!  I just tried to stay busy, cleaning out each room of our house helped, but also served as a reminder of what we were missing. Of course thinking of him brought on the memories of our August and Kate. Each loss was different and affected me much more than the one before. I can't help but think of them as this year comes to an end and a new begins. August would be turning 4, Kate 3 and Quinn would have been celebrating his first birthday on January 5th.

As this past summer went by, the girls and I did lots of things and checked stuff off of our summer bucket list. We continued to make arrangements for our trip and then the next thing you know school was starting back. I struggled with some health issues of my own. After lots of bloodwork and test I am on some medicine that will hopefully help me.  Grace began her high school years as a freshman and Caroline started the 3rd grade.  This year for school has not been easy, there have been some ups and downs, but we have made it almost half way and plan to give it our best to finish up. We made it to Paris in October and it was such an amazing adventure! (Of course, you can read about that in my Paris blog series)

We finished out 2014 with the Make-A-Wish walk, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We got the joy of surprising our girls with a trip to Disney World for Christmas, (I can hardly wait until spring).  Our  youngest gave us a health scare right before Thanksgiving, but after two seperate test we got the news just last night everything was perfectly normal. What a blessing!!

We plan to ring in the New Year as we always do, on the altar at church giving thanks for the year that has passed and praying for the year to come. We have lots planned for 2015. Our Disney trip which thank the Lord is completely paid for. God truly helped me over the last two and a half years to save up the money to cover the entire cost of the trip. It is such a good feeling to know that we will not owe anything on it after we get back. One of the best parts is that we will not be dipping into our family vacation fund, so that means we will get two or maybe three vacations next year. I am thinking a few days at the beach and a few in the mountains would be really nice.  

I think of each new year like a chapter in a book. The book is our life and each chapter represents each year of our lives. Some people are just beginning and some consider their books novels, because they are so long. Our piano teachers mother has the longest book I know, as she has 99 and a half chapters. I can only imagine all the amazing things she has seen and done.Some chapters contain mostly sadness, sorrow and tragedy. Some contain mostly happiness, love and joy. As a whole I think each chapter contains a little of it all. I believe that each year is full of these type of moments, good or bad they are with us and will always be written into our lives. We must take each part of it, no matter what it is and use it to help not only ourselves, but also others.


I am sure that 2015 will be as interesting as all the others that have passed. It will mean 10 years of marriage for us, who would ever have guessed we would make it this far. I am praying for the Lord to not only bless us, but all our family, friends and all who read this blog. Happy New Year and may 2015 be the best year ever for y'all!!

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

 

 

 

 



Our trip of a Lifetime:Part 2

On day 2 of our Paris trip we went on a tour of the city which included a tour of Notre Dame Cathedral and a short guided tour of The Lourve. 

The city was amazing and there was so much to see. Notre Dame was so quiet and peaceful just as one would imagine an 850 year old church to be.  During our tour we were told that Victor Hugo was told by his wife to stay in their home and finish writing his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The church itself was in need of repair and a portion of the money from the novels sale went to the restoration of the Cathedral.  While there we had the opputrunity to hear the bells of the church ring, it was a beautiful sound. We also unfortunately had our first encounter with pick pockets. Thankfully we did not lose anything and were able to learn how they operated. It was very sad to see young children and teenagers trying to steal from people.  I felt sorry that they had to grow up as criminals and that is the only life they most likely will ever know.

 

 

 

 

After our stop at Notre Dame, we continued on with our tour of the city. We saw The Opera House Napoleon had built special for him, but never even went to. We also saw Les Invalides, which was once a hosptial and is now the burial place of Napoleon, or so they say. The story goes that when Napoleon's body was returned to France by Great Britian that they were only allowed to view the remains for two to three minutes, at which point they agreed it was Napoleon. That finding is still up for debate. We also got to make a quick stop at a picture perfect spot of the Eiffel Tower. It was a cloudy day, but the pictures still came out great.

We stopped off at The Lourve for a short guided tour. Our guide informed us that at any time only 10% of the art was displayed and we would be seeing about 2-3% of that 10.  The museum was huge and would take days to go through in its entirety. Our tour took us to see The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and of course the Mona Lisa.  My 8 year old informed me that she did not think that Mona Lisa was a very pretty lady, after seeing her in person I have to agree, but still there was something about her that was intriquing, maybe it was her smile.   We also saw the painting of The Marriage at Cana. This was taking from Italy during WWII, cut in half for transport and brought to France.  Several years later it was agreed that the painting would be returned to Italy, but after some consideration it was decided to leave it in Paris. There was a lot of concern about the damage that may be done in cutting it in half again. 

