i’d like to take the SO with me to visit japan someday, but money has been a little tight and so that trip just hasn’t been a priority.  so, several months ago a few days after the idea had come up, i decided to start saving up for our trip — we call this resource The Japan Fund.

nothing fancy, really: just a tall glass vase that i found sitting around in the kitchen that now sits on one of our bookshelves in our home office to collect funds.

we will NOT borrow for this trip! this is my one condition.  i want us to save or find money from our own resources rather than put it on credit.  i want to remember what it feels like to ’save up’ for something big, rather than just borrowing easily and carelessly, ending up with debt we must slowly pay off later along with wasted interest.  i know that that is what will most likely happen if either of us ends up putting this trip on credit.

somehow i suspect that the feeling of satisfaction from buying our plane tickets, etc. will be a gazillion times more wonderful than using money that isn’t ours and that we don’t yet have!

where does the money come from?

• spare change that fall out of the SOs pockets, found around the house
• money i might ‘owe’ the SO for various expenses (dining out together, fast trak, etc.)
• a joint savings account with hsbc where i occasionally add ’spare change’ at the end of each month, if available

once the jar is near full, i move the money to the savings account.

the first time the jar filled up, we went to the local raley’s grocery store in order to make use of their coinstar machine.  for some crazy reason, i was really excited!  i couldn’t wait to find out how much we had collected!  for fun, we each guessed how much might be inside, kind of like in elementary school when you had to guess how many now-and-laters were in a giant glass jar.  he guessed $30.  i guessed $32, if i remember correctly.

i was really disappointed at first, because we couldn’t find the coinstar machine.  so we went back to the truck to drop off the jar so that we could go grocery shopping unburdened.  then we found the coinstar minutes later in the corner of the store, practically hidden!  so as i read the directions on how to use it, the SO went back to the truck to retrieve our Japan Fund ‘jar’.

we made about $68 !!  there was about a $5+/- fee if i recall correctly, so in the end it came out to about $62 for us to keep! wow!  i was amazed and elated.  obviously, we were both mistaken in our initial guesses, but we decided i ‘won’ because my number was closer ;)  (i should add here that we were aware of the fee involved, but was willing to pay for it this at least once in order to get the coinstar experience.)

that was the start of our Japan Fund.

our goal is to save up about $4000 for the trip:

• ~$1000 each for plane tickets — wouldn’t mind trying ANA instead of United at least once
• $1000 - $2000 for hotels, food, shopping, and any other entertainment
• 2 japan rail passes (trains pass)

i hope that we are able to accumulate these funds by this time next year — i have been to japan many times and at various times throughout the year, but never in the fall.  october/november is supposed to be one of the less stressful/crazier times of the year to visit.  plus the weather is nice (not humid, muggy, blazing hot) then.  however, if we don’t succeed in saving up by then, that’s ok too — we can wait until we do.

i am not automating savings for the Japan Fund, and i’ll tell you why.  my priorities at the moment are in the following order:

1. paying off my credit debt
2. putting aside money for my emergency fund
3. maxing/optimizing my retirement accounts

as a result, money for this travel fund is not of the utmost priority — it is just a little casual project we have going on the side for our future fun.  if there is any ’spare change’ in my checking account at the end of the month that i want to put into our Japan Fund, i do.  otherwise, i just don’t stress about it.

at the time of this writing, we have about $486.01 saved up so far!  i made use of the 3.5% interest rate that hsbc was offering on their online savings account some months back (now, 3.25%).  for now, i would like to leave the money there until we accumulate $1000+.

at that time, i would like to possibly invest in a money market fund or account with a good interest rate and other features that would work well for us (ie, low/no fees, etc.).  since this fund has a specific role and anticipated time frame for its use, i would like the investment to be very low risk.  i have been eyeing the t rowe price money market funds, and read about the wachovia bank and wamu money market accounts’ current good rates.  however, my options will of course change in the near future.

how about you?  are you saving up for a Fun Fund of sorts too?  what is your system?