SandraC
03-19-2002, 10:12 PM
Hi! I love these boards soooo much! Thanks to all who have ENHANCED my WDW experience!
I have a different take on the budget thing. First, gotta say I AM CHEAP! I save extra straws and cutley from fast food take out, I buy lots from second hand shops and I am a HUGE recycler.
Here's what I did for April 2002 trip: I planned my vacation without looking at the bottom line. I wanted to stay at CSR, rent a van, fly from Toronto to Orlando, have a few character meals, get 7DHP and lots of spending money. So now it was up to me to get all this for as cheap as I could! That's how I budget.
1) RESORT: Last year we booked CBR without a code, didn't know about codes at the time, so paid rack rate OUCH! When we got home last April I found www.mousesavers.com and saw there was a CODE for Moderates at $99. Knowing that Value resorts rack rate is about $99 ~ I made this year's budget $99 per night. I wanted to stay on site, so that meant ALL STAR rack rate or if a code came up this year, we could do a moderate WDW resort, we really wanted to stay at CSR this year. Well, I got it! $94.00 per night instead of rack rate. SAVINGS: $660.
2) AIRFARE: Driving is not an option we wanted this year (in a couple years we will drive). So we (2 adults, 2 kids dd 8 and ds 2) are flying. I paid attention to seat sales and jumped on a great deal 100 days before our April 2002 trip! SAVINGS: $500 approx.
3) CAR: We can use WDW transportation, but we don't want to, we have rented SUV's or mini-vans the last couple of WDW trips. I watched www.mousesavers.com and got a mini-van at Dollar with a code for $199 per week! We are staying 10 nights at CSR, so SAVINGS: $100 (at least)
4) TICKETS: We bought the 7 DHP Canadian deal, it expires May 2002, but we want to use all 7 park days and 4 options, we are there 10 nights and it's a PURE WDW trip, so use-em-up! SAVINGS: $560 + $40 (bought before price goes up) TOTAL SAVINGS: $600.
5) CHARACTERS MEALS: We got invited to one by friends for free, one character meal came free with our tickets ~ we booked 7 characters meals total SAVINGS: $100 We plan lots of quiet picnics, eating breakky in room lots and use food courts and counter services.
6) SPENDING MONEY: I switched my bank acct to a more restrictive yet better interest acct. I make an extra $250 annually in interest. I worked extra workshops to save $350 TOTAL SAVINGS: $600 (That's my total extra spending cash bubget)
GRAND TOTAL SAVED: $2550.00 for this trip! So I planned a dreamy vacation that suits my family right now for about 25% off the rack rate cost. Next trip we plan on driving and staying at 2 WDW resorts, one will be a deluxe.
I have a different take on the budget thing. First, gotta say I AM CHEAP! I save extra straws and cutley from fast food take out, I buy lots from second hand shops and I am a HUGE recycler.
Here's what I did for April 2002 trip: I planned my vacation without looking at the bottom line. I wanted to stay at CSR, rent a van, fly from Toronto to Orlando, have a few character meals, get 7DHP and lots of spending money. So now it was up to me to get all this for as cheap as I could! That's how I budget.
1) RESORT: Last year we booked CBR without a code, didn't know about codes at the time, so paid rack rate OUCH! When we got home last April I found www.mousesavers.com and saw there was a CODE for Moderates at $99. Knowing that Value resorts rack rate is about $99 ~ I made this year's budget $99 per night. I wanted to stay on site, so that meant ALL STAR rack rate or if a code came up this year, we could do a moderate WDW resort, we really wanted to stay at CSR this year. Well, I got it! $94.00 per night instead of rack rate. SAVINGS: $660.
2) AIRFARE: Driving is not an option we wanted this year (in a couple years we will drive). So we (2 adults, 2 kids dd 8 and ds 2) are flying. I paid attention to seat sales and jumped on a great deal 100 days before our April 2002 trip! SAVINGS: $500 approx.
3) CAR: We can use WDW transportation, but we don't want to, we have rented SUV's or mini-vans the last couple of WDW trips. I watched www.mousesavers.com and got a mini-van at Dollar with a code for $199 per week! We are staying 10 nights at CSR, so SAVINGS: $100 (at least)
4) TICKETS: We bought the 7 DHP Canadian deal, it expires May 2002, but we want to use all 7 park days and 4 options, we are there 10 nights and it's a PURE WDW trip, so use-em-up! SAVINGS: $560 + $40 (bought before price goes up) TOTAL SAVINGS: $600.
5) CHARACTERS MEALS: We got invited to one by friends for free, one character meal came free with our tickets ~ we booked 7 characters meals total SAVINGS: $100 We plan lots of quiet picnics, eating breakky in room lots and use food courts and counter services.
6) SPENDING MONEY: I switched my bank acct to a more restrictive yet better interest acct. I make an extra $250 annually in interest. I worked extra workshops to save $350 TOTAL SAVINGS: $600 (That's my total extra spending cash bubget)
GRAND TOTAL SAVED: $2550.00 for this trip! So I planned a dreamy vacation that suits my family right now for about 25% off the rack rate cost. Next trip we plan on driving and staying at 2 WDW resorts, one will be a deluxe.