How far would you go

[mondragon]

I read a lot of stories on here on how people save money to go to Disney and ways to save money while at Disney. I read that people will not go food shopping for a week and eat whatever they had in the fridge/pantry (no fresh veggies or fruit) and how some will pack frozen spaghetti with sauce into their luggage and use the coffee maker in the room to make hot dogs and ramen (gross). What is the furthest you have gone to save money for Disney. For example, someone at my worked dipped into their retirement to go to Disney for a week which I think is insane.

 

[Marionnette]

I read a lot of stories on here on how people save money to go to Disney and ways to save money while at Disney. I read that people will not go food shopping for a week and eat whatever they had in the fridge/pantry (no fresh veggies or fruit) and how some will pack frozen spaghetti with sauce into their luggage and use the coffee maker in the room to make hot dogs and ramen (gross). What is the furthest you have gone to save money for Disney. For example, someone at my worked dipped into their retirement to go to Disney for a week which I think is insane.

How about you go first? How far have you gone?

 

[mondragon]

How about you go first? How far have you gone?

Just saved money that's all. We have a vacation acct where a portion of our pay gets deposited. I have never eaten leftovers for a week or premade meals to bring on vacation.

 

[Marionnette]

Just saved money that's all. We have a vacation acct where a portion of our pay gets deposited. I have never eaten leftovers for a week or premade meals to bring on vacation.

Fair enough.

If I eat leftovers, it's because I hate waste and not because I'm saving for a Disney trip.

I've never packed a frozen lasagna in my luggage, but I've brought breakfast bars, and coffee because Disney doesn't sell the kind that I like.

I despise hot dogs and wouldn't use a coffee maker for the purpose of heating noodles. But I did bring instant soup and hot cocoa packets with me in January. We were staying in a DVC studio at the time and it was darn cold that year! I used the microwave to heat the water up because the water heated in a coffeemaker would have tasted like coffee.

The only food that I drag into the parks would be a frozen water bottle and maybe a protein bar.

I have a vacation savings account that we contribute to regularly and we own DVC contracts. I get Disney GCs at a discount to pay for my dues and purchase tickets.

I do some rewards programs to earn additional GCs.

And I earn a lot of rewards points from my credit cards to help pay for travel anywhere, not just Disney.

I'll ferret out all of the discounts that I am entitled to prior to my trip but once we're there, we spend on whatever we wish. It's not a vacation if I'm counting my pennies every minute.

 

[clr055]

Well I have chosen to limit my spending between each pay check so I can put $150 into savings for our upcoming trip. I have told my DD13 that this year for Christmas I am only spending $300 on her (she is an only child and normally it would be about $800) so I can use my entire Christmas bonus to fund our January trip. I cancelled extended family coming for this upcoming Christmas because of the same reason. I will load my second SW suitcase with breakfast food items so we can eat breakfast in the room (to save money and also because it saves time). I am putting off getting a new car until next Spring so I can save said $150 per paycheck.

Do you find these things excessive? If someone is willing to make the sacrifices I really don't see who you are to judge? Even poor people want to go on vacation. I am a sole supporting single mother who has never seen a dime of child support and money is something that is a struggle in our house. Yet this will be my daughters 4th trip to Disney. Because it is important for us to make memories and we like to make those memories with our favorite mouse.

I am not trying to come across as snotty so I hope that I do not. I applaud people who think outside the box to get there.

 

[mondragon]

Fair enough.

If I eat leftovers, it's because I hate waste and not because I'm saving for a Disney trip.

I've never packed a frozen lasagna in my luggage, but I've brought breakfast bars, and coffee because Disney doesn't sell the kind that I like.

I despise hot dogs and wouldn't use a coffee maker for the purpose of heating noodles. But I did bring instant soup and hot cocoa packets with me in January. We were staying in a DVC studio at the time and it was darn cold that year! I used the microwave to heat the water up because the water heated in a coffeemaker would have tasted like coffee.

The only food that I drag into the parks would be a frozen water bottle and maybe a protein bar.

I have a vacation savings account that we contribute to regularly and we own DVC contracts. I get Disney GCs at a discount to pay for my dues and purchase tickets.

I do some rewards programs