How do you save money for your disney trip.

[Vickie46]

I am looking for lots of ways to save money. Even if it's a few dollars here or there. I do shopkucks which I am up to a 25 giftcard and swagbucks I am almost to 5.00. If you need info on these just message me.

I really want to hear others advice. I am thinking of ebay. Ore fen craigslist

What other sites or apps could I save for disney?

 

[Marionnette]

I am looking for lots of ways to save money. Even if it's a few dollars here or there. I do shopkucks which I am up to a 25 giftcard and swagbucks I am almost to 5.00. If you need info on these just message me.

I really want to hear others advice. I am thinking of ebay. Ore fen craigslist

What other sites or apps could I save for disney?

Your thread title is "How Do You Save Money for your Disney Trip", but it really sounds like you are asking about how people earn money for their trips. They are two very different things. Some people save money for their trips by reducing spending and they will have lots of advice for you on that, too.

However, if you're looking for ways to earn money, rewards programs like SB, SK and PerkTV are great ways that don't involve much effort. There are other websites where you can earn GCs that can be used at Disney or can be use to offset your expenses at home so that the cash you would normally spend can be diverted to your Disney savings. I like MyPoints, Recyclebank, Bing's search, ibotta, SavingStar and some rewards credit cards.

eBay and Craigslist are great if you have the time and the items that can be sold for enough money to make it worth the effort. Some people scour secondhand shops and yard sales for bargains that they resell on eBay. Children's consignment shops are another option if you are willing to pay a commission in order for someone else to do the selling.

Oh, and by the way, suggesting that people PM you for info about rewards programs probably isn't a good idea. It looks like you're soliciting referrals, which isn't allowed on the disboards. You should be able to post anything you like about a program without any problems as long as you don't post referral links. So feel free to discuss both Swagbucks (there's a huge thread about it here) and Shopkick (there are smaller threads about it floating around) openly.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Same way as any other trip - just a lot more of it

 

[worm761]

I do Swagbucks for Paypal and immediately put that in my savings account. I have an online savings that takes a few days to hit my checking account so I am not tempted to spend it.

I do Perk for Target gift cards that you can buy Disney gift cards with. I combine them all into one that I named Disney so I won't spend it on other stuff.

I put any amount in my checking account left over for the month into my savings account. Sometimes it is $100. Sometimes it is $1. Either way, it won't get spent in my savings.

I am currently doing tasks on MTurk for some extra padding to my Christmas account. And after I have all that paid off I will add that money to my Disney account.

I also do some transcription for a friend but she doesn't have any right now. That paid for my Disney trip over the summer though.

 

[ellochka]

We have a vacation savings account, and automatic transfer from my main checking every two weeks on the payday.

We earn money - well, I earn money - by getting a good job and then getting raises and other perks. That's the best bang for my time, and I am pretty good at it. For example, there is imminent merger/layoff/reorg at my job early next summer. I am now devoting some of my spare time on preparing to speak at a couple good industry conferences, so I have something to differentiate myself with with the acquiring company or with a new employer.

 

[tlovesdis]

Besides budgeting money for my trip, I have a piggy bank (well a cupcake bank) that all my change goes in and then right before I leave I take it to coin star and I have a canister that I put all my $1 bills in. Any time I have $1's I throw them in there. I got this tip from my cousin who put $1's and more in a large jug for months and ended up with $1500!!! I am only doing ones and have been doing it for a few months and have almost $150!

 

[jkbaker]

I coupon to save for our trips. I also put change in a piggy bank, it is amazing how quickly the change adds up!

 

[lvillotta1]

I do some private duty nursing on my days off. At least 2 short shifts a week. I am paid every Friday and I make around$180/wk. This job also affords me to max out my Roth IRA yearly.

 

[angierae]

As far as earning extra money, I work full time and I'm taking college classes so I don't have time to earn extra money. (Rather, I choose not to spend what little free time I have earning extra money.)

What I do is when we're planning for a big trip like Disney, we move some money out of our "fun money" budget and put more into our vacation account. For example, we won't be getting season passes to Cedar Point in 2015 or 2016 (which we did in 2014 and 2013) because we'll save the season pass/meal plan money, plus the gas money to drive down there (2.5 hours each way) plus the $10-20 we invariably spend each trip on little things. On average, we spend about $1000 a season going to Cedar Point. Skipping that for two years will pay for about half of the trip I have planned for fall 2016.

 

[kathy884]

It helps, of course, if you have an income that is higher than your living expenses and savings goals like retirement, college fund, car fund, and you already have emergency reserves. If that's the case it's easily justifiable to set aside some money for fun / frivolous things every paycheck like vacation. I put $300 a pay into my vacation fund, and I have a Southwest Visa Card that gives me points for quite a few freebie trips on Southwest each year.

That gives me $7200 and two freebie round tickets to Orlando and two freebie round trip tickets elsewhere each year.

We usually do a one week vacation somewhere in the US or Mexico spending about $5000 to $5500. That's for our family of three. That trip is never Disney. Favorite places are Rocky Mountain National park -- less expensive than the budget by quite a bit, Puerto Vallarta -- right on that budget. We can also do Victoria, British Columbia, Yellowstone, or South Dakota on a budget like that, for example. And that's flying not driving.