 

 

 

 

All in all our second day of the trip was very interesting and we ended up eating supper at McDonalds.  I have to say the fries are not as good as here, but the chicken nuggets  acutally tasted  better.  After supper we did some shopping and stayed up late, of course we were still on American time, so our internal clocks were way off.  We slept in the next day and took our first ride on the metro system. I was very crowded, but much quicker than walking. We decided on our third day we would take a river tour of the city, oh what an adventure that was.

To be continued......

Our Trip of a Lifetime: Part 1

So by now I'm sure y'all have read my Make-A-Wish journey blog and are just absolutely dying to find out how our trip to Paris went? It was such an amazing journey that there is no way I can do it justice in just one Saturday morning blog post, so, I will be writing a whole series on Our Trip of a Lifetime. I mean I wouldn't want to take a chance on leaving out any little detail about Paris!!

First off MAW arranged for us to be picked up in a limo to be taking to the airport for our first flight. I had never been in a limo before and my first thought was swanky!! Anyway, we had the joy of experiencing the new security for airports. My poor husband had to go through that screening thing that sees you naked, but the kids and me just had to do the regular metal detector. I laughed at him, he did not think it was funny. We boarded the small plane that would fly us to Charlotte NC, the kids had never flown and they thought it was so cool.

When we arrived in Charlotte, my sister-in-law was already waiting for us and was so excited about the trip. We didn't have long to wait until we were on the plane and headed across an entire ocean to another continent and might I add another world, (at least it felt that way).  After many hours on the plane we finally landed in Paris!!! The attendants and pilots were so super nice and the girls even got to sit in the pilots seat and pretend to fly the plane!! There was also a flight marshall on board and whoever they were, we never saw them, left both girls a flight marshall's pin. We had a car to meet us and take us to the Montparnasse in Paris, but he drove us around the city on the way and stopped at the Sacre Coeur church in the Montmartre section of Paris. What a beautiful spot to watch the sunrise over the city.

After checking into our hotel, we rested for a bit and then ventured out into the city. We ask one of the locals how long it would take to walk to the Eiffel Tower and was told 20 minutes. We learned that French time is not the same as American time, that 20 minute walk took in fact one hour. The lesson of the day, learn to use the metro, it is a much faster way of travel. Of course the walk provided us with some time to see some of the city and a chance to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather, which we would not see again our entire time there.

We waited in line about an hour to go into the tower, my oldest daughter and sis-in-law only went to the second floor, but me, my hubby and my youngest went all the way to the top. That was a height of 280 meters or about 984 feet.  Let me just say that the view from the top was amazing!!! You could see the entire city and it was beautiful!

As we thought about that long walk back, my sis-in-law said no way, we are taking a taxi and I am paying. It was fun to take the taxi, but not something I wanted to repeat on that trip. We had pizza that night for supper and then back to the rooms for an early day on Monday.

......To be continued! 

Family Chirstmases

As I was sitting here in the glow of the Christmas tree lights, drinking my coffee and checking out that box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that my wonderful friend brought me yesterday, I started thinking about my day and what all needed to be done. I remembered that we have one of our first family get togethers of this Christmas season tonight. Praise the Lord it is at a local restaurant so there will be no cooking or clean up for me. (I love it when that happens!) Anyway, I started thinking about how our family all use to get together at my Grandmothers house every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. All of the Aunts, Uncles and cousins would show up ready to eat and visit for a while. It eventually got to the point were my Grandmother just couldn't do both holidays so everyone started having Thanksgiving at their own house, but we still went to Grandma's for Christmas.  I remember how exciting it was to see everyone and hear all about what had been going on and that had happened to them.  The food was always so good and everyone worked together to make the meal a success. Then my Grandma got sick and was not able to have Christmas at her house. That was sad for me, but everyone would still stop by and visit just because it was Christmas.  On December 18, 2000 my Grandma passed away and we did not have any Christmas gatherings for a few years. Some of the family decided they wanted to try and get as many of us together as possible so my cousin opened her home to us and we started having Christmas together again.  It was so nice to see everyone. It seemed that we had all grown apart as I grew older. I understand that people get married, have children, move away and it makes life more "complicated", but I always looked forward to our family gathering.  Years have passed, we have many new people that have joined the family, some by marriage and some by birth. In fact I have a brand new baby cousin that was just born one week ago today. I have only seen pictures of her, but she is very cute. I was hoping to see her tonight, but the doctor does not want her out so soon with all the germs that are running about.  I am not sure how many people will be there tonight. My Aunts and Uncles are all getting older and not able to travel like they once did. Some people have other get togethers to go to and some people are having to work. I do look forward to seeing the ones that are able to be there. I think we should all try to see each other at least once a year. We have to face the fact that there will come a time when not many of us (the original set) will be left. I wonder if our children will still get together? Will the cousins even know each other anymore?  Will there be any of the Hicks family that will still be together? I certainly hope so! I know that we have not always seen eye to eye. There have been struggles and squabbles as all families have, but we have always risen above them to remain a family and I hope for the sake of my children we always will.

