What do you sacrifice for Disney?

[DawnM]

I'm curious as to what your opinion is on doing Disney frugally? Would love to hear!

Several things we have done in the past:

Off site condos for $250/week, including all taxes and fees.
Eat a lot of our own food, even taking food into the parks.
Driving down, flying for 5 and renting a car would be terribly expensive.
Going when DH has his convention in Orlando so they pay for the gas and some food!
Go with the homeschool group for cheaper tickets (not as great of a deal now as it used to be)
Go to the Disney outlet stores for Souvenirs.
(but my kids didn't really get many Disney souvenirs, they preferred spending their $$ at the Lego store at DTD)

When we were really frugal, we used to budget $150/mo for eating out. I would bank my eating out budget for a couple of months so that we could eat out more while at Disney and not go over our regular eating out budget. We also used any Disney Visa rewards for food or souvenirs.

Last year we opted for Universal passes. We had purchased a $142 three day pass from Costco. We used one day per year while on Disney trips. The last day we used them, I went to the ticket booth and asked if we could apply the purchase price to APs. They said, "Sure, but that is the AP price, so here are APs for no additional cost, other than an additional $100 for one of you to get parking."

So, we went down three times on those "free" passes to Universal.

 

[kymom99]

No necessarily just for WDW, but for travel in general. Also to pay for my son to go to private school. I just choose not to have new furniture every so many years. The couch I am sitting on was bought 17 years ago. I don't by designer bags, shoes, or clothes. We don't go out to sit down restaurants very often and if we do it is usually with a gift card. My house is old and has lots of things that could be better but it is in a very nice neighborhood, so I feel like we are very lucky that way. Our mortgage is very low.

In exchange for that, I don't feel guilty going on day trips and short trips with friends. I like to be on the go and things just aren't that important to me.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I don't think I sacrifice anything to go to WDW but I also don't go as often as others. We go to other places in the off years though.

I still like my iPhone, my cable, my manicure and pedicure and the hair salon. I buy my kids expensive shoes. They last longer and it makes them happy. It's my biggest splurge I would say. I won't give up everything that makes my life comfortable during the year for one week of vacation. Makes no sense to ME.

Now where I feel I save is:

I get 22% off employee discount for my cell phone.

Instead of going to the nail salon every two weeks I stretch it to 3 weeks but I MUST get my eyebrows waxed every two weeks. I'm a hairy Latina. Nuff said.

My Honda Accord is 10 years old and still going strong. I won't get a new car until it dies or the AC goes. No way am I living without AC.

We only eat out once a week. Great for the budget and my waist line.

We go out with friends/family often but a lot of it is budget stuff or hanging at someone's house which is BYOB. (We did Karaoke last week with a groupon. It came out to $6 a person. We each had one drink at $8 each.)

I try not to go out JUST to drink because that adds up fast. I'd rather drink at home anyway. Less risk with driving. I truly can't afford a DUI!

One of the RN's I work with has a DD a year old than mine. I get all of her hand me downs and DD loves them.

We go the movies but I buy discounted tickets through my job. If I can't get the tickets through work we go to a matinee.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Another one is I pack for my lunch everyday. I make my lunches for the week on Sunday. Plus snacks. I do stop in the cafeteria for my oatmeal and two hard boiled eggs when I get to work. It's $1.50 a day. That's my splurge.

 

[kydisneyfans]

No sacrifices here either.
We get 26 paychecks a year, our budget is based on 12 months, so we have 2 "extra" pays a year. We also do not budget bonuses or OT.
Credit card rewards to the max, charge everything on the best points card, then pay it off as soon as the charge is made.
DVC was bought resale during the downturn, that keeps costs low.
Fly SW if fares are cheap-drive if they are not. Last year we drove 6 hours to Atlanta to get $49 flights instead of paying upward of $200 in Louisville.
Coupons-sales-Kroger rewards/Meijer Mperks. If a store isn't giving me something back in return, I'm likely not shopping there.
Build Plenti points through Rite Aid, use them at Macy's to hit the clearance racks. My wife pulled over $1,000 in clothing for exactly nothing out of pocket, including a brand new winter coat. There was 4 bags full.
Hit the outlets for running gear-Nike/Adidas/Under Armour all run great clearances.
No alcohol/smoking/gambling-water only at restaurants. If someone wants a soda, we can stop at Speedway and get it for .89 when we leave the restaurant instead of paying $3+tip.

