How do you save up for your Disney vacation???

[tink1765]

I have $$$ taking out of my husbands paycheck every week for our vacation, but of course it's never enough. We go through money like water when we our at Disney. Anyone have any good saving ideas???

 

[DisneyMomof4]

Well, what helped us was postponing our trip a year. We now have the accomodations paid for and the park tickets-that's a start. With 3 months to go I have been trying to stash every bit of extra $ from grocery savings, asking hubby for "Disney donations," and basically planning as many dining ideas as we can ahead of time. What I'd like to do before the trip is make envelopes for each planned dining, sort of mark them as "paid" beforehand so we know how much we have to spend on extras. I've also considered selling at ebay for the Disney fund.

Of course, after all I've said, I KNOW we will end up spending more at Disney and using the credit cards for those "last minute" things. I'm looking forward to reading these ideas-great post!

 

[MinnieMe2]

DH and I leave in a month. It will be a different trip without the kids and DH has business, so his airfare, car rental, and the hotel (WL) are covered. Needless to say, this will help A LOT. We paid for our passes already and now are saving. We have an old pitcher in the china cabinet that we each put $1 a day into (although on a 'good' day, we try to slip in more), and we're saving our change in a piggy bank on the kitchen counter. For my b'day, DD gave me $2 in quarters for our Disney fund . We've set aside $800, and since DH has a fairly generous meal allowance, I think we'll be in pretty good shape. It's amazing how that change adds up!!

Counting the Hours Til We're Back in the World

Mother-of-Four (Five, If You Count My Husband)

 

[LeahA]

We save our loose change. Everyday we empty our change into a change jar. We've collected $300.00 so far. Also, this is something new, we are going to have a garage sale! I never had one, but, we have soooo much stuff we could sell! We also save money by staying offsite, and we've had great luck booking our hotel thru Priceline. We drive instead of fly. Also, alot of people on these boards suggest to limit how many meals you eat "inside" the park. Also, don't buy souvenirs in the park. Buy them outside at Disney Marketplace, you receive 10% off with a MKC card. I also heard that there are outlet stores with great discounts!

 

[dmslush]

LOL, I'm glad to see that we aren't the only one's that save our change! It adds up quick. I am also selling a few little things on ebay and all of that money goes into the change jar.. well its really a huge popcorn can because our jar filled up to quick

 

[zephyr34]

I have been doing a few of the web points programs, like beenz,com and mypoints.com.
Last year I had $50 in disney dollars from collecting beenz (for visiting various web sites)
I just visit their web page everyday. (if I remember) I don't sign up for things or do the downloads. Mypoints has an option to use your points for a gift certifcate at rain forest cafe.
If you are on the web everyday, it is easy to spend a few minutes to hit a couple of pages for free money. You have to decide if it is worth it to you. It took me about 4 months to collect the $50.00 worth.

 

[wmears13]

Dh and I have no kids, so this helps!LOL- although this year we are taking 4 nieces and nephews with us (& their Moms and
dads want to go now!)---AND, I just got a lay off-jobs went to Mexico!
So, went last fall and bought dh and mine's AP. Bought everyone elses at the DS when they had the gift cert. promotion. (They are paying me back)
Am surfing, test driving, rebateing and couponing like CRAZY (helps when your unemployed)
We scrimped and saved the first 2 years of our marrage and grew a nice savings account. Every week I would put about $180 or more in it. So whenever we take a vacation it is already paid for.
When we get there, I'll pick up all kinds of tourist coupons, that helps alot. Will eat breakfast in our rooms and 1 meal out a day. Will take a "George Foreman" grill with us; a coffee pot and a Hot Pot. (It helps that this is the way I was raised, Mom and Dad couldn't stand to waste money) We will do some big ticket items; character breakfasts and all, but these cost savings will help.
We don't go out much, neither one of us cares about clothes (much!), and we try to think if we REALLY need something, and if used will do BEFORE we buy.
We have saved change in jars and banks for 6 years now, but have never had to use it for vacation, so one day I'll really be able to go wild with it!
It is amazing how you can save little amounts of money and it REALLY ADDS UP!

 

[pinky]

We put ALL our money from our bottle deposits (it's 10 cents a bottle in MI) in with our change. It adds up quite nicely!

I know it's not for everyone, but our way to "save" was to buy into the DVC. We stayed at CB every year and now we're at BWV.

Pinky

 

[Roll-Tide]

We also save all our change, rebate checks, and any money anybody gives us into the "change jar." I also started a "disney acct." at our bank and put money into it every month. It's beginning to add up. It takes us about two years to save up for every trip, but they are always paid for. We also put a little from my DH bonus and a little from our tax refund into this acct.

We don't go out to eat much and don't buy too many "non" essentials. I also try to get about $5.00 back every time I go to the grocery store and put this into our jar. Little by little it begins to add up. When you put your mind to it, you can save if you need to.

I'm enjoying reading everyone's responses. It will help and give us all some great ideas!

Kim

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have done this our entire marraige (32+years). We put ALL our change in a jug at the end of the day. We always buy annual passes, so when it is time to buy new passes, we empty the jug and take the change into the bank. We usually save for about 1 1/2 years before deposits. Surprisingly, we will have almost $900 in that time! Such a painless way to get our passes, and we make a game of it too!

Disneydiane

 

[shirleyb]

We're actually doing a number of things. We toss all of our change into a 5 gallon water bottle. That's probably between $5 and $10 a week.

I'm going to buy our hopper passes at TDS spread out over the next year - about every other month or so.

I do rewards programs, and while they've dried up a lot lately, I will try to get some restaurant certs there.

My dad usually gives us $1000 for Christmas, so that will be our spending money at the parks for our trip next Jan. I should have the passes paid for throughout the year, so that just leaves me with the lodging and we are thinking about camping on our next trip since we have a pop up camper, so that will be really cheap.

Shirley

CBR Jan 2000
Next Trip Jan 2002 Where to stay?

 

[n2mm]

I set up a "Club" account at work that takes out a specific amount out of my pay every payday. It builds up quickly and I am never tempted to touch it. I call it the "Vacation Club" account, works very well for me. I too pay my resort accommodations prior to my trip, so it's a good feeling to know that when I get there it's all paid for!

 

[hercamore]

I buy disney dollars at the disney store with the charge card account that gives me rebates. We spend the disney dollars at restaurants, food vendors, picture taken on rides, etc. I feel i have "paid" for some of my vacation beforehand. Also buying park passes beforehand helps spread out the financial pain.

 

[curlyjbs]

It truly is a painless way to save. Our little ones don't even ask for the inevitible quarter at the grocery checkout...they tell us to put it into the "disney fund". Any "extra" cash (a ten here a twenty there) is used to purchase Disney dollars. Also, I took part of my DH's x-mas bonus (he doesn't know it yet ) and bought a CD which will mature a month before we leave. Viola! instant spending money. I really like the tip about buying passes over time. I was prepared to buy all at once...over $1,000.....never thought to buy one at a time. This way it won't hurt so much! Great tip! Would love to hear more ideas....

 

[KarenMom]

We have a consignment shop in our town that sells used children's items. I take my kids toys there that they don't play with anymore, especially before Christmas. I tell the kids that the money we get is for them to use on our vacation. We took a few things in before Christmas and just received a check for $60. I'll take more in to sell in a few months and add that to the vacation fund.

 

[Shelly S]

We are DVC members and so our rooms are paid for. We save our change every day and get disney dollars every week. We also give and receive disney dollars at every holiday and have accumulated $520 since Sept. We like to go down with around $1000. Also we buy AP's and get 28 days use out of them by going a few weeks earlier the following year.

Shelly