How do YOU save up for a trip to Disneyland?

[Lynzer Torte]

I'm always looking for fresh ideas on how to save for a trip to DL!

Also, has anyone bought Disney gift cards or Disney Dollars on eBay before to get them below face value?

 

[teatime]

Here is how I do it..........

1. I buy my plane tickets my self, usually scouting for months until I can find a price I want . after my tickets are purchased ( for months ahead I plan my trips months in advance so I can pay on my trip. I went with get away today this time, paying some out of each paycheck. I just got my package paid off for next months trip!

The last time I went I got gift cards for all my meals slowly over time and again did the package thru an agent. I bought my tickets for flights way in advance.
The time before that I bought my motel, flights and park hoppers all from different places. it all depends on how much I save
This trip I went ahead and got gift cards for my dining ( or some of it) tony roma's, rainforest,and for my other meals I saved 50.00 from each paycheck.

 

[Ken2Blitzkrieg]

for 2011 at the moment we been buying dollars with the money i get from doing gigs ..
weve only been home 7weeks and we have surpassed the $800 mark already , plus we need to keep goin as were planning on returning to a 3week schedule and not 2weeks like we have done on our last 2 visits to cali in 2003 and 2009

and doin that stops us from just err wasting it on something ..once its in us currency cant spend it lol

 

[Kayla's Mom]

We do a few things....we save our change. I also do surveys for several companies and use that money towards Disney. I shop through rewards sites that give money back for shopping through them and cash them in for gift cards to Rainforest Cafe. We sometimes have a yard sale or list things on Craigslist or Ebay and that money goes towards Disney too. It's a great incentive for the kids to be willing to give up some of their old toys if they know they will get $$ towards Disney!

 

[taylor3297]

I save all my change and say if I have 5 one dollar bills, I keep two of them and put the other 3 away. Occassionally I will put in a 5 dollar bill. I have been doing this for several months and have $600 dollars. I have hidden the money so others in the family aren't tempted to use it.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I budget by purchasing Disney Gift Cards ~ I'm not much of a saver. I try to purchase a $50 GC each pay day. If a dining voucher will save $ for a character meal (Ariel's Grotto for instance) I'll purchase that a month or 2 out. We'll enjoy Free Dining for our WDW trip in Oct. so I won't have to budget too much for food.

 

[andee2000]

I start planning as far in advance as I can. Last year I only planned about 5 months in adance and spent abou $2,500 on a six night trip that included Disneyland/DCA; Sea World & hanging at the beach. This was for a family of four. San Diego was the biggest expense, so this year I'm aiming for 5 days at DL and some minor excursion to the beach and American Girl and trying to stay under $2,000. I didn't get the ENT rate at the HoJo last year either.

This year:
Taking Amtrak again. It's only an overnight trip for us and it was $373 round trip for all four of us.
Hoping to get the Ent Rate at HoJo.

We also don't do any major dining. We will do Goofy's kitchen again though and add Ariel's Grotto for my daughter. Last year by the end of the night grabbing a bite a McDonald's and heading back to the hotel was fine for us. We also ate light in the morning and just snacked on stuff in the park.

I have an automatic savings acount with ING that pulls a certain amount of money each month from my normal checking account.

I have a change jar going for extras on the trip.

I'm considering getting Mimi's; Disney and American Girl gift cards in advance so I can prepay out as much as possible.

I also pre-bought toys for the kids at the Disney Store when they went on summer clearance. We only ended up with minimal souveneir purchases at the park.

A big expense that I considered separate from the trip was having a photographer do a big family photo on the beach our last day of the trip. I think we'll do that again. We all got up and met at the beach just after sunrise and the photographer met us there. It was a nice way to end the trip. After that we just hung around Manhattan and Redondo beach until we had to head to the train station to get back home.

I was really worried about the train trip but it all worked out for us.

 

[Sherry E]

Those of you who buy the gift cards and store them for later must have read my mind. I was just thinking of doing that earlier today. See, if I try to save $50 cash here and there, or $25 or whatever, I will end up spending it for something else. If I buy a gift card, it can't be used for anything else but Disney, and I could apply it towards food or one of the DLR hotels, or merchandise or whatever. So seeing that other people are doing this makes me think I should start doing it too!

Also, one of my clients has periodically given me several of the (no expiration date) one-day/one-park tickets, which I have then shared with friends to upgrade to Hoppers OR, as I did last year - I took all the unused one-day/one-park tickets I had left over and applied them towards getting a Premium AP (DLR views the unused tickets "as money/currency"), and got the PAP for $191. So now that I have accumulated several of these tickets again, I plan to either use them to renew the AP this year or share them with friends. Either way, it is good to have a stash of them because they come in handy in terms of using them like money at DLR later on.

 

[HeatherAnn23]

Check out the Budget Board here! I save TONS of money with freebies, hot sale tips, and other ideas!

 

[iKristin]

I went to www.RushCard.com and got a prepaid card and then I deposit money onto it whenever I have extra cash; that's my Disneyland saving money Then I just keep the card at home and never with me so I don't use it

 

[PinkBudgie]

I would worry about putting money to save on a GC. Too much can happen to it and it doesn't earn interest. We stick money when we can into our savings acount. We then took a large chunk of that to put in a CD to earn more interest. Also, if an emergency came up we still have the money and it isn't tied up in Disney.

We also have two CCs that give you cash back in the form of a check. We charge everything we can so each purchase counts towards money back.