Next steps are to kill the cel phone contract when it expires in February-we are also moving to a cableless area next year and will likely go direct tv.

 

[Kim&Chris]

To make Disney more affordable, we:

1. Charge everything to our Disney visa, then pay if off immediately. This includes car insurance, co-pays, etc. The points generally pay for all, or most, of our dinners and adult beverages while in WDW.
2. I don't buy Coach bags or any other high-end clothing or accessories. I don't have a job that requires me to dress-up, so that helps a lot.
3. My husband could not care less about high-end shoes or clothing, so I can get away with buying his stuff at Target or Kohls.
4. Big savings - we don't smoke.
5. We eat out once a week, but it's always places like Bertucci's or Olive Garden. You can normally find coupons for both
6. We drive cars that are considered older (2006 + 2007). They're well maintained, so our expenses are not out of hand.
7. I'm very careful about money. Before I buy something that's not a necessity, I always think twice. Do I NEED it, or do I just LIKE it?
8. We have just basic cable. We used to have all the channels, but it was a huge waste of money. How many times do I need to see the same movie from 2004?

Lots of other ways, too. It helps make the trips to Disney anxiety-free

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

They easily spent about 10k on this bathroom...no telling what the kitchen will cost...but she balks at us going to Disney every year.

Reminds me so much of my aunt. I love her dearly but she always has to renovate to give her house that "in" look, yet she thinks we're crazy for going to Disney every year! When I think of the Disney trip my husband and I could take for 10k (Hellooooooo Disneyland Paris!!) I can't imagine using that money on my bathroom instead!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Buy presents throughout the year. I'm very generous but only because I get good deals.

This is something my mom and grandma always did when I was growing up and something I was astounded to learn when I got older most people don't do! I love shopping throughout the year because I can get the best deals and not have to shell out hundreds all at once in November!

I am getting some good tips from you guys! I like what a lot of you have said- it's not so much a sacrifice as much as a smart way to live in general, and being able to go to Disney is a perk of that lifestyle!

 

[DawnM]

No sacrifices here either.
We get 26 paychecks a year, our budget is based on 12 months, so we have 2 "extra" pays a year. We also do not budget bonuses or OT.

Next steps are to kill the cel phone contract when it expires in February-we are also moving to a cableless area next year and will likely go direct tv.

DH gets a bonus every Fall. It isn't huge, but it is enough to cover our frugal Disney trip typically.

 

[Marionnette]

Reminds me so much of my aunt. I love her dearly but she always has to renovate to give her house that "in" look, yet she thinks we're crazy for going to Disney every year! When I think of the Disney trip my husband and I could take for 10k (Hellooooooo Disneyland Paris!!) I can't imagine using that money on my bathroom instead!

Your aunt's priorities are different than yours. I can totally see spending $10K on a bathroom renovation if it made me happy. I use that room every single day! Disney is a week or less for me. If it were an "either/or" choice, I'd choose the bathroom renovation. But that doesn't mean that I don't understand that you have set Disney as your priority. I just think that given the way we Disney fans get judged by others who don't share our passion, we should not measure other people's choices by our personal standards.

 

[Shanan]

We try to live below our means and not just for a vacation. Best thing we ever did was the Dave Ramsey study at our church. An example - Do I need to eat out or want to cause I didn't plan ahead?
I have a kitchen garden and we eat out of it. I also go through closets & sell on Facebook swap shop items. That money goes directly into Disney savings account. We opened a savings account at a different bank than where our checking account is.
When we go on vacation, we are also frugal. Had to go to an out of town wedding 2 weeks ago. Due to DH job, had 2 nights stay at Hampton Inn- no cost. At WDW we pack snacks (cereal bars, nuts, gum etc) in our luggage.
DH hopes to retire in 10 years so at this point in our life we are working on paying off house mortgage.
Everyone has different lifestyles & different priorities. What someone thinks as DH & I missing out on due to frugal living, others see as wasting money to go back to WDW for another vacation.

 

[TeamH5]

Us too! We just celebrated 21 years of marriage and we weren't given hand-me-downs from our parents b/c neither of them really had much. So, we bought new furniture but not expensive stuff at all and since those things have held up fine (even with 4 kids!), we still have all those first pieces of furniture, glasses, dishes, etc. We have had to buy some pieces as we added to our family and moved to larger homes but we still have never spent much on furniture or kitchen things. My Corelle dishes were cheap and I still love them. We have never broken one but if we do, it's not a big deal at all.

