Saving for a Second Honeymoon: Or a Dream Vacation

Just yesterday I was sitting here thinking about the fact that in less than six months, my husband and I will be celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary. I know that may not seem like a lot to some of you lucky people out there, but at this point, to me, it is a lifetime.

Like many young couples, we were broke when we got married. He was working full time and we decided it was best for me to stay home, so of course we had very little money saved for a fancy honeymoon. If I recall exactly, we had about seven hundred dollars. Rather pathetic, huh? Since we live in New York, we decided to just drive farther upstate and see where we ended up, an impromptu vacation, if you will.

While driving north, we talked about what we would do to celebrate our milestone anniversaries in the future. Kind of silly, looking back, but so romantic at the time. We decided that for our fifth anniversary we would take the same trip that we took for our honeymoon, well we did, with two kids and a few alterations to the itinerary!

For our tenth anniversary we promised ourselves that we would renew our vows and fulfill our dream of seeing Alaska as a second honeymoon. Well, our tenth anniversary is only three and a half years away, how are we going to pay for it? We are still in the same boat as we were seven years ago, with only one full time income. Except now, we have two kids, a mortgage and need to buy a new car...

My mother in law gave my husband this fishing fund bank for his birthday about two years ago and since we have always thrown our change into this fish, deciding that we would use it for Alaska someday. Figuring that it was almost full, I decided to count it out and deposit it to our savings account. I never dreamed that there was over four hundred dollars in there! In just two years, we had saved over four hundred dollars for our dream of a second honeymoon with very little effort!

I mentioned this to a good friend of ours and he gave me another great tip, that I've recently put into action to go towards our Alaska fund and it's working great! Put your dollar bills in a coffee can. Really, how often do you spend just a dollar? There are very few things you can buy today for just a buck, so why not save your singles?! Just keep an old coffee can and every day when you come home from work or running errands, check your pockets and your purse for dollar bills and put them all inside the can.

I started this just two months ago and have already saved fifty three dollars. I don't even remember to do it every time, but I try, imagine how much I could save if I did do it every time. Usually, I am not one that carries a lot of cash, so for those of you that always carry cash, you will be able to save so much more!

Just think, if we keep it up like this, in three years we will have saved approximately two thousand dollars from just change and dollar bills! That's about half of what we need for our trip and we will be able to save it with very little effort and without breaking the bank!

Remember the following tips and you will be able to save for your dream vacation too:

# 1 ~ Pennies Count Too!

Save all of your pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in a jar or a piggy bank, add them up once a year and deposit them to your savings account.

# 2 ~ Dollars are worth more in a can!

You can buy very few things with a dollar today, so save them in a coffee can until it's full and then deposit to your savings account! They add up fast!