I need some savings ideas

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I want, desparately, to return to WDW in 2002. We had planned on going back since our trip in 1999 and now, with all the hoop-la surrounding the 100 Years of Magic, I want to get there even more!

I've had a schedule and a budget planned for a few months, but plans were put on hold indefinitely until we are more financially stable. Now that DH is working two jobs, that should happen before next year.

So what I want to know is- How can we save say- $3000-$4000
in less than a year to make that trip a reality?

And, I know this has been asked before, but: What ways do you pay for your WDW vacations?

 

[Meagansmom]

Oh boy, there are so many ways.

1) This years tax rebate
2) next years income tax refund
3) buy disney dollars when ever possible
4) set so much aside each week or month
5) when you go to the grocery store, write the check for an even dollar amount, put the
put the change in a jar
6) have a garage sale
7) put all spare change into a jar
8) ask for disney dollars for birthdays, christmas, etc

This is a few things I could think of, think positive!

 

[LuvTigger]

Ditto what Meagansmom said.

Additionally, here are some things that help me:
* When I buy something at a restaurant or store, I try to use only paper money. For example, even if I Have change in my wallet, if the total is $4.24, I will give them a $5 and keep the change to put in a jar at the end of the day. If I can, I will put in a dollar bill or two as well. Additionally, I put $10 a week into the jar in addition to the change.
* Bring home lunch. I try to go out for lunch no more than once a week. This has helped save a LOT of $$$. Same goes for dinners. If you go out a lot, try to limit it, maybe only eating out on Saturdays for dinner, or something like that.
* Each payday, I go to the Disney Store and buy $25 in Disney Dollars and put them in a bag.
* Automatic deposit to savings helps a lot too. I used to try to tell myself that I'll call the bank to transfer $$ from checking to savings on payday, but never did. I finally went to the bank and set it up so that I automatically transfer $75 per pay check to savings. I'm less likely to spend it that way.
* If I have enough money to start a CD (Certificate of Deposit) at the bank, I will do that, if it's for a term that will end before the vacation. That way, if you touch it before the maturity date, you will be penalized.

I'm sure you will get many great ideas here!

 

[Debi]

Similar to what Luv Tigger said, bring your lunch to work. If you're the type to spend $5-$10 per day on lunch when you're at work, bring something to work with you. Either last night's leftovers, a sandwich, or a can of soup (if your company has a microwave you can heat it up in). This will save you approximately $50 per week alone.

In addition, as everyone has said, throw all of your loose change in a jar and save it. Even if your total is $9.01, hand them a $10 bill and throw the $0.99 in your change jar. You'd be surprised how quickly it adds up! I also throw $1 every day in this jar. You don't feel it when you only put in $1 per day, but it's easier than $7 per week or $30 per month all at once.

The thing that adds up the quickest for our family is throwing in all of our savings from coupons and store bargins. If you save $10 on your weekly grocery shopping by using your store's loyalty card and/or using coupons, throw that $10 in the Disney fund. I'd rather spend that $10 in WDW than at the supermarket! This also goes for sales at department stores, drug stores, etc.

Anyone else have ideas to share?

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Thanks for the tips! Yes I do eat out for lunch almost everyday. It costs anywhere from $2 to $5- when you think about it, after a month that's upwards of $60 that could go towards Disney.

And the coupons and store cards- I save at least $8 a visit.

Come to think of it, I work for a department store, and one of our benefits is a 15% store discount. I could stash that savings plus whatever other special discounts are offered on my sale. THANKS! I can't believe I didn't think of that before.

If only I could get DH to quit smoking and save that expense!!!!!

 

[Debi]

One other suggestion: if you live in a state that gives you money for your recycling (such as soda cans, etc.), make sure to do this. While $0.02 per can doesn't sound like much, it sure adds up, especially if you're like my family and go through 4-6 cans of soda per day. Good luck!

 

[NancyIL]

Hmmm...I don't think we've ever spent that much on a WDW vacation for our family of 5 - but then we haven't stayed longer than 5 days (off-site) at a time. It's good to set aside as much money as you can, but I think most of the budget work is in paring down the cost of your trip.

Travel during value season - such as next fall (excluding Oct.) for the lowest hotel rates. Staying off-site is usually less expensive than on-site, but there are bargains to be had with on-site resorts. (I personally don't consider $150+ resorts a bargain - no matter how much the rack rate was BEFORE the discount!) Driving is less expensive than flying - unless you can snag really cheap airfare. There are lots of ways to save on meals. Go to www.mousesavers.com for all the latest ways to save.

 

[FrozenPiglet]

Like NancyIL, I don't think we have ever spent $3000 - $4000 on a WDW trip. But then we always have breakfast foods with us, etc. and save lots of money that way.

If you are flying, do you have ways of accumulating frequent flier miles? This doesn't have to be by flying. There are lots of ways to accumulate miles. My DD and I are going on a trip in a week that both airline tickets are from frequent flier miles.

If you have kids, make saving money a game. At the end of every month see which one found the most creative ways to put some money aside. Or, as my sister found with her daughters, they would have change left over from school lunches everyday. Make sure that goes into savings instead of toward a candy bar or soda.

Instead of ordering pizza (like our family has a tendency to do) get some good frozen ones. You can find them on sale and the rising crust ones are pretty good. It does save quite a bit over the regular delivery, plus tip for the person delivering the pizza. Put the saved money in your WDW savings and give the tip to yourself.

Ask family to contribute to the WDW savings instead of giving otherwise useless or unnecessary gifts for birthdays and holidays. Instead of multiple gifts during the holidays maybe cut down on the number of gifts and include some Disney $ or an amount of regular $ put into a savings account for the trip.