After that there is still $2000 - $2500 left over. With that more modest budget DS and I (DH stays home) usually do a little mini trip to Orlando (just a couple of days each year). Our air is always free with Southwest points. If other relatives want to come too, we split a condo and rental car cost and can sometimes do a week offsite with that.

 

[crisi]

.....

We earn money - well, I earn money - by getting a good job and then getting raises and other perks. That's the best bang for my time, and I am pretty good at it. For example, there is imminent merger/layoff/reorg at my job early next summer. I am now devoting some of my spare time on preparing to speak at a couple good industry conferences, so I have something to differentiate myself with with the acquiring company or with a new employer.

Yep, and always learning new things.

Another good way to make money for trips is to not spend it to the point where your money makes money. My dividend payments each year are more than I could make with a second job - that's a lot of bang for my time, since there is no time involved (but a lot of frugal living).

 

[Minnesota!]

We both work full time, at good paying jobs. We designate a portion of each of the checks into a vacation account. However, in my job, we have a huge project I have undertaken - it's a 12 month project - and I am putting in an extra week a month of OT. At time and a half for 40 hours a month - I am paying for our March trip

Also, I get a bonus in Feb, DH gets on in November. And then any tax return we get - half goes into savings, 1/4 goes into vacation, and 1/4 goes to anything else that might need to be paid - a debt, school registration, extended day, car repairs, etc.

I just started Swagbucks...would like to earn at least 1 $25 Visa before we go. It's easy money.

 

[ellochka]

Another good way to make money for trips is to not spend it to the point where your money makes money. My dividend payments each year are more than I could make with a second job - that's a lot of bang for my time, since there is no time involved (but a lot of frugal living).

From my sorry experience - never buy any actively managed mutual funds in taxable accounts. Since we reinvest dividends, the actively managed funds become a tax liability pretty soon. Oh, those short term gains...

 

[MattMo]

How exactly does swagbucks work? Sounds to good to be true

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Shop using Ebates and all my refund checks go into the vacation acct. $465 this year so far. I have been busy Christmas shopping online and I have another $58 with the next quarterly rebated check


When SWA has a sale on point like they do now... 40% bonus points with every point purchase. I buy points to pay for our flights. 40% off a flight is a good savings.

 

[Marionnette]

How exactly does swagbucks work? Sounds to good to be true

There's a long thread about it here:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3222525

Lots of reading but I suggest that you jump to a post by O2H O2H (post # 1015), which outlines a strategy for earning your points.

 

[bluezy]

I buy Disney gift cards any time we have extra money leftover from our budgeted expenses. That usually accumulates a few hundred dollars in gift cards for our trips. We use those to give to our kids to use if they go off on their own in the parks. I don't trust teenagers with charging privileges. I also use them towards our room charges.

We have a "Disney Jar" that we throw loose change and other "spare" money in. We usually manage to accumulate about $1,000 over a 24 month period without much effort. In January I started the savings "plan" of contributing the dollar equivalent of the week number of the year to the jar each week. Not sure how to explain it -- basically, week #1 of the year, I added $1. Week #2, I added $2. Week 3, $3, and so on. I did really well until about week 25 or so, then I got lazy. I still throw higher amounts in every few weeks (in addition to the usual loose change and random $1 bills), but that first 6 months or disciplined "savings" this year has accumulated an extra few hundred dollars (on top of whatever else is in the jar).

I also started using Walmart's Savings Catcher app and as I accumulate $25 in reward dollars, I'll buy a $25 Disney gift card.

And like many others, I use ebates and put those savings directly in our Disney savings account.

ETA: We also have the Disney Visa card. We use it for everything and pay it off every month. We usually accumulate over $700/year in rewards dollars.

 

[lauradis]

We have a budget and put money into a vacation account every month.

But this time around im trying the save my change, cutting out little expenses and then every two weeks, we go and buy disney giftcards, its really eye opening how much little money adds up in a year

so far I have litlle over 1600 in gc in a year on top of our normal vacation funds.

 

[sssgrandma]

We use Walmart Savings Catcher, Checkout 51, Snap, KidzEyes, TeenEyes, and CashOnlySurveys for money for our travel supplies and souvenir money. Any gift cards or Menards rebates I receive, I use and transfer the same amount from my checking account into vacation savings. That way, I convert all my gifts and rebates into Disney savings. The kids have a garage sale of their old stuff each spring and they are allowed to split the money for souvenirs. And, of course, we have the traditional change jar on the kitchen counter.

I have been completing surveys on eRewards and Valued Opinions and using the credit to buy SW points. I got the SW Chase card and put all my bills and usual expenses on the card for points and pay in full each month to avoid any interest charges. So far, I have earned enough SW points to buy our four round trip tickets from STL to MCO.

I also have the Capital One Venture card that I've switched back to since I now have enough airline points. Those points will go toward our Disney package.

 

[DawnM]

We use DH's bonus money for Disney trips. Sometimes that covers it, sometimes it doesn't.

We also have an ING account and put $100/mo in there earmarked Disney.

Our Disney trips run about $1800-$2000 for a family of 5, we don't do Disney extravagantly, we just enjoy the parks.