Pocket Change For a Cruise?

Saving for your first cruise vacation can seem to be a daunting task.

Taken one step at a time, however, it's easy.

First, you need a written goal.

You can write "take a cruise around the world in a suite" at the top of the list, if that is what it will take to fulfill your dreams, but most of us start with a short cruise to see if rave reviews of cruising are real.

So for now, perhaps just write, "Take a cruise of three nights or longer."  Adding a date will make that goal achievement more likely, allowing yourself time to achieve that goal.

Most ships cruise for a week or less, and three nights is about the minimum necessary to get a full cruise experience to fairly test if you enjoy cruising.

The average first time cruiser spends little time in her room, tending to just go there to clean up, change and sleep between activities in public spaces or ports.

The cheapest room is usually an inside room (no window), and unless you have some phobia issues that make natural light necessary when you sleep, you might not want to bother specifying a room for a short cruise.

Now that you have a written goal, the next steps are very easy.

Let's assume you don't have some fun money squirreled away already.

Just $20 a week will save $520 in half a year, and $1040 in a year.  Depending on the departure date you choose, in that range should be enough for a short cruise, depending on departure date.

Take $20 off the top of your weekly pay and put it in a piggy bank.  And NEVER allow youself to ever substitute an IOU.  It's that easy.

If you get tips, like a waitress or hairdresser, putting away $4 per shift of tips is $20 per week.

But you might recoil in exasperation. "But Wes, you don't understand my problem.  I already spend every penny I make!"

You can save by cutting back slightly on expenditures.

If you have a Starbucks latte every day, you can save $3/cup by substituting a coffee with cream and sugar at McDonalds.  7 X 3 = $21.  Buy a coffee pot and you can brew your own for 25 cents a cup, and the savings build up faster.

Brown bag it to work instead of buying lunch saves $5 or $10 a day, so you don't have to scrimp every day to quickly save $20 in a week.

An easy, healthy tip: drink more water.  Substitute free tap water in restaurants and at home for beer, wine, cocktails, milk and sodas.  The savings will add up while your waist thins down. 

Put those seemingly insignificant daily savings into your piggy bank.

Cost cutting larger chunks makes the process even faster.

Instead of $300 concert tickets to see big name acts, scope out the underground of indie music at a local venue, often for no cover charge. 

That same $300 could just about pay for one person to take a cruise that includes world-class entertainment for three nights, plus meals, lodging and other entertainment.

Instead of paying $110 for admission to an amusement park that no longer excites you plus another $50 to $100 on overpriced snacks, not to mention spontaneous purchases like mouse ears and other junk that will be lost in your closet next week, put that same money into your piggy bank toward a cruise, where you can eat gourmet, four course meals in a deluxe dining room served by tuxedoed waiters between lots of fun cruise activities.

See how easy this can be?

I'm not advocating anything radical.

Once you write down the goal and look at it every day, you'll come up with your own methods.

Our minds have an amazing ability to materialize that which we think about.