Can you please help me save money?

[Tiger926]

(/QUOTE) Fuel - way too high! We live a few hours from you, and it just cost us $625.00 for all fuel (driving to WDW, back home, in Disney), plus 2 hotels (1 on way down $125/night and way home $100.00). I think you can totally do it for cheaper than this. We have a minvan, and so gas was less than $400.00

Please keep in mind that currently the gas in the states is creeping close to $4.00 a gallon now(at least where I am). Not sure if you reference to pricing was from a recent visit to Disney. It has gone up 11 cents in one night. They are predicting over $4 by Memorial Day. I would rather see overbudgeting for gas then not budgeting enough.[/QUOTE]

Yup, I said we just went to WDW last month.

Remember, our gas in Canada is more than your gas in the US. We actually saved money last month on our drive down, while in WDW, and back home, as our gas is more.

It cost us less than $400.00 (can't remember the exact amount), and we came home with an almost full tank. That is with driving around WDW for 1 week as well, as drive down and back home. So, depending upon what vehicle OP drives, and the fact that she lives a few hours farther than me, her gas will be a bit more, but it shouldn't be hundreds of dollars more.

Tiger

 

[mrspopeye]

My dh called and talked to someone at the Yes program and they said our tickets are valid for 7 days before the program date until 7 days after the program date (unless Dh misunderstood). My dd wants to go to the Ocean Discoveries which is Oct 17, but we don't arrrive until Oct 15 and that would mean we have to use all our tickets by October 24th.....does that sound right? I know I've read more than once on here that the tickets are valid the entire length of your stay. I just asked dh to call them back to clarify.

I am not sure. We are only staying in the area for 8 days total. You may want to post that question on the big thread about the YES program that is under the Budget Board, or do call back for clarification.

 

[jm-mom]

I think 3 weeks is a long time to be on vacation anywhere so I think at some points during the trip0 you are going to just want down time to hang out at the resort. You might find you spend a great deal less on food just by wanting to eat at "home".

You also have to ask yourself what kind of trip do you want. Personally I would just save longer to afford eating in the parks rather than have to contend with making lunches and snacks to drag with me. I might do that at a water park but not the theme parks. The sights and smells of the food and snacks are hard to resist and somehow a bologna sandwich isn't the same thing. You also have some young kids and they could share meals.

I think you have a lot of opportunity to save food money and still be able to eat in the parks just for that convenience. On non-park days I suggest you look into free activities in the area. Going to the beach is a great time to pack the picnic lunch so that whole day should cost very little and you might want to do that day trip more than once. There also coupon booklets you can get in Orlando that nwill save you money on non-Disney fun things to do.

Just remember, you won't have as much fun if you are tracking every penny. It's ok to have some "padding" in the budget and have a great time. It sounds like an awesome 3 weeks.

 

[lovemy4sweeties]

Did notthink to ask before, but I just want to clarify- are your totals in American dollars or Canadian dollars?

I'm just coming back to this (to reread all of the great info everyone has given) and I just realized I didn't answer this question. We're calculating it in Canadian Funds, but we have already exchanged most of our money to USD.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Do you collect airmiles? You can use them for the tickets.

We fly from Winnipeg (family of 4) stayed for 10-12 nights at a moderate and have never spent more than $4,000. Your budget boggles my mind.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

We just returned from WDW. We also had 7 people - DH and I and our kids ages 17, 12, 11 and 9, plus an extra 17-yo. We're DVC members, so we had a villa with a full kitchen. Here's what we did and the approximate cost:

1) Costco - ready-to-bake type meals - manicotti, chicken alfredo, caesar salad plus precooked chicken, pot stickers, spring rolls, cereal, milk, muffins (2 packs of 6 each), freezer pops, mixed pre-cut fruit, 2 cases of bottled water, case of Diet Dr Pepper, case of beer and box of wine, box of crackers, crab dip, chips, queso, peanut butter filled pretzels, energy bars, fruit salad in their refrigerated section (that wasn't very good, actually) and bread from the bakery (like "artisan" type bread) to go with the meals... I think that's everything we got. And cost was about $300 for 9 nights/10 days.

2) Panera Bread - 36 bagels and 5 tubs of cream cheese. Cost about $40 - had $20 in GC from My Points = about $20 out of pocket.

We did maybe ONE meal "out" per day and all the other meals in the villa. We even had stuff left over at the end of our 10-day stay.

Off-site, we went to Giordano's (had a Groupon GC but restaurant.com also has GCs) and Smokey Bones (always coupons if you sign up for their e-mail list or "like" them on Facebook). I also found other off-site places we might like to eat at and signed up for their e-mail lists for coupons. We had some coupons for Sweet Tomatoes but never made it there.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

My dh called and talked to someone at the Yes program and they said our tickets are valid for 7 days before the program date until 7 days after the program date (unless Dh misunderstood). My dd wants to go to the Ocean Discoveries which is Oct 17, but we don't arrrive until Oct 15 and that would mean we have to use all our tickets by October 24th.....does that sound right? I know I've read more than once on here that the tickets are valid the entire length of your stay. I just asked dh to call them back to clarify.

