I need help to earn and save £2000 for our son's wedding in October.

poohbear59

My original thread was aimed at being debt free by 60. We achieved it at age 56. The only problem is that we now have no savings, no investments to draw on and we need to raise enough money to go to USA for our son's wedding. And while we are there we want to travel.

I really want to stay in USA for four weeks. One week before the wedding to do wedding dress alterations, one week after to spend with family and friends who are gathering for the wedding from around the world, one week to sightsee, especially Grand canyon, and one week with our other son in New York.


Accommodation will be free.
I have arranged one week home swap, and two weeks using points from letting our holiday cottage. The final week will be spent staying with family or friends. I have booked a second apartment so family can stay with us for the wedding without having to pay too. I have paid the maintenance charge already. It cost $149 per apartment so $398 spent so far. I am trying to keep costs down for family who have to travel either from UK or from Australia. It is costing them enough without the extra cost of accommodation.

The problem we have now is we need to raise around £2000.
The costs we will have are;
Flights £1000 for two of us
Car hire £500
Food £800, a lot of eating out and we will want to treat family.
Fuel, incidentals, £200
Rehearsal dinner £500

£3000 :eek:

We were there in April so know how much they eat out, how much food costs, and extras soon mount up.

Now Mr P and I need to knuckle down and cut back so we can raise the funds we need asap, plus sell things we have in the house that we don't need. Any advice, cheering along etc is gratefully received.

We are both on pensions and I receive ESA and PIP.
We are the original frugal family. We can live on very little and have done so to set up our holiday home. Neither of us have great needs except Mr P smokes and likes a drink. I cannot get him to give up but he is cutting down a lot on both.

We both keep to the mantra, do I need it or want it? And don't waste money. I have started listing all sorts of things on ebay today. So far I have 35 new listings today. Mr P has gone out tonight to meet a friend who wants to buy his pickup I am hoping he will get £1000 to go towards our holiday.
It will be lovely to be able to start our savings and put a figure on my signature. I am thinking of putting the cash in a local credit union as it is more difficult to get at than an online account, and we are 20 miles from our nearest bank.

I really want to ask for some help and encouragement to raise the necessary funds. I hope this is the correct forum.

Ms_Chocaholic

Good luck on your mission to raise the money.

Just wanted to add, can you rent our your holiday cottage on other dates to raise the funds?

poohbear59

Thank you Ms Chocaholic. The cottage is rented out and actually just manages to pay its own bills. The rental income covers mortgage, rates, insurance, utilities, general wear and tear etc. We are lucky because we will have two houses and a little nest egg for our retirement, when the mortgage is paid off.

I have listed a really random lot of things on ebay. Does it really matter that it is just anything I laid eyes on today that I decided we could live without? I know there are some things that sell well on ebay but I am not running a business, I am selling 'stuff'.

poohbear59

More ramblings from me...... wondering about asking if we could have a payment holiday from mortgage payments. We pay £854 per month on our house and £377 on cottage. I know we can't miss a cottage payment but maybe we could have a month out from house mortgage. I will try selling on 3bay .... to start with..



Just realised I will have to pay airport parking and kennels for the dog. Need to find a way to save there too.....

This diary is encouraging me to think about all of this properly..

beanielou

Why dont you ask about wether you can have a payment holiday on mortgage.
So at least then you will know

beanielou

So all very exciting pooh.
When are you going?

So.
Car boots. Ebay(which you are doing), local FB buying /selling page.
Can you sell any of your crafts?
Any chance you could cut down even very slightly on the eating out when over the pond even very slightly?
Wishing you lots of positive vibes

kazwookie

Is there a local responsible child who could look after the dog for pocket money?

Is there someone who could run / fetch you from the airpot for petrol money?

Both may be cheaper than kennels and parking

poohbear59

beanielou wrote: »

So all very exciting pooh.
When are you going?

So.
Car boots. Ebay(which you are doing), local FB buying /selling page.
Can you sell any of your crafts?
Any chance you could cut down even very slightly on the eating out when over the pond even very slightly?
Wishing you lots of positive vibes

Thank you I forgot about FB selling pages, and we have a tabletop sale coming up in the town hall soon. I hadn't even thought of it.

Tomorrow I will phone the building society to see if we can have a payment holiday. I would rather not but if it comes to it I might have to.

I don't sell my crafts, I usually just make for presents. Not sure if I would be allowed to on ESA. And I am never going to earn ESA amounts

We are going in October so not long to save up at all :eek:

kazwookie wrote: »

Is there a local responsible child who could look after the dog for pocket money?

Is there someone who could run / fetch you from the airpot for petrol money?

Both may be cheaper than kennels and parking

There is a local dog rescue lady who has looked after our pooch for less than the kennels, but he ran away.

DD will only be away for a week so maybe she could have the dog some of the time, she child minds though, and I could ask her or DSIL for a lift to the airport. There we go some savings already, hopefully.

beanie, I will eat in as much as humanly possible but I know there will be times when we have to eat out. It is the culture there, and it isn't cheap. They eat out for breakfast and evening meals and eat packed lunches for work to save money. I would be saving on the others too

brizzledfw

All good ideas. Are you able to do any odd jobs for people eg. doing shopping for rural neighbours or taking them to hospital? Just for a small monetary gesture?

I also think your crafts would sell .. And I need some Xmas presents..can I DM you?

pennywisepoundstupid

Hi Poohbear, just wanted to wish you good luck on raising the money, I'm sure you will achieve your goal.

fewgroats

"We want to treat family."

We all want to treat our family, but you need to also look at your budget here?

Crafts do sell, but you do need to some research, are you spending out money to make these crafts, also it's not Easter or Christmas so there's a problem there. Er, try to selling to craft markets in the area? Try a summer theme?

Good luck by the way.