"That's my 'two-cents worth' what's yours?"

O Christmas Tree

One of my fondest memories of childhood is putting up our Christmas tree. I always love adding the ornaments and looking at each one, trying to remember where they came from. Still today it is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. We have this little artificial tree, I call it my Charlie Brown tree. We like to think of our tree as more than just  a Christmas tree, it is more like a Memory tree. Our tree is somewhat like a scrapbook of my life from my childhood to now.  On our tree hangs an assortment of ornaments. Some of them that were my mothers and others that belonged to my grandparents.  A few have been giving to me my family and friends over the years and I even have some from my years as a pre-school teacher.  I have ornaments from vacations we have taken and some to commerate special events in our lives.  They are all precious to me, but the most precious are those made by my children.  I look at each individaul ornament that they have made and I can remember how they were at that age. Our children grow up fast and don't stay with us forever, which makes these little keepsakes all the more imporant to me.

I want to share our story, so let me take you on a tour of our memory tree.


Of course there are the ornaments for each one of our babies in Heaven. These were giving to us by others, but what a special way to represent our babies and their importance to our family.

 

 

 

Then I have the button ornament that my step-daughter made for me. It is not the only one she has made and each of them is special to me.

When I was a child I remember that every year McDonalds gave out ornaments in their happy meals and I still have mine. I love my Flounder and Sebastion from The Little Mermaid movie.

I love the ones that my Caroline made for me at school and at church. There are a lot of them and each one reminds me of a time in life that we have shared together

One of my favorites is the one Grace made last year to celebrate being in remission from cancer. Praise the Lord for that!!!

I especially love the bell and candy cane that belonged to both of my grandmothers.  I miss them both so much and each time I place their ornaments on the tree I always think of them.

I also have an apple ornament I made when I was in first or second grade in school. I don't really remember making it, but when I see it I think back to my school days.

I also have the Smores commerating our first Christmas as a married couple and the fact that I was pregnant with Caroline that year.  What a year of changes that was!!!

The reindeer ornament that my Grandfather gave me just one year before he passed away. I will forever cherish that reindeer.

My Star Teacher ornament giving to me by a student about 13 years ago. I still remember the student that gave it to me and I often wonder where he is now.

There are the handprint snowman family ornaments that my grandchildren made and gave to us just last year. I look forward to seeing how much they grow in the years to come.

 

Last but not least there is the nail ornament giving to me several Christmases ago by my cousin Amanda. The nail is to remind us that our Lord Jesus was born to die for our sins. May this be something we remember always.

It is not the biggest, fullest or fanciest tree around, but we think it is the best.

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"



 

Forgiving and Forgetting

All my life I have heard the old saying, "You just got to forgive and forget". As a child it never occurred to me exactly what that meant, but as an adult I have had all to much experience with it. I would love to know who came up with that idea. I mean it has got to be one of the most impossible things in the world to do. I find the forgiving part is not so hard. Sometimes people do things and they do not even realize that they have hurt you. You can not expect someone to understand why you are upset when they don't even know what they have done.At other times though, people set out to hurt you intentionally, or in the south we would say, "They did that on purpose!".  Those are the times when you have to decide who is going to be the bigger person and do the forgiving. I find that if you don't forgive and just continue to let it bother you, it will only end up hurting you in the end.  I know a lady, she is one of those people who have let everything in life bother her, one of those who will just never forgive . She is one of the most bitter people I have ever meet. She just gives off such a negative vibe all the time and never has a kind word to say about anybody or anything. I really believe if she would just forgive all the nonsense she is hanging on to, she would be a better human being.

That being said, let's move on the hard part, the forgetting.  I find this the most difficult thing to do. Every time I see the person that has hurt me/done something to me, I always remember what they did.  It is just the first thing that pops in my head. This applies to those who hurt on purpose mostly, but even some who hurt with words not meaning too. There have been lots who have hurt me in many different ways and when I see them it is like I automatically think of what they did. I guess the human brain tends to draw out the bad. Why? Maybe because that bad  was something so hurtful to us.

I was talking with my husband about this the other day and he just brought up about Jesus on the cross and what his words were about those crucifying him.  In Luke 23:24a it says, "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." . My response was," Yea, but Jesus was a perfect man and I am no where near a perfect woman.".   As a Christian I know that I am to be like Jesus in all my doings. I am to ask myself in each situation what would my Lord do at this time. I strive to do better and try to think of good times I have had with those who hurt me, but it is not easy. The devil uses all our "memories" against us so we can never move forward in our lives and our Christian service. I pray the Lord makes me more like him in this area and all areas of my life. 

"That's my 'two cents worth', what's yours?"