I have realized that we live in an age where decorating/renovating your house a certain way is trendy and all over the TV and internet. My neighbor just spent a ton of money having a powder bath done to where it looks like it would make the cover of a magazine. Now she is moving to the kitchen. Says she doesn't care if this trendy look changes in a year or two...but she will...b/c she feels like her house has to have the popular look. They easily spent about 10k on this bathroom...no telling what the kitchen will cost...but she balks at us going to Disney every year. I guess her spending is an investment into her home and therefore she could get some of that money back if she sold. But I'd still rather put that money towards creating amazing memories with my family, be it at Disney or somewhere else.

I like to decorate my house too, but I balk every time I get a quote for someone to paint! LOL I do it all myself. And I'm not going for the 'trend' look either. I just go for what I like at the time, but my color preference changes every couple of years. I'm a huge DIYer, so most, if not ALL, upgrades we do to our house we do ourselves, and buy everything either at discount warehouses or on sale at least.. $10K for a powder room! Yikes.

But, on my savings plan for Disney... We will use a Credit card to pay initially, and then I will use our tax return to pay off the credit card. I plan to do this every other year from now until my kids graduate. On our past 2 trips, we used our tax return for one, and the DCL cruise we took we paid for from extra $$ my husband made while deployed..
We don't have a LOT of debt (mortgage, 1 car payment and the credit card gets paid off every month right now), but we could still use the tax return on smarter things. I'm the spender, my husband is the saver. He contributes to his IRA, retirement plan, etc.. and has a heart attack every time I start to plan for a Disney trip. I would rather save my money for these trips, so I don't contribute as much to my retirement as I should. But, the way I see it, I'd rather make these memories with my kids now, rather than try to do it when their older and have moved out.. We're a dual military family, so we spend a LOT of time apart in different capacities. To me, this is our 'together' time, bonding time, and time to make those good memories for our children, hopefully ones that overpower the memories of being apart..

 

[disny_luvr]

I budget for Disney and deposit money into a Capital One 360 account every time I get paid, which is every other week. I also take about 1/2 of our tax refund and use it towards our Disney trips. I also play a little game with myself when I go to the grocery store each week. If I stay under budget, I purchase a $25 g/c that I tuck away for an upcoming trip. Like others, we do have a coin jar that we throw our coins in and we count and roll it before our Disney trips and use that money for something "fun" we normally wouldn't do. Another trick I read about on here was to stash away $1 bills. I did that for over a year and had a little over $200 that I used for tips. We found that doing these thing between trips helps us to save money without really sacrificing.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Your aunt's priorities are different than yours. I can totally see spending $10K on a bathroom renovation if it made me happy. I use that room every single day! Disney is a week or less for me. If it were an "either/or" choice, I'd choose the bathroom renovation. But that doesn't mean that I don't understand that you have set Disney as your priority. I just think that given the way we Disney fans get judged by others who don't share our passion, we should not measure other people's choices by our personal standards.

Very true!

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

It costs a lot for us to take a disney vacation, which is why we do not all the time, we love it for sure, but in between we take cheaper vacations. A beach vacation costs thousands less for us, same with touring a city. We also are a very out doors minded family and enjoy camping and cabins with boating and hiking as our activities.

We don't waste money, I am a budgeter by nature. I cook a lot. I'm not into shopping the day away and we have friends over instead of a 100 dollar tab somewhere. Honestly, just not wasting money does wonders!

I am saving for our next disney trip which we will combine with universal and then the beach. It's a big expense, but we will be paying cash. I know others are ok with charging and paying later, we are not. I don't like to owe anyone!

