With the new year upon us I have decided to share the ways we are going to save money for the upcoming trip. We have not yet decided the amount we need yet but we have aligned on where some of the $ will come from. The overall idea is that the trip will be funded through income from different sources and also from us making slight adjustments to our current lifestyle. One final caveat is the dollars will all be after tax dollars *i.e. real money, not paper money”
- Any increases to our base salaries starting Jan 2020 will be 100% allocated to the trip. I.e. if we get a 2% raise this year at work, that money will be set aside and not be a part of our normal yearly budget
- Any work bonus dollars. We have never really counted on a bonus and have never included it in our yearly budgeting. It is easy for us to allocate any bonus we get the next 2 years towards our trip.
- Any money we get from selling things around the house. Since we just moved we have started selling old housewares, toys, etc. Any money we get from that goes into a jar for our trip.
- Any money we get from returning empty bottles. Yes this is going to be a smaller amount but every bit will help.
- All money we get back from cash back sites or from our credit card will be allocated to the trip.
- Any product or purchase that we return for a refund and do not follow through with. For example if we buy something and decide not to use it and return it, we take that money and put it towards the trip. This might seem frivolous but the initial purchase still gets allocated to our normal yearly budget so that money doesn’t get to be spent on something else.
- Any coins and lose change that we can roll and bring to the bank.
- The savings we have on our car insurance for the next 2 years since we got rid of our second car.
- 50% of any currently established recurring payments that we eliminate before the trip will be repurposed for the trip. I.e. if we were to cut our monthly netflix, we would give ourselves have of that monthly spend from the day of cancellation up to our trip departure The caveat is it has to be a recurring expense that already existed. An example we have already done is we got the lower size garbage can which means we pay a lower rate for garbage collection going forward.
Things that will also help fund once we are actually on the trip
- We plan to rent out our house when we are gone. That money will go towards financing the trip
- Any interest or capital appreciation we make on the lump sum we will have accumulated during that time
More ideas to come but we are hoping this should be a good starting point
Family Travel Countdown 