What do you do to fund your budget for WDW???

[mytwotinks]

I sew and people ask me all of the time if I sew for $$$. I used to say no, but I have started telling people I'd be willing. I have done just a couple of things so far, but I think it could turn into something. I am going to order cards with all of my info on it so when people ask I can look a little more profesional. I signed up for an Etsy acct. , but I haven't done that yet. I plan to start though. I figure that I will open an acct. with some start up money and then deposit all of my sewing money into it. I can use the debit card to buy materials and that will be an easy way to know if I am actually making enough profit to keep it going.

 

[CrazedDisFan]

This is not really used to pay for the trip per say, but rather offset the cost to us with the kid's souveniers....

We live in Michigan and when you buy pop(soda), beer, or basically any carbonated beverage in a 2 liter, can, or bottle, you pay .10¢ deposit per can. When you return the cans or bottle to the store you get that .10¢ back.

We allow our kids to do the nasty job of feeding all the empties back in the return machines. In return, they get the money and exchange it with us for Disney dollars.

At the end of several months of returning they usually have about $50.00 each. My dh puts all the empties in the shed until it is within months of returning to Disney, so the kids are eager to do the chore and 'earn' their spending money.

 

[crazelion]

I do this with my computer skills. You would be amaze how many people pay me take virus off the computers and set-up there computers. Sometimes I have so many people that I have put them on hold. I have 30 calls last week aone just fix people computers but had turn it down because I am sick. Those 30 calls have turn into 100 so I so far back it's shame. Another lady ask to hook up her HDTV to DVD play.

Just need to get well so I can get caught up.

I just wanted to add another idea that may work for some.

If you have a skill or talent that you can teach, market it. I teach French to grade-school children. But there are a lot of skills that I find many parents would love for the kids to be able to learn because they never did. Sewing, knitting, light carpentry and woodworking, word processing and EXCEL. Some school districts even offer adult continuing education classes (non-credit) that non-traditional teachers lead (if you're not interested in teaching children).

 

[PinkTink63]

Change can- I throw dollar bills in there too. I pick things up at Costco for my brother, because he hates to go there and I go all the time. When he pays me back, I often add that to my can. He also lives in my neighborhood and is a single dad and doesn't cook much, so he and his son end up at my house quite often at dinner time! LOL! He knows that I have the can, so he sometimes puts money in my can. It adds up!

Tax return goes into our vacation savings account. That is the biggest chunk of our vacation fund.

I do an annual yard sale with a few of the neighbors for the past 4 years now. That has been a great money maker for me! I usually make around $1000. One year I only made $600, but I was still really happy about that! That is a big part of our spending money!

I do Mypoints and I always get $25 Rainforest Cafe Gift Cards with my points. That helps out with the food budget.

We don't really eat out much and when we do, not really expensive places.

 

[camdensmom]

I sell scrapbook pages on ebay and am proud to say that it has paid for our last three trips.

I also sell things we no longer need on ebay and craigslist.

I coupon as a hobby.

I rebate.

I pay only with cash and collect the change.

I watch my receipts and count my change. I have caught over $30.00 worth of errors since 1/1/08.

Like a previous poster said, we can afford to pay oop for a trip, but only will go with extra money we earn. It makes the trip more rewarding and keeps us on our toes!

 

[deide71]

I pick up overtime shifts at work.

I earned an extra $6000 before taxes doing this last year.

 

[douglisa]

We are using our tax return and i have done lots of research on how to save $$ @ Disney. I posted some of the things I have found on a couple of my questions I asked.
Lisa

 

[mannasn]

Great thread!

Any "found" money we have goes to our fund (whatever we're saving for at the moment, not necessarily Disney) - surveys, rebates, mystery shopping, etc.

I've been doing MyPoints and Coke Rewards too, but haven't cashed out yet. All I do is the e-mail 5 point clicks, so it takes me forever to build up any points.

 

[mshrm]

I do alot of what the others do... change jar, weekly savings and cutting back. We stop eating out and that covers the weekly donation.

