How my son is saving for a trip to Ecuador

bizzielizzie_2

I wanted to post this because I think it is an awesome way for anyone to make extra money.

My 15 year old son wants to go to Ecuador on a 'let's go build a school' type trip in Summer 2014. The problem was, as I saw it, the cost is £4800. I didn't even want to go to the meeting because I knew I couldn't afford it even if it was in 2 years' time. Still, we went, and the trip does look amazing.

I slept on it, he was so keen and it hit me that I've always taught him to just work out how he is going to get whatever is important to him in life and that there are no boundaries, what kind of lesson am I teaching him if I then turn around and say no he can't go, it's too expensive.

So, together we worked out a plan. He needs to earn £200 per calendar month to make the payments to his school who are arranging a savings plan to help. We decided that a great way to make money would be to set up a sandwich round, we started off with the 8 people in my office. I texted them all and asked what their favourite sandwich is and then I paid for the first lot of shopping and helped (replace with 'taught'!!) him to make the lunches. He typed a note to my 8 colleagues explaining what he was saving for and that this lunch was free but if they enjoyed it he hoped they'd buy from him tomorrow and he told them what it would have cost. He just added 80p on top of the ingredients. He got £20 that day as 4 people wanted to contribute and he also got 5 orders. He borrowed (permanently!) his sister's bike basket and used the £20 (I topped it up to about £35) to buy some crisps and cokes and chocolates.

On Friday he had some fillings left over that wouldn't keep until Monday so we made up 3 extra rolls, cut them into 4 and arranged on a nice tray, he printed off his note and took the tray into our office neighbours. Now he has the whole parade of 5 shops/offices and sells hot food too (sometimes left over from the previous night's dinner). If his accounts don't want lunch he still leaves the basket with the crisps, cans and chocolates and he makes sure he is no more expensive than the local corner shop.

He gets up at 5.30 to make his lunches, we drop the baskets no the way to school and pick them up at the end, then we go to sainsburys/asda/tesco to buy the best deals.

This week he makes his 9th payment! £1800 towards the £4800. I keep thinking that this is a tried and tested and simple business model that anyone could follow. If you were doing it full time I'm sure you could make a decent living and for students, it's a great way to make money. It is hard work but anything worth having is isn't it.

I'm very proud of him, I help a lot but he's becoming much better and he can make a wicked spag bol now!

:j

stephyt23

What a great idea! Well done to you for supporting him to get started. Your son will appreciate the trip much more knowing he has helped fund it himself, and he is learning valuable skills along the way.

I hope he has a wonderful time

agrinnall

I hope he has taken appropriate food hygiene measures.

http://www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/hygieneratings/#.UQlVYWdsGVM

This may seem a bit killjoy, but better surely than risk killing his customers.

Dunroamin

I wonder how many schools Equador could build with £4,800 X the number of people going on these trips.

Sorry.

insured

Good luck to your son. He has shown initiative. I did wonder about the food hygeine aspect myself as one of my kids wanted to do this but I thought that you had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get your kitchen up to standar.

Dunroamin wrote: »

I wonder how many schools Equador could build with £4,800 X the number of people going on these trips.

Sorry.

Totally agree with this post.
I think these world challenge type trips are just lining the pockets of the companies who run them.
£4,800 would cover far more than the cost of a flight out there plus basic accommodation which they should take.
I also wonder about how useful these kids are who go over to "build a school"
I know one girl who went there and couldn't even wash up at home.
I would not let mine do this when they were at school for those reasons.
If they want to, they can raise that sort of money now, take a flight over, give the money to the school direct. They would learn much more and help much more at the same time.
However, this does not take away the initiative shown by your son in trying to raise the money.
I think a few in my own kids years worked at Tesco.

alex21

Fantastic. You must be so proud of him. A pat on the back to you as well as he obviously learned his values and commitment from you. :A

bizzielizzie_2

aw, thank you! He's really grown in confidence through this. I felt so proud when he plucked up the courage to go in and cold call his first prospects armed with a plate of sandwiches, I offered to go in too but he wanted to go alone...hehe, he spent about 5 minutes hiding outside behind a van in the parking area trying to pluck up the courage to go and introduce himself.

bizzielizzie_2

I did check out the company thoroughly. They do make a profit but only 2% and I've no problem with profit at all. I do feel that the schools are unreasonable in pressurizing us parents to pay for such expensive trips though and I also worry that after all of this work it might be a disappointment. Still...the lessons in independence and money management, plus the selling/customer relation skills are so valuable to him that I'm delighted. The trip is for a month and includes a week on the Galapagos islands so I don't think it's too far off.

bizzielizzie_2

I see your point but there has to be a win win reason to go really or it wouldn't be sustainable. In reality, who's going to pay that much just for the charity? This way everyone wins...as I said on an earlier reply the sticking point for me is it is unfair to ask that much from the parents. We feel guilty enough if we can't provide all that our kids want without huge luxuries.

bizzielizzie_2

No dead customers so far!! Yay! I did check out the laws actually and it says that there is no need for formal training or a formal certificate but that supervision or on the job training will suffice. The guidelines are very comprehensive. That said he has done an online course and is booked onto a physical course. Fair comment from you.

kazzah60

well done to you and your son - he will value this trip MUCH more having worked hard to pay for it- and he has learned so mcuh in the process

in the past I have been plagued by youngsters asking for donations towards these types of trip and I have found that irritating as I understood that part of the process was to fund it themselves really.

Your son has done an amazing job and well done you for thinking of it as an idea - you should both be congratulated