Don't know if anyone answered this for you yet or if you already got your answer. When you sign up for the YES class, you will put in your ARRIVAL date and your DEPARTURE date. Tickets will be good for 7 days BEFORE your ARRIVAL date and 7 days AFTER your DEPARTURE date. For instance, we just got back and did the YES program. Our arrival date was 06/05 and our departure date was 06/14. Our tickets were good from 05/28 to 06/21.

 

[lovemy4sweeties]

Do you collect airmiles? You can use them for the tickets.

We fly from Winnipeg (family of 4) stayed for 10-12 nights at a moderate and have never spent more than $4,000. Your budget boggles my mind.

Yes we collect Airmiles, but we just cash them in every once and a while for grocery gift cards. We just did this recently. I definitely think we overbudgeted for food. I'm going to try to find time tomorrow to rewrite our updated budget. Our family size is almost twice as big as yours and we're planning to stay twice as long. I think if you're paying $4000 for 10-12 nights, than approx double that isn't too mind boggling LOL. Although, with the help of fellow Disers on this thread, I think I can get it a lot closer to the $6000 we originally wanted to spend. Thanks for the Airmiles tip. Maybe we can save up enough for our next trip .

 

[lovemy4sweeties]

Don't know if anyone answered this for you yet or if you already got your answer. When you sign up for the YES class, you will put in your ARRIVAL date and your DEPARTURE date. Tickets will be good for 7 days BEFORE your ARRIVAL date and 7 days AFTER your DEPARTURE date. For instance, we just got back and did the YES program. Our arrival date was 06/05 and our departure date was 06/14. Our tickets were good from 05/28 to 06/21.

I did hear about this, but I still wasn't 100% sure. When dh called, they didn't seem to know as much about the program as the people on this thread LOL. I had to keep asking dh to call back and clarify because of what people on this thread said as opposed to the person he spoke to on the phone through the YES program. After further questioning and asking to speak to a supervisor, we found out that the info from this thread was more accurate. The first person dh spoke with said the YES person is only for groups and not for individuals. Dh had to call back and explain that there are specific individual enrollment dates.....there were a few times something similar happened. Thanks for clarifying how long our tickets are good for. I really wasn't sure, because we couldn't seem to get a straight answer over the phone LOL.

 

[lovemy4sweeties]

We just returned from WDW. We also had 7 people - DH and I and our kids ages 17, 12, 11 and 9, plus an extra 17-yo. We're DVC members, so we had a villa with a full kitchen. Here's what we did and the approximate cost:

1) Costco - ready-to-bake type meals - manicotti, chicken alfredo, caesar salad plus precooked chicken, pot stickers, spring rolls, cereal, milk, muffins (2 packs of 6 each), freezer pops, mixed pre-cut fruit, 2 cases of bottled water, case of Diet Dr Pepper, case of beer and box of wine, box of crackers, crab dip, chips, queso, peanut butter filled pretzels, energy bars, fruit salad in their refrigerated section (that wasn't very good, actually) and bread from the bakery (like "artisan" type bread) to go with the meals... I think that's everything we got. And cost was about $300 for 9 nights/10 days.

2) Panera Bread - 36 bagels and 5 tubs of cream cheese. Cost about $40 - had $20 in GC from My Points = about $20 out of pocket.

We did maybe ONE meal "out" per day and all the other meals in the villa. We even had stuff left over at the end of our 10-day stay.

Off-site, we went to Giordano's (had a Groupon GC but restaurant.com also has GCs) and Smokey Bones (always coupons if you sign up for their e-mail list or "like" them on Facebook). I also found other off-site places we might like to eat at and signed up for their e-mail lists for coupons. We had some coupons for Sweet Tomatoes but never made it there.

I bought a Groupon for Giordano's. I'm excited to use it . Thanks for the meal suggestions! I'm going to write those down in my planning book.

 

[lovemy4sweeties]

Park $1,200 (YES program--8 days + Hopper + Waterparks)
Condo $1,850 ($1500 plus tax/cleaning fee/bbq rental)
Fuel $500
Hotels on the way (depends where we stay) $250
Pirate Cruise $150
Food (including a few character meals) $1,500
Spending money/Misc/shopping $500

Total: $5950

Thank you so much for all your help ! This will give us a bit of breathing room. The food may be a little more or a little less, but if I deduct our regular food budget for the month (as pp mentioned), then we should be able to stay well under the $1500. I'm also not including fuel used while we're in Orlando, because we would be using fuel at home as well. We might add MNSSHP. It's very expensive for us, but I keep hearing how great it is and I think we should go at least once to see what it's like. It might be a while before we are back this time of year. I'm interested in seeing how close we are once our trip is over. At least now we're under our budget by $50 and I feel so much better !

