How do you save for your Disney trip?

[acf_1991]

I just booked free dining for September and it's already completely paid for!

I did the Southwest Airlines Visa offer for two free flights after first use of the card and was able to pay for the 9/11 fee and Early Bird Check In with funds from my change jar. There's still more change left and I'll keep adding to it until we go.

I have enough gift cards from my Disney Visa and rewards programs to pay for the package reservation for a week at a moderate resort with 2-day base tickets and an upgrade to a king room and deluxe dining. I have leftover tickets from a previous trip if we want to visit the parks for more than 2 days.

I put aside every rebate check and extra money in my ING savings account so that I don't accidentally use the money for something else. This will be for tips and spending money.
Now, I just have to either put money aside for parking at the airport or a shuttle. I'm pretty sure that it won't be a problem to do it before our trip.

That's great! Every so often I think we will take out the money from our piggy banks and put the money into an ING account.

Last year for our honeymoon my hubby and I each had a piggy bank and we would put spare change, the occasional bill and sometimes, when we could swing it or had extra cash (like selling items we didn't expect!) we would stuff a $50 in. We ended up with $350 combined, with just 6 months of saving. Not bad.
We're doing the same this year for our anniversary trip. All spare change goes in the piggy banks. I love doing laundry now!
We also collect redeemable recyclable items and will be cashing them in a little closer to our trip.
This one sounds crazy but we sell fish. Aquarium fish. I breed African cichlids and as soon as we started planning this trip, I started putting any money earned from selling the fish into the piggy banks as well. (I'm getting some new rare fish soon, hope they breed for me!)
We are real Canadians who love our Tim Horton's coffee. It was a tough one, but we've cut coffee out and make it at home to save our change! We also haven't been to a movie theatre in a few months, rarely go out to eat and try to bring lunches to work every day.

Now, that's how we save, but we spend thrifty too.

Going during value season, staying at a value resort, hoping we get the free meal plan!! Also we're using our airmiles to pay for the flight and a Universal ticket. And no souvenirs this year. Well, very few. We went... er... WAY overboard last year! I have more mugs than cupboards...

Souvenirs are my greatest weakness too and I'm absolutely dreading figuring out a budget for each one of us. I live in SOCAL and although I live right by Disneyland (about 15 mins away) and I've had annual passes, I try to stay away from buying so many souvenirs. Souvenirs here are much more expensive because tax is almost 10% I'm right there with you, we are a family of 7 staying at ASMo resort hoping to get free dining.
You breed fish? Wow! Hey do what you gotta do. Anything for WDW right?
What sort of things do you recycle? Sometimes I'm unsure if the stuff I'm recycling is even worth some money. But as long as it helps the environment right?

I dont think anyone really answered your questions, so answers!!!

Online surveys are surveys you do online and get paid for. I've never had a super ton of luck since I tend to forget to do things like this.

ING is actually its own bank, you cant get an ING acount through a diffrent bank. They tend to offer much higher interest rates then typical banks. You can read more about them at https://home.ingdirect.com/products/products.asp?s=OrangeSavingsAccount

I managed to figure the online surveys out and so far no such luck with $. Thank you for the info on the ING account. Now I'm going to go ahead and look for a bank that offers it. Thanks a alot!

Also, I know Chase offers the Disney Rewards credit card, but I also noticed they have a Chase Disney Rewards debit card. I've tried figuring out how I do it online but I haven't found a way to sign up? Anyone know how? If not I'll just talk to the local branch.

 

[Marionnette]

Also, I know Chase offers the Disney Rewards credit card, but I also noticed they have a Chase Disney Rewards debit card. I've tried figuring out how I do it online but I haven't found a way to sign up? Anyone know how? If not I'll just talk to the local branch.

Chase is discontinuing the debit card. No new accounts can be opened and the last day to earn points with existing accounts is some time this summer. The Visa credit card isn't too bad. There's no annual fee but the rewards are 1% for all purchases (even Disney stuff!). Most co-branded credit cards offer extra rewards points when you make purchases at the partner's store. You might want to check your own bank to see if they have some sort of rewards program associated with their debit cards.

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

The very first Disney trip that I took and paid for myself (I was 21), I was a bartender and waitress. It's really, really hard to save money when you're mostly all cash in hand. But I made myself a system. ALL coin change from bar shifts went directly into the savings(that REALLY added up, sometimes as much as 20-30 a night). And I just had a table for how much I made/how much to contribute. Like if I made $50, $5 would go direct to the kitty. Also I seldom got much of a paycheck to speak of (when you make 2.13 an hour, it mostly goes to taxes), so if I got a check, that all went to savings too. Plus any birthday money or anything like that. It all really added up and I paid for my first vacation in under 6 months.