Also I sell blood plasma. If you have a center near you this can be a great way to save without hurting your budget. I get $240 a month for doing this and they put it directly onto a debit card (issued by them). When I go on vacation I usually have quite a chunk on the card.

 

[myAAbatteries&aTD]

Our last few trips have been paid for w/ my ebay selling. I don't do that as much anymore, but need to get started for our upcoming trip. The extra money is nice....

We have Disney change banks (both full right now so we're looking for another one). Since we're less than 6 months away, I've started adding bills, too. Hoping for at least $300-$400 this time.....

Disney reward dollars - we use our cc alot and pay it off every month so no interest accrues. Should have $500 here (haven't cashed them in since June 2006).

We'll have a garage sale or 2 before June and will put that aside for the trip...

Craiglist if I can be disciplined enough to save it for Disney....

 

[Grendalynn]

...I pay only with cash and collect the change.


....Like a previous poster said, we can afford to pay oop for a trip, but only will go with extra money we earn. It makes the trip more rewarding and keeps us on our toes!

I have recently started paying more with cash than a debit card or checks like i have in the past. We recently had our Checking Account info stolen and counterfeit checks were created. Whoever this was bounced two $1800 checks against us. I was always very good about checking our online banking before, but now I am more aware than ever!! The less money that is in and then out of our account, the better!! We can pay out of pocket as well, no charging for us! Its doable by cutting out frivilous things and less fun money. But come April, its waaay worth every pinched penny!

We are using our tax return and i have done lots of research on how to save $$ @ Disney.

We use this money to fall back on our pay for airfare. Also to pay off any extra or big bills that we have received over the year.

Great Thread!!

 

[extremesoccermom]

Usually we have a vacation fund and just use that but this year we got hit hard in January. I did really well staying on budget for Chirstmas this year until we decided to buy a new HDTV. We have been wanting one for a few years now and we "had" enough money in the bank but we bought it at Sears with 0% intrest for 12 months. However, when we got the bill it did not show it that way. So we just went ahead and paid it off. Then our house payment went up $100 due to being reassesed this year. Our fuel and food bills went up all the way around. Finally, we had purchased 25 DVC points back in Aug but paper work got lost and it didn't go through until January. (This was already budgeted so we pulled that money out of savings). Then a week last DH's truck engine went out. A new one was $3000 w/o labor. There went the rest of our money.
This year I am going to have to get creative. We need to use our points or rent them out. So we decided to bring my parents with us in Oct for the Food and Wine Festival. My mom and I did this a couple of years ago and LOVED it.
There are a few of the extras that we really want to do so I looked up the prices from last year and added 10% more to that. DD and I have tickets left from our last visit so we wont need those. Just one for DH and if DS18 decides to come he will need one. I have been checking all the discounts sites and determining which ticket I really want to get.
We will need airfare and in the past I have always done well with SWA and Ding.
We would love to try MNSSHP and dinner at Liberty Tree.
To pay for this trip we will use Disney Reward Dollars (181), Discover cash back (60), Mypoints Landry giftcards (150), Cash from all the different survey sites (200), change jar (50 right now) and finally DH and I allow ourselves a certain amount of "blow" money each pay period. What we don't spend in that time frame will now go into an envelope for the trip. We also budget our money based on 2 pay periods a month. When ever we get that extra 3rd paycheck (one will be in Feb and the other in Aug) that money will all go towards the trip assuming we don't have any other surprises along the way.

 

[Deffenm]

We have a change jar, I do survey's on pinecone, any rebates I get, and we have money directly deposited in savings account. We don't have a trip planned until 2009 so I have more time to save this time then I have had in the past. We are also going to have the kids ask for Disney Dollars for their Birthday, holidays, etc..

We are working on getting out of debt this year (except for the house) so next year I will have more money to throw towards our vacation fund.

We also have a community garage sale every May. So I will have 2 of these before our trip in 2009.

 

[HayGan]

Rewards : Mypoints and coke rewards is paying for July 4th trip to Orlando. I save my tip money when pouring beer that goes into my vacation fund to.

