Sunday, April 8, 2012

Saved by the tin

About 6 weeks ago I was looking ahead at a 2 week holiday in April on Phillip Island. In the school holidays. Meaning at last we'd be here when the 'extra' fun things were open... like mini golf and pony rides. I had been looking forward to letting the kids do these things, since we last visited the Island, out of school holidays about 18 months ago.

Six weeks ago I remembered the things we'd been looking forward to doing and realised the impact of Pete not being employed.

NO fun money. Period.

Thankfully the holiday itself was a 'gift' of sorts - house/pet sitting for a family we churched with a number of years ago who have moved to the Island since. So the holiday was all go and I was wondering how much more I could squeeze out of the grocery budget in the coming weeks to put some dollars aside for a couple of fun things while we were away.

God then reminded me of the tin...


Soon after our last visit to Phillip Island 18 months ago, I started collecting all $2 coins and putting them in a sealed money box/tin with the idea of using the savings for Pete and I when we finally got a weekend 'kid free'. This happened last November and the tin happily produced nearly $500 in $2 coins after 12 months of saving them. Dinners out, a new vacuum cleaner and a fun weekend came from that tin. Very happy.

Right away I started saving again, from mid November till now and this time both $1 & $2 coins.

In only 4.5 months there was plenty in there for 2 weeks of sensibly spread out fun. So far that's been Amaze'nThings and Grumpy's Mini Golf, with the Wildlife Park, Pony Rides and Go Karts ahead!



The next money box is already at home, ready to once again be saving all our gold coins for 'whatever next' and the best bit is, we don't even notice the absence of the money from the usual cash flow!

Love it!


2 comments:

  1. Aww that's great! Glad you were able to find some fun money:)

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    1. Thanks - it really was such a blessing! Who knows how long till we'll be able to do a 'holiday' again, as such, so it was extra nice to be able to do it without feeling disadvantaged at a time when money is generally tight!

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