If we eat out we only go to places we have a coupon for. And like at DLR, we always have water with our meals out, not soda.

Sometimes I can catch Clark Howard on the radio- a national consumer rights guy who also has good money saving tips.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Oh, I forgot one more thing. We got two year's worth of DLR vacations out of one AP. We bought them during our trip last July and used them again for our trip this June. Even if you don't live close enough to run over to DLR often, if you go every summer, it might be worth it. We will now wait until next summer to buy APs again to use for another two summers.

And if you get APs, make sure you do the math. Will it be cheaper to add parking to a deluxe or do you not need parking? Some people buy one Premium AP to get the free parking and slightly larger discount at stores. But again, do the math. Example: The Premium costs $120 more than the Deluxe. Subtract $59 for the cost of adding parking to the deluxe and you are left with a difference of $61. With a 15% discount on food, you would have to spend at least $400 to save $60. You also get a 10% discount on merchadise, that can be factored into that $400. For some families it might make sense for one person get a Premium and the rest Deluxe. For others, they wouldn't break even. Just have to do the math for your family.

 

[DizMe]

I do almost everything Kayla's Mom mentioned (surveys, reward points that can be redeemed for gc's, yard sale, ebay). I also look for coupon deals (Mimi's, RFC, etc).

It sounds dumb, but it works for me--ok, maybe I'm dumb!--but I put cash in a special wallet buried at the bottom of my underwear drawer. Believe it or not, I never remember it when I'm not adding to it and I don't spend it until our vacation. I put all my DL cards and coupons in it, too. Periodically, I add money to my Disney gc over the phone using my dh's credit card

I find that an AP is a really good thing to have for discounts, but you do tend to go more often than you would have without it so that probably nullifies any savings for me

Oh yes, and I tell anyone that needs an idea for a gift that I love getting Disney gc's!

 

[LuLusApple]

I buy gift cards at the grocery store each week. Mostly gas cards...
When I get to the mall I buy Disney gift cards and Disney dollars. I bought a "brick" (100) of ones and the manager said in her 15 years she never saw anyone buy a "brick" she took our picture! LOL I don't buy many food gift cards because I am always afraid I won't use them all up.

 

[spacemermaid]

I sell things on Ebay, and save up the $ in my Paypal account. Even if what I sell is small, it all adds up after awhile. Since I don't have a Paypal debit card, I'm not tempted to take out the $ before I need it because it takes 2 to 4 days to transfer the Paypal $ to my bank account. That's how I saved up for my holiday trip last year (1 week in a hotel, airfare, and my first AP) & how I'm paying for my trip next month.

 

[disneynerd420]

Well, since I have no one but myself to support, I eat cheaper, work overtime. I try not to spend my money on frivolous items by reminding myself that I could spend it on Disney. I try not to go out that much. I even go so far to conserve electricity as to save money for Disneyland.

So here I am eating a hot dog and sitting in the dark... saving money for Disneyland.

 

[wvnative]

My daughter (18) and I try to go every year, usually in March as it's the easiest time for us to get away. We both have a change jar dedicated to Disney. Any coins we have at the end of the day go in there and we cash them out as they get full. That money will get used to buy disney dollars or gc's as soon as we cash it out. That has helped me towards breaking my debit card habit immensly. lol Can't put change in the jar if I don't use cash. lol We also drive to DL from Phoenix which saves us money.

As for actually budgeting for the trip, I'm taking a little different approach this time. I'll be buying gc's for the places we want to eat outside the park. I plan to purchase some disney dollars and disney gc for stuff inside the park. I'm debating a prepaid visa for our hotel. Then we usually use a chunk of my tax refund as well. I've got it all budgeted out as to how much I need for what so if I just do a little each payday we should be fine.

 

[teatime]

My daughter (18) and I try to go every year, usually in March as it's the easiest time for us to get away. We both have a change jar dedicated to Disney. Any coins we have at the end of the day go in there and we cash them out as they get full. That money will get used to buy disney dollars or gc's as soon as we cash it out. That has helped me towards breaking my debit card habit immensly. lol Can't put change in the jar if I don't use cash. lol We also drive to DL from Phoenix which saves us money.

As for actually budgeting for the trip, I'm taking a little different approach this time. I'll be buying gc's for the places we want to eat outside the park. I plan to purchase some disney dollars and disney gc for stuff inside the park. I'm debating a prepaid visa for our hotel. Then we usually use a chunk of my tax refund as well. I've got it all budgeted out as to how much I need for what so if I just do a little each payday we should be fine.

I did this too I wanted to make sure we had some good meals, and I wanted to be sure I had the money so I purchased them when My package was set up, then went to the web sites and got there gift cards. I got mimi's milli's tony Roma's and the raiforest cafe. 50.00 cards so we all three can eat a very nice meal.

At Tony Roma's we plan on having the 14 oz rib eye dinner !! 22.99

Rain forest we are having the mojo ribs
with out planning ahead Im not sure we could have all these great meals. but we do now as I got these and will add cash to the meal also.

 

[teatime]

I wish I could buy disney dollars no where here in montana to buy them. darn it!

 

[blackjackdelta]

My DGF works for a medical transport service and in a hospital so she picks up more call/callback time and that goes into savings. I usually am working at least two jobs and what money that does not go to college education expenses goes into savings for the trips. My kids have jobs and 20% of what they earn goes into expenses for the trips and they also sell stuff they no longer use on craigslist. This year one of my employers gave me a small bonus so were are staying at the GCH and the girls are doing a spa trip.

Jack