Dollars for Disney Bucket

[Mommy23Princesses]

Hi everyone! So my DD's and I are creating our Dollars for Disney bucket tomorrow, which will also include change , to help us save money for soviners and other extras for our upcoming 2012 trip, dates to be announced soon. So in the spirit of saving for our magical trips, I was wondering what little cool ways of saving you or your family has?

 

[diamondpixienc]

We are doing the same thing for our upcoming trip too. The kids love finding loose change. I mean we can be walking along and they will spot a penny and their like "look mom Disney money" DH and I are also putting singles and all loose change into the "Disney Bank" too. So keep it up it will certainly add up. We manage to collect a little over $200 bucks one year for extra WDW goodies. So here's to happy saving and a magical trip.

 

[albertamommyof4]

make up a weekly/monthly budget and then put any left over money in the disney bank. also you could sell your emptie bottles( not sure if they accept them where you live)

 

[klmall]

We always have a money "container" in the house and in it I put change found from sidewalks etc. It amazes me that people will ignore pennies and other change on the ground today! I also put in change saved from using coupons (when I remember to that is!) on purchases. If I get any rebates back from purchases or unexpected checks in the container they go!

 

[Shanan]

I use HSA reimbursement toward WDW vacation. It helps a great deal.

 

[pannm]

We do the same thing here. We call it our Vacation jar. (we change off- Disney one year, different vaca. the next year, then back to Disney the following and so on...) ALL of my change goes into the jar. When it gets full, we bring it into the bank and add it to our 'vacation savings account'. Also, 100% of my survey money goes into the vacation account. I do online surveys and get checks once or twice a month from a few different places. ALL of our rebate checks go into that account as well.

Between that account and our Disney Rewards dollars, we have a nice chunk every time we go to Disney. It really does help out a lot!

 

[1Grumpy9]

I had a bank that I used for my spare change for Vegas in March. Once I came back from there, I started throwing in change for Disney in October. I had to switch containers because the bank started falling apart (was a paper type). I now have a coffee can that I am collecting lose change.

I am also taking money and moving it over every pay to a seperate account marked specifically for Disney. It is usually between $50.00 to $100.00 a pay. Right now I have enough to get to Disney, but if I continue this saving plan I should have enough to go and not be on a strict budget.

 

[tweedlemom]

$20 every Thursday goes in a special vacation box. 1 year later we have over $1000!

We're starting on our third year of this system and it works great! Last year it paid for souvies, extras and airport parking for our WDW trip. This year, it's paying for our 3 day Boston trip and our Six Flags passes!

 

[ShesAPirate]

All of my change goes into WDW popcorn buckets. I never use my change, so it adds up. I have about $200 in coins in there right now.

I also buy scratch-off lottery tickets every once in a while. I know it's silly, but I enjoy scratching them and the prospect of winning big Anyway, when I cash them in, that money goes into the popcorn buckets, too. My total so far is about $260, but I have some more to cash in. I know what you're thinking -- I should just put the money I spend on the tickets straight into the Disney fund... but then I wouldn't have the fun of scratching them off. And I was buying them way before I thought of the idea of putting any winnings into the buckets.

Finally, any Visa or Amex gift cards I receive are saved for Disney (just watch the expiration dates or fees they might tack on for not using them in a certain period of time).

Still 3+ months until my trip. Hoping to save a lot more change by then... and maybe hit a giant lottery jackpot

 

[cglaura]

In addition to some things already mentioned above, I put the savings that I get at a store into my savings account. You know on the bottom of your receipt where it says "You saved $xx.xx today." ... when I get home I go online and transfer that into savings. It really adds up!

 

[GreenBee]

What a great idea! I wish I would have thought about this earlier. Never too late to start I guess.

 

[tadamom]

We do the Disney vacation jar too. All of our extra change goes into that. My kids are the same way about finding money "money for Disney". I'm also going to start doing what another poster said about the money saved when using coupons & such...put that money directly in the savings jar.

We also have several huge yard sales before our trip. With it being 3 families for us we always make a huge chunk of money. One year we made enough to pay for our Grand Villa Saratoga Springs. It was $3000 and we made every cent at yard sales & even had money left over to put towards our tickets.

 

[figment3258]

We do the same thing I bought years ago this giant pepsi change bottle and recently we painted it so we could not see inside of it and we put all our change and extra bills when we can. I counted it before we painted it and there was 100$+ in it so I can only imagine what will be in it when we go next November. The girls have even decided to put their allowences in it for the next year. Every little bit helps.

 

[disneydad78]

We have the samething. We use a old pickel jar, the large one. Our first trip 5 yrs ago. We got extra park maps, cut the pics out , so we have soarin,test track, TT, etc. glued all over the jar. I then made a "gauge" onside of the jar, starting with blue, then yellow,orange and red for top. Which blue means cold we need more up to red meaning we are doing good. Kids love it, they look out for pennies all the time.

 

[diamondpixienc]

I love the idea of taking the "you saved" amount that is on the receipt and moving it to the Disney stash. I am going to start doing that beginning w/ our next grocery store run.

 

[dixie lolly]

We do the same thing. We have a gallon jug and the top has a hole for the money and my daughter decorated it. My daughters boyfriend hates change so every time he comes over he puts it in the jug. We are going to WDW in may of 2012 so i cant wait to see how much we get before then.