 

[kathy884]

Hey we all have different priorities and a budget is a great way to differentiate what those are for your family. Vacation monies are part of my regular budget, so it never feels like I'm sacrificing anything for vacation. Some people would spend more on vacation than we do and less on other things. Some people would spend more on other things than we do and less on vacation. Saving/Investing and charitable giving fit in this budget mix too, of course. My vacation budget usually includes one big main trip and two mini trips a year. And the fun part is picking what sounds like it will give us the most joy and be the most uplifting for us with that budget. For many here that sounds like a big all out Disney trip or a more modest Disney trip. For us going to the mountains in the summer is usually number one and our main trip of the year (It's heaven on earth for me and DH, and DS as a photographer enjoys coming with us too - so many great places to explore). A budget mini trip that includes one or two Disney theme park days usually makes it too, as it's just so much fun to do a theme park day with DS. DH gets no joy out of Disney and skips this. For 2017 DS and I are doing LA/Disneyland for the first time (a day and a half for Walk of Fame, Wax Museum, Warner brother's studio basic tour, views from Griffith Observatory, and hitting the Santa Monica pier, a day for Disneyland, and a day for California Adventure). And recently, for the other mini trip we've regularly after an annual trip to the east coast to see my mother-in-law have done two night mini stays in Manhattan and usually see one Broadway show. From being on their mailing list, I was able to score regularly priced tickets (second balcony, but it's a small theatre, so seats will still be great) to see Hamilton this upcoming year. Our New York time this time will be hanging out in Central Park - we love spending time there, seeing Hamilton, and for DS -- getting him a ticket to see Wicked too (not worth it for me and DH to see it again - saw the traveling show, but DS would love to see it on Broadway and has no problem at all going by himself -- This is his all time favorite musical).

As much as I love the Disney parks though, I don't want to do more than two park days a year, even though the multi park tickets are less expensive per day. I think their hotels are too expensive and stay offsite. To me the Disney Magic of staying onsite is just good marketing. My onsite stays have just been for conferences when DH's company was paying (free Disney Deluxe at the Contemporary -- Tower view rooms are my favorite, but I'd never pay for that with my own dollars). I think their table service is too expensive and don't do that either. I think their extra tours, parties, character meals, etc. are too expensive too. I skip all this stuff, but at home get tickets to see favorite artists in concerts (typically three concerts a year for DS and one friend), see traveling musicals that come to town (any that anyone in the family wants to see -- usually about three a year), and usually go to one show on Broadway every year when visiting relatives on the east coast. Plus DH and I get season tickets to our Rep theatre (six shows -- a great date night for me and DH). // The Mouse's theme parks though usually make the cut every year for two theme park days. DS and I do adore their parks -- find them quite magical and just have a blast there.

 

[comicguy]

We buy a 50 dollar Disney gift card every week when we go grocery shopping. For us it is not about sacrificing but rather prioritizing/budgeting.

 

[Baklava]

This year, quite a bit. We chose to sink our tax return into a DVC purchase because it works well for us long term. We're not taking random weekend jaunts and we're not attending a 4 day event we usually do... but we're spending 5 nights at the Grand Californian and that's worth it to us.

Between our Disney habit and my daughter's skating, our mad money is mostly spoken for. We don't regret that.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We don't have cable and our unlimited cell phone plan is $80 a month for two phones. We don't drink alcohol at all or smoke. I dye my own hair and do my own manicures/pedicures. I buy almost every thing we use online (toilet paper, paper towels, dog food). We have no debt other than our mortgages (we have 3; 2 rental properties and our own house). We drive old Priuses we bought used and I never go clothes shopping (or shopping in general) unless I really need something. I do spend $300-$400 on a new purse every 4-5 years, but I sell the old one on eBay (I only have one purse at a time). I hate having "stuff". Our splurges are multiple vacations a year (usually one week at Disney, one week somewhere new, and one week somewhere else we've been before or visiting friends) and going out to eat. We budget a huge chunk of our pay checks towards that. We both work really hard and long hours/days so our meals out (and our vacations) are a time for us to reconnect instead of one of us doing the grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. We don't like to have a budget on vacation, but if the value isn't there I don't care how fat our vacation account is [i.e. we'll rent points or get a discount code to stay at a resort for $250 a night or under, but I have a hard time justifying any of the Disney resorts for more than that]. But our first priority is retiring early (50-55) and comfortably, so we save/invest the most towards that goal.

ETA: We don't go to the movies or concerts, but I don't consider that a sacrifice for us as I'm not into those things anyways. My husband has one of those fire sticks and he watches whatever movies he wants to his heart's content.

 

[buddyjo143]

I joke with people but it really is no joke that we don't smoke, drink, or use drugs We also don't buy each other presents or even cards anymore. Two birthdays, Christmas, anniversary, and Valentine's Day cards and gifts could really add up so we save our money for travel and making memories.