 

[mouseluver]

I am going Sept. 8-15 and have been planning/saving since October 2000. My best advice is whenever you get some extra $$$, buy Disney Dollars! Whether it's $3 or $30, every little bit helps. I could never keep loose cash around for a year because I would spend it, but with Disney Dollars, you can't! Over the last 10.5 months I have saved enough in Disney Dollars to pay for all our food and souvenirs.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Actually- $3000 to $4000 is for a 10 day trip to Disney, Universal & Sea World. I think I was planning Pop Century for 5 nights and Hard Rock for 4, but I'm still in a place where changes can be made. We can go for about $2500 and have a wonderful time, as we did in Nov. 1999. Another place I can look to pare down the trip expense is the food dept. Currently I have 3 meals planned per day- a number of charater meals, and perhaps dinner at Ohana's. I think we pretty much only ate twice a day last time and certainly could do it again.

There are some great savings ideas here and I've already cut back on the amount of $ I spend on lunch. Keep posting them!

 

[ceecee]

I suggest a garage sale...they are quite popular where I live and I made $1200.00 this year on basically my daughter's outgrown clothes and toys she no longer played with. All that went into our Disney Fund...

Eat at home more often if you tend to eat out alot.

Encourage your husband to quite smoking if he hasn't........My friend's husband did and I could not believe how much it saved them!!!!!!!!!

Plan your weekly menus around what's already on sale at the grocery.

 

[tonilea]

We quit smoking............savings = $90 per month
I started purchasing my morning 20 oz Diet Coke @ Walmart (in 6 packs) instead of the convience store.....savings = $20 - $25 per month
Eating out less..............savings = $100+ per month
Driving paid off vehicles instead of buying new ones.
Planning our menu around sales at the grocery store.

When I first found this board, prior to our 1st trip to WDW, I showed my husband and we laughed that people go back year after year...... now not only are we planning to go back in 2002 ....... we are going again in 2003! I think I must surely be addicted.....

 

[Humpbacks1962]

A little over a month ago, I posted a suggestion to sell your old books in Amazon.com. I have sold almost $600 in just weeks.

I simply took my old college and school books that were piling up dust, some books on hobbies, etc., and charged the recommended price based on the condition of the book. Some I had to relist, but I made a whole lot more than I would have if I just sold them in a tag sale!

So there's an easy way to make some money.

Wanda

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Okay. I'm tweeking the budget. I realize that I haven't told you that the $3000 to $4000 figures I gave include everything- transportation, park tickets, food and souvenirs. Anyway I broke the $3000 mark, at $2900 for 9 nights/10 days- disney, Universal, Sea World- off-site accomodations (ruins the EE plan, but oh well). We spent $2400 in November 1999 for 7 nights/8 days at ASMo with the Resort Magic Plan (before I found these boards and learned where to cut costs! ). So my budget isn't out of line, it's just over our heads at this particular moment. And, of course I am planning all this with the notion that the trip is paid in full before we go. These prices will be the same whether we go in June or November, but we'd like to make t in time to see the 100 Years of Magic festivities. I could probably borrow the money with a loan, or maybe get a credit card to help ease the strain, but I've got to pay down the store card debt I currently have. Wish us luck! I'll try to keep you posted as to how we're saving up for the big event.

 

[maci]

I like the buying disney dollars idea! Question? Is there any kind of a charge, or do you just go trade your real money for disney money?
I work at the mall, so this would be an easy way for me to save! Since we only have 63 days I need to do something quick!
Thanks for the idea!

 

[eller]

Check out the Rewards Board. If you have about 20 minutes a day you can earn points that can be turned into $$$ or Disney Dollars depending on the site.

Don't forget to buy a Disney Club card, and use your American Express; both will get you discounts and if you use American Express you can sign up for rewards and get more Disney things.

Good luck! The planning can be almost as fun!

Lori

6/1997 Off site, 2/2000 Off site, 2/2001 Poly, 10/2001 POFQ, AKL & Magic

 

[DiznEeyore]

Originally posted by maci
I like the buying disney dollars idea! Question? Is there any kind of a charge, or do you just go trade your real money for disney money?
I work at the mall, so this would be an easy way for me to save! Since we only have 63 days I need to do something quick!
Thanks for the idea!

maci:

You can just go buy 'em, no extra charge! They come in increments of $1, $5 & $10. You can also exchange them back for cash, just be sure to hold onto your receipts (I've heard many Disney Stores are requiring an original receipt).

It's a great way to save for WDW goodies!

 

[tonilea]

Have you considered Priceline for Hotel accomadations? We stayed 8 nights for under $300 using Priceline @ the Wyndam Orlando Resorts. Rack rate was $169. Lowest rate for that particular hotel, that I could find anywhere on the 'net was $99. We paid $35 per night plus a $5 bonus. We were very pleased with the resort. Also, you may be able to get better prices closer to your arrival date.




1st WDW Oct 2000
Nov 2002
Oct 2003

 

[leanne2255]

One of the ways we save is to ask all of our relatives for Disney Dollars for Christmas gifts. We really don't need anything and neither do our children. Last year we got over $700 in Disney dollars and used those to buy our Park Hopper passes. Since we are DVC members, our room is paid for and my DH works for the airlines. So, our only expense is rental car and food. We are doing the Disney Dollars/Christmas thing again this year, and will use that money to pay for the extras on the Disney Cruise that we are planning for next year. inkbounc

 

[206bones]

I havedone QUITE well at saving for our 2002 trip:

All change gets rolled & converted into Disney dollars.
We get 5 cents refund on cans - so all of that goes towards the trip.
I have signed up for Pinecone Research & I get a $5 check just about every month.
Any unexpected refunds are for Disney - like the federal one. I also had another unexpected tax rebate so because I wasn't counting on it, it went to the Disney fund.
Sell items on ebay - males more money than you think!

Good luck.