 

[CdnCarrie]

Yes we collect Airmiles, but we just cash them in every once and a while for grocery gift cards. We just did this recently. I definitely think we overbudgeted for food. I'm going to try to find time tomorrow to rewrite our updated budget. Our family size is almost twice as big as yours and we're planning to stay twice as long. I think if you're paying $4000 for 10-12 nights, than approx double that isn't too mind boggling LOL. Although, with the help of fellow Disers on this thread, I think I can get it a lot closer to the $6000 we originally wanted to spend. Thanks for the Airmiles tip. Maybe we can save up enough for our next trip .

Ah yes the grocery card gift cards are not an option in Manitoba.

I do agree that you have overestimated the grocery budget and maybe gas too. Hope you can get it down to a reasonable budget for your family. Insane how much it all adds up to!

 

[Diegosmom]

For coupons another place to look is ebay...most of the times it is for a lot of like 10 coupons or sometimes you can get an entire insert but with your large family and long stay I would assume you would be buying a lot lol...Some things that I see coupons for that I assume you would be buying for the kids...gogurts (often $1 off), fruit snacks, sandwich meats, condiments (but you could always bring these from home), cereal, begels, crackers, granola bars...etc. I would also check out the local grocery stores (I am really not sure what is down there) and figure out which one is cheaper (ie usually most areas have a more expensive store we have harris teeter). Alot of the coupon sites (I belong to www.couponwithcents.com but there are tons) will post the ads for the store up to a week before the ad starts. So before you leave canada you can sit down and make your list. Also I suggest you leave hubby and the kids at the condo/house and go by yourself or you will have a ton more in your cart...

Also if you have room in the car you can bring things like cases of soda (buy when you see them on sale).

I would plan to get up early, eat a big breakfast, hit park for ropedrop, bring some snacks, head back to house early afternoon, eat lunch there, relax a bit head back to park and have late dinner back at condo (or pick up a pizza on way back). On off days I would prepare meals for park days (like making salads or crock pot meals).

Other idea is to take a cooler (and either leave in car or put in a locker) and have lunch in the park from your cooler.

 

[StitchBuddy]

I didn't read all the post, but why do you need the pool heated?? I wouldn't think you would need that during Oct. Also, I am surprised you are paying a cleaning fee if you are staying that long. The food budget seems way to much, but I don't have 7 in my family. I do have a thought though about how to save on a future trip. We always get the Non-expiration 10 day park hopper with water parks and more. We use it for 2-3 trips That way you get 10 days of parks and 10 days of water parks. We love it!!

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

Honestly I would cut out that 3rd week. I think 2 weeks is more then enough time in FL.

 

[hsmamato2]

eliminate the cruise- are you buying 10 day tix for a 3 week visit? that will be fine,as you can find lots of free and cheap things to do with the kids... plan on eating a big breakfast in the house- pack a sandwich and juicebox for everyone for lunch and stow in a small soft lunchbox under the stroller- either budget to buy one snack or pack that also- either eat dinner after you leave the park at night or eat counter service,but avoid the kids meals as they're overpriced,and if you got a larger meal your kids could split it for less,you probably don't need 20.00 worth of soda for every meal,so avoid those 'deals' and just buy the food you will need- you can buy burgers/fries/etc singly too...we always shared a large drink for 4 of us,and sometimes split the meals too- plan your grocery money for your vacation- you can even bring a crockpot for an easy meal at night after a long day....oh- it might be to your advantage to buy one annual pass instead of the 10 day pass,then you get free parking

 

[edk35]

Here are my thoughts:

** I don't think it matters if funds are in CDN or USD, since our Canadian dollar is higher at the moment**

Fuel - way too high! We live a few hours from you, and it just cost us $625.00 for all fuel (driving to WDW, back home, in Disney), plus 2 hotels (1 on way down $125/night and way home $100.00). I think you can totally do it for cheaper than this. We have a minvan, and so gas was less than $400.00, and we came home with an almost full tank.

Hotels - are you needing a hotel on the way down, and way back? $500.00 is high, but I'm assuming with that many people, you need to book 2 rooms?

Other - what is included in this really high amount?

Activities - how can the beach and mini golf cost $500.00? The beach is free, and you can find discounts for mini golf.

Tickets - I agree to buy one Annual Pass, and you'll get free parking, discounts on mini golf, shopping and some restaurants.

Condo - seems high to me as well.

I just think some of your totals are really high, and some areas can be cut down, IMHO.

Some good tips on this thread, Tiger

HI!!! I was reading this thread and wondering if I would see you reply to this!!

 

[Tiger926]

HI!!! I was reading this thread and wondering if I would see you reply to this!!

Hi!

Wonder how the OP made out? Tiger