What are your creative ways to save for disney?

[arwood82]

We are currently saving for a vacation to Disney with our 2 children. They will be ages 1 and 2 when we travel. We are planning on doing this vacation all cash with nothing on credit cards. I was just curious about different ways people save for Disney. We have a change jar that we save change in and we round up in our checkbook and transfer the change over to savings. I am hoping I get lots of great ideas on here to put into practice.

 

[deslynnpatterson]

I take 10 dollars out of my bank account each week and put the cash in a envelope for my spending cash at Disney. I also sale things on Craigslist and put that in savings for Disney and have savings set up to put 20 dollars a week towards my trip. I save all year so once my trip comes up I'm set with my funds. I also keep my eyes open year round for Disney clothes too and buy a little at a time

 

[dissybroad]

Search one of the "no buy" threads here on the boards. All kind of creative ways to save for that magic vacation.

 

[cglaura]

Well I'm not sure if it is considered creative, but not many people that I know (personally) do it. The receipt you get after shopping...on the bottom where it says "You saved $xx.xx today." because of super card, loyalty card, coupons etc. I transfer that money to my savings when I get home. That really adds up.

Any unexpected money I get goes into the fund...rebates, birthday money (yes, I'm 42 and my mom and mil - who is actually my ex husbands mom! still send me something in a card...they are too sweet for words).

 

[mommycrawford]

Leave DH home to watch the dog!

 

[dhardawa]

When we got back from our last trip, I was really wanting to go back. I started selling off everything I had sitting around. I got rid of two car seats, three extra car seat covers, outgrown clothes, the baby monitor we hadn't used for a year, the CARES harness my son had outgrown, etc. For big items, I did Criagslist and for small items, I did Ebay or some of the clothing boards. All the money I received for those items, I moved to my savings account. In four weeks, that account now has $728 (yeah, I had a ton of junk I needed to get rid of).

 

[tweedlemom]

$20 cash each Thursday goes into a vacation box. In a year we have over $1000! We aren't doing WDW this year, so that money will go to our 3-day trip to Boston and our Six Flags season passes. Anything leftover will cover a weekend at Hershey Park!

 

[SunnieRN]

Leave DH home to watch the dog!

 

[jennyf2]

When we got back from our last trip, I was really wanting to go back. I started selling off everything I had sitting around. I got rid of two car seats, three extra car seat covers, outgrown clothes, the baby monitor we hadn't used for a year, the CARES harness my son had outgrown, etc. For big items, I did Criagslist and for small items, I did Ebay or some of the clothing boards. All the money I received for those items, I moved to my savings account. In four weeks, that account now has $728 (yeah, I had a ton of junk I needed to get rid of).

WOW---great job I think its time to finish going thru my stuff.....

 

[tigger51276]

My supermarket now sells disney gift cards so when I go food shopping, depending on how high my bill is and how much I've been able to save by getting things on sale or using coupons, I throw in a $25 or $50 gift card...let's just say in 2 months I've wracked up $350 in giftcards! Just another $150 and I'll have enough money to feed me and my 2 year old at Disney in August (i budget $50 a day).

 

[peytonsmama]

We just paid cash for our Disney Vacation. We stockpile our groceries by strategically using coupons. I spend $130 a month to feed my family of 3 and saved $4000 from my family budget in 2010 by stockpiling. This is a GREAT way to save!

I am getting ready to do a post on how I did it

 

[tigger51276]

Also, for xmas every year my mom buys me and my girls our airfare to Disney (or if it's expensive that year she will pick up the bulk of it). It's better than getting gift cards to random places and tons of stuff my girls will only play with a short time. She used to go hog wild on buying xmas gifts and most of it never even got used or opened. Plus I own DVC so my room is taken care of and I rent out any points I don't need to help pay for food and spending.

 

[Captain Hindsight]

I told my DW to stop shopping at Costco... We throw away half as much food now!

 

[arwood82]

These are some great ideas. I am definitely going to start trying most of them. We should have our vacation paid for in no time if we start using these ideas. Keep them coming guys.

 

[tlh0726]

Disney Visa card - anything and everything that we can charge to the card we do and then pay it off in full each month. Utilities, cable, phones, groceries, gas, etc. You have to pay them anyhow, why not get something for doing so.

For DH and my birthday's and anniversary we put the money we would have spent on each other into the fund.

Save our change.

 

[kato0627]

Melissa-
Curious to read your post on feeding a family of 3 for 130.00. I must spend that plus in a week, to feed a family of 5

 

[DawnM]

That used to be us, but now we have 3 growing boys and I rarely ever throw away food anymore.....I am also shopping smarter though....I have a list and get mostly the same things every time.

I find we save $$ by shopping at Costco.

Dawn

I told my DW to stop shopping at Costco... We throw away half as much food now!

 

[DawnM]

We have an ING account for vacations that I set aside $100-$150 per month in. We also use DH's bonus for vacation.

Dawn