WOW! That is really impressive! How do you earn so much on those? I have earned a bunch on MyPoints over the years but I had no idea you could earn so much on MyCoke Rewards! Any secrets you care to share

In order to save extra money, I do rewards (although haven't had much time to do so lately), change jar, garage sales, summer trip to flea market, craigslist, couponing, rebates, etc. I think that saving money has become my number one hobby behind Disney

 

[Traveliz]

WOW! That is really impressive! How do you earn so much on those? I have earned a bunch on MyPoints over the years but I had no idea you could earn so much on MyCoke Rewards! Any secrets you care to share

In order to save extra money, I do rewards (although haven't had much time to do so lately), change jar, garage sales, summer trip to flea market, craigslist, couponing, rebates, etc. I think that saving money has become my nuber one hobby behind Disney

I wondered the same thing -- I do pretty good on Coke Rewards but don't see how a trip could be financed that way. For myself I was able to get the Simon Visa and turn that into Disney Gift cards to use while at Disney, also got the AMC movie tickets and popcorn coupons from mycokerewards to use while there. Possible to get a one day car rental, but past that would love to hear more ideas on making Coke rewards more profitable re Disney trips.

Liz

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I sew for $$--mainly window treatments and some upholstering but I'll do other things (hems, alterations) for friends only. I do no advertising as I'm getting business through word-of-mouth (it's been 10 years!) I take as much business as I want to depending on the month and what's going on with the family. Usually that income goes toward the horticulture classes I'm taking. I'll only have two courses this spring semester (which will be paid for by the two chairs next in line for re-upholstering) so the rest of the income will go toward our August trip.

I've recently joined HotCouponWorld and have started couponing seriously. Last week I saved 93% on our groceries! And nothing was junk food but fresh veggies, fresh meat, oatmeal, cereal, cleaners, and other things like deoderant and toothpaste I can't wait to see how much I save during this year!

 

[caa1277]

I guess I should have said some of the things DW and I do when I posted this, but it's better late than never!

We save change, although neither one of us ever spends much cash thanks to debit cards. We have about $85 in change so far.

I am currently doing MyPoints to earn rewards.

Wife has her own business of cleaning houses and sometimes she takes extras and we set that money aside.

I am going to start selling stuff ebay to hopefully make some extra money from that.

We will probably have a yard sale come sprin/summer time.

There are some great ideas from everyone! If we keep going, we'll all be able to go when we want and it will all be paid for and not hit our budgets hard!

 

[ZPT1022]

I do this with my computer skills. You would be amaze how many people pay me take virus off the computers and set-up there computers. Sometimes I have so many people that I have put them on hold. I have 30 calls last week aone just fix people computers but had turn it down because I am sick. Those 30 calls have turn into 100 so I so far back it's shame. Another lady ask to hook up her HDTV to DVD play.

Just need to get well so I can get caught up.

how did you get the word out about this?? DH would be awesome at something like this, he has all sorts of computer certifications and he is really good with electronics but it seems that aside from being the one everyone in the family calls to fix their stuff, he's not really doing anything with it. While we don't mind helping family (within reason) and he is certainly the hit of his grandmother's retirement community, it would be nice to think that he could make a little bit of money off of this

 

[tae1218]

I have a certain amount transfered to an ING account every week for our Disney trips. It makes it really easy to save for our vacations.

 

[kellijo]

I'm planning on taking a long-term substitute teaching job (Feb-April) to pay for our trip in May '08. When those middle-schoolers and early mornings start to get me down, I'll just think of our upcoming trip (and of course spent some time here at the DIS boards) and I'll feel better instantly. It will be a GREAT motivation!

In the Fort Worth ISD? My husband and I are also teacher and we live in the Fort Worth area so I was just wondering!

I do mypoints, surveys, pinecone & machine embroidery on various items. We currently have $600 on our Discover cash back that we will also use. I need to imput some more reviews on Sharedreviews and get the courage up to do some Expo reviews.