How do you feed your need for Disney?

[loislane]

In other words, how do you put it all together to pay for a trip to the World?

I would love to be among the group that says "Let's go to Disney," books a trip, pays for it right then and goes. But, it just isn't so. In order to go to Disney, we have to plan ahead.

For us, this will be our second trip and just like the first time, we booked it a year out. Paid the deposit and now we pay weekly on the trip through our TA to pay off the balance. We've found that you quickly adjust to paying out that weekly amount and it doesn't hurt the budget too much.

We booked during value season - sure, it's gonna be stinkin' hot, but that's what AC is for! We also booked during free dining. Value resort (POP) with the QS plan - perfect for us!

For this trip, since it's the whole family and we wanted the whole family to be involved, we put out a Disney jar that we encourage the kids to contribute to.

This is our "mad money" for the trip for souvenirs, TS meals, etc.

To fill the jar, we toss in loose change, put in the money from returning bottles and cans, etc. Little stuff like that adds up fast! Today, I added $12 to the jar just from taking back bottles and emptying out my loose change!

Curious what others do to be able to afford a trip to the most magical place on Earth?

 

[pigletto]

Cute jar!
We had one similar for our first trip that ended up being all of our dining plan tips and spending money
Usually we put a largeish payment on the trip with our tax return. We don't use all of it though. The rest comes, like yourself, from small weekly amounts put into the trip savings fund. I like to challange myself by saying "yes you could buy this or that.. or you could put that in the trip money." More often than not I choose the trip.
I love having it all paid for ahead of time. It makes the after trip blues a little more tolerable that we don't owe when we come back.

 

[DawnM]

I have just opened up an ING account for Disney. This will be for next year at this point.

We did Give A Day and will use those towards our tickets.

I have a Disney CC and use rewards points for Disney.

We do Disney as cheap as possible so we can go more often.

Dawn

 

[NYUBwayBaby]

I have a Big Ben piggy bank with Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael, John, and Tinker Bell on it that I got in London (obviously not, with the Disney version of the characters). I use that to put change in for my next trip.
I'm also looking at opening an ING account for a "vacation fund" soon.

 

[RachaelA]

We usually book a year or more out just because I like to plan. Our trip this December we booked on a whim a few days ago. We've never done that before so it was weird.

I have a piggy bank where I put all our spare change in for tolls if we drive down and spending money. We also have a Disney credit card and we use our rewards dollars for tips/spending money.

We have general savings/tax refunds we use for Disney.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

ING. Every 2 weeks hubby gets paid. Every 2 weeks I transfer $$ to our trip fund (done automatically).

Aside from that, I use the Disney Visa for disney reward dollars (and pay balance in full) and I shop through SR for disney gift certificates. When my last minute shopper of a SIL asks what the kids want for Christmas after their entire list is bought & wrapped, I tell her Disney Gift Cards.

I also have a disney popcorn bucket for spare change. And I am having a garage sale next weekend.

Decided to do a last minute trip this fall, and so far I have:

$2900.00 in ING vacation fund
$185.00 in gift cards
$408.00 (so far) disney reward $$
Popcorn bucket & garage sale ???????


We are renting a WH condo $672.00 for the week (already paid for)
MNSSHP tickets $300.00+ (already paid for)
Park tickets $1123.00 for 4 day passes thru UT w/ mousesavers disc.
$45 parking at the parks
Gas for the drive down $300-$400.00
The kids will use the gift cards for souveniers & we will use the reward dollars for food in the parks.

Any extra vacation fund money will go toward our next trip

Mind you we only do Disney every 2 - 3 years, with cheaper vacations in between.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We book a year in advance too and make payments all year. We also have a Disney Visa that we use for rewards $$ and pay in full each month. Our next vacation will be a little different because we're staying offsite in a condo. We've been setting $$ aside hoping that Darden Restuarants and a few of the others will offer some incentive for buying gift cards around Christmas. We're also going to buy a few gas cards here and there (we drive down) and some Disney gift cards too.

 

[carebee21]

We have a seperate vacation account. When direct deposit hits, I transfer money into the seperate account. Aside from that, we have a disney visa so get points from that and I'm doing susnshine rewards to earn a disney gift card. I have a change bag that I put all of our change into and then we dump it into coin star (yeah, I know they have the fee but it's what works best for us) and that's my son's spending money. I'm also going to try to craigslist a ton of clothes and toys and I'll probably add that to our fund. But I need to do that regardless of whether we're going on a vacation or not, because I just really need to declutter!!!

 

[kahblue]

In addition to these things, my friend has her teens put in a dollar every time the fight - LOL!!!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

I used to use the income tax money to pay, but found I needed to use it for other things. Now I make installments each pay. I also keep extra money and change in a bank at my desk. I used to keep it at home, but found out dh was breaking into it.

Another thing I do to save money at the parks is to buy as much as possible ahead on sale-- stuff we'll need for the trips. Also I like to buy souveneers ahead. That way we save money and I don't have to lug all that stuff home from Disney. We do buy some stuff there, but not as much since we already have cool stuff waiting to give to the fam.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I booked our december trip a year ago with the bounceback rate for the room

I won 8 rapid reward credits in a southwest contest for dh so that added to what he had gave us his free ticket for the trip.

I am thinking of getting him a ap (not for the water parks, just the regular one) and then a tiw card for the food discount.

Our next trip will be in May 2011. I am toying with the idea of asking the college ds if they want to join us, that would be with the free dining promotion. If not dh and I will go our regular May week. We will probably use his frequent flyer miles to cut a big chunk off that bill.

Having cancer and having dh treat me like the princess equals two disney trips a year

 

[loislane]

Love everyone's tips and tricks for making Disney possible!

I'm also glad we're not the only ones who have to get creative to afford our trips.

We've already decided that after we're doing paying for this trip, we're going to just keep on paying the money into the vacation account at the credit union so we have a head start on the next trip.

 

[amylynne01]

For our trip in January, the money for the trip is NOT coming from our paychecks. It's all extra money. The ways I'm earning include:

Returning bottles and cans
Saving change
Online surveys
Click to earn sites
Swagbucks
Rebates
Selling on eBay/CL/half.com
Yardsale
Interest on our checking acct and money market funds
Any money leftover at the end of the week (DH and I each get $20 weekly allowance for whatever. The leftovers go to Disney.)
Any unexpected money (we just closed an account with a local credit union, so we put the $36 that was hanging out there towards our trip. Didn't even notice it was gone.)

I estimate our trip will cost about $3500 with flights, renting DVC points, tickets, food, stroller rental, and souvies. I have been saving since 1/1 and have just over $2500 with a bit more to deposit. We might be a little short of completely paying for it with free money, so we'll supplement.

 

[mrsklamc]

For our trip in January, the money for the trip is NOT coming from our paychecks. It's all extra money. The ways I'm earning include:

Returning bottles and cans
Saving change
Online surveys
Click to earn sites
Swagbucks
Rebates
Selling on eBay/CL/half.com
Yardsale
Interest on our checking acct and money market funds
Any money leftover at the end of the week (DH and I each get $20 weekly allowance for whatever. The leftovers go to Disney.)
Any unexpected money (we just closed an account with a local credit union, so we put the $36 that was hanging out there towards our trip. Didn't even notice it was gone.)

I estimate our trip will cost about $3500 with flights, renting DVC points, tickets, food, stroller rental, and souvies. I have been saving since 1/1 and have just over $2500 with a bit more to deposit. We might be a little short of completely paying for it with free money, so we'll supplement.

Don't forget to look for unclaimed funds! http://www.unclaimed.org/

 

[gillenkl]

ING account

Disney visa rewards - I put everything on it and pay off every month

swagbucks and ebay - I use that to buy disney GC

mypoints - reading daily emails - use that for T-Rex/Rainforest GC

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

We go as cheaply as possible (like most of us, I'm sure!). We camp at Disney and eat our own food, except for the occasional snack at the parks. We'll even jump off property to buzz to the nearest 7-11 for a Slurpee if we want a treat on the way back from a park.

To actually pay for tix and the campsite, that falls into the save, save, save department. We go maybe every three years, but sometimes it's longer between visits.

 

[amylynne01]

Don't forget to look for unclaimed funds! http://www.unclaimed.org/

Thanks!

 

[HS3kids]

Alas, we are not independently wealthy, so we too have to save.

Big chunk of our tax return started things off, then I direct deposited into savings every week, plus any and all overtime $, plus we sold our wood screenhouse for extra money as well.

We do not go often (last trip to the World was 6 yrs ago) but now that we are going back (in 16 days!!!) I might try to save for another trip in 2 yrs...

I do think next time will be a less expensive trip though, might try and go during a free dining promotion next time- we missed this one, our week is one of the black out weeks.

 

[Marionnette]

We go about once a year. Maybe a little less frequently. More like every fourteen months. So we dont buy annual passes. Manage to do it the same way that others have mentioned. We save change. We use our disney visas for everything. And we go during the value seasons so that we get the room for less. I try to work our dates around the codes and airfare specials. Then we use husbands reward points from his coporate card to pay for the flights. I buy nonexpiring ten day passes so that we can use them for several vacations. Right now were sitting on two partially used passes for the kids and two unused passes for whoever needs them.

 

[dyna]

When DD was younger an went to disney with us her Christmas an birthday gifts often was money for going to disney she'd still get a little something but not much. We went just about every year excet for the 2 yrs she was sick. Trip was always paid in full before we went. Sometimes we had annual passes an could squeeze in 2 trips.

Then DD grew up along with her much older sisters an did somethings that did not allow her to travel with us anymore an DH an I got annual passes an went disney 5 or 6 times a year for a couple yrs.

Now DH is retiring in a few weeks and guess what we moving there...