The $5K Challenge
Image via WikipediaThis is one of those Big Hairy Audacious Goals (hereafter referred to as BHAG) like Suzie Cheel has talked about in the past.
After our discussions about our Big Trip budget, I’ve decided it would be mighty handy if I could come up with a bonus $5000 to contribute to the costs of the trip.
Kind of an “overflow” amount that can be used for things we don’t feel fit into our regular budget. Or if the projected budget doesn’t quite “make it” in spots.
Why $5000?
It seemed like a nice round figure and the rest of our budget is broken into $5000 amounts so it just seemed to make sense. It does feel like a reasonably “high” goal (ie. One I don’t expect to meet easily).
Setting things high inspires me to “reach for the stars” and put that little bit of extra effort into reaching for it.
That’s the theory anyway. That’s also why I’m classing it as a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”.
How Do I Plan On Achieving This?
That’s a very good question. Here are some of my vague thoughts so far:
- Sponsorship. In particular, selling advertising on 3 Kids And A Caravan. It’s still a small site in terms of traffic and search engine rankings so I need to work on this before I can expect any kind of sponsorship deals. I have another idea along sponsorship lines but not sure if it will pan out.
- Writing articles for magazines. So far I have found one travel magazine that accepts (and pays for) reader submissions. Although I may not have too many articles I could write BEFORE we go away.
- Putting $1 coins and $5 notes aside now ready for the trip ($1 coins for laundry and $5 notes for the kids weekly spending money). I’ll count this and add to the tally when it’s almost time to leave.
- Using cash for our grocery shopping and spending as little as possible while I work on using up what we have on hand. Any surplus amounts can go toward this total.
- Being frugal in general with our money between now and 31st January - anything left over can go toward the end tally. Last year we managed to live through January without any drawings (ie on surplus money in account from the rest of the year). If I can do this again, we’ll have $2000 (January Drawings) to put into the tally. Our spending has gone up considerably this year so I’m not sure if we’ll have much of a surplus but we’ll see. Even half would be a reasonably contribution to the overall tally.
- Sell something. Ebay? Or make something to sell? No idea what.
- Make better use of survey sites like emailcash and cash in on other reward points (eg flybuys, visa rewards). Small amounts but in my past experience, small amounts can add up if you have enough of them.
If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears. I know many of you are mega creative when it comes to stuff like this so let me know if you think of something I can do/sell/create etc to help toward my final goal.
Time Frame
We’re hoping to leave in early July so I’m setting myself the deadline of June 30th 2009. That gives me 8 months to work on this goal.
Tracking My Progress
I will be blogging my progress but would also like to include some kind of widget in my sidebar so people can see my progress at a glance at any time. Unfortunately, all I’ve managed to find so far is a ticker bar, which works okay in my posts but won’t fit in my sidebar. If you know of any widgets that would work well in a sidebar, please let me know.
In the meantime, here is my lovely “treasure chest” ticker with my gold coin set firmly on zero. 
Hopefully not for too long.
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oh good luck.
I wonder if the magazine would appreciate articles on saving for big trips and whatnot like you’ve shared with us here?
Worth a try.
Ohhh sounds like a plan. And here goes the numbers geek in me - $5k in 8 months is $625 per month, which is $156 per week on average. Which when you put it like that doesn’t sound AS bad. Well, it makes it sound achievable.
Go for it. I haven’t got any suggestions but I like your ideas, especially the $1, $2 and $5 things. I’ll just be here to offer encouragement
$5k is a BHAG! I should do something similar myself actually. I don’t know about $5k in 8 months, but I’m working towards savings for a few bits and pieces. Actually I have about a month to come up with money for our trip away. And probably a new budget while we’re away too. Gulp.
I can’t think of much else to scrounge money from. Every little bit helps I’ve found. Do you have any savings money you could garner the interest from? Ie when I’m saving for something I take the interest from the emergency fund account and add that towards my savings goal, rather than leaving it there…
I have some ideas for you, will write a post this month- and let’s talk on skype
As you are planning so far out there is plenty of lead time.
I just love that you are doing a BHAG
Launching my booksite this weekend so after that
Point #3. You might want to do some checking on this. A lot of laundromats have machines that take a $2 coin. I’m not at all sure about caravan parks and such, but around my area in the city, the machines are mostly $2 ones.
Forgot to ask, can you please post the recipe for the lemon slice you mentioned in the previous post? I love lemon flavoured stuff.
Bettina - thanks for the idea - will think some more on that.
Gem - lucky I have friends who are numbers geeks since I’m allergic to them.
Thanks for those figurings. Was going to seek out a calculator and crunch some numbers but hadn’t got that far yet. Although $156 a week does sound kinda a lot - but then I never expected it was going to be an easy goal to reach.
Kin - Not a lot in savings right now as what I’d saved so far for this trip is currently sitting in the caravan (not literally, financially). There is the emergency fund (which is dwindling due to a funeral and then surgery expenses). Will think on that some more.
Suzie - Sounds like you’re busy as usual. Speaking of books. I’m considering working on an ebook I started. That could be another avenue.
River - While we were away, I checked out the laundry’s in the caravan parks we stayed in and all but one needed $1 coins (the 1 that didn’t you had to buy tokens from reception). I guess perhaps caravan parks don’t update their machines as often as laundromats? Of course, things could change…
The lemon slice recipe can be found at:
http://www.lighteningonline.com/2007/06/29/slice-making/
Enjoy!
Great goal! You’re well on your way just by making a plan to get there. Well done. I agree that breaking it down like Gemisht has done makes it look much less daunting.
How are your 30DC sites going? Maybe you get get a bit of a boost from those. And if you need more content for your 3 Kids & A Caravan blog I’d be more that happy to do some guest posts on our travels, caravan park reviews, etc.
We’ve been having a lot of quick fix meals lately which is costing us heaps but I’ve discovered one way to save $’s on the expensive pre-packaged stir fry sauces and frozen stir fry veggie packs. I just don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier. Blogged about it here :
http://aussiefarmersdirectchallenge.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/dinner-of-desperation/
Are the children saving any of their pocket money towards special treats while away on their caravan holiday? That is if they get pocket money.
Places like theme parks can be expensive and it is a real incentive to the kids to save if you say “we will pay half your entry if you can save up the cost of the other half.”
Great goal and very inspiring. Has got me thinking about what I could achieve if I set my mind to it.
Journeyer - thanks. My 30DC sites have been a bit neglected of late I’m afraid. The Candy Craft site is attracting more google traffic now. I’ve put adsense back on (I hate how it makes the site look
) so we’ll see if that generates anything. The guest posting sounds good, especially between now and when we go - help to keep it ticking over.
Marita - I imagine they’ll save something before we go. They don’t get a lot of pocket money but they also don’t get near shops a lot. Lleyton is suddenly interested in earning money so we’re trying to find ways for him to do that.
PlanningQueen - let me know what you come up with, it might help spark some more ideas for me as well.
Well, I think that you’ll make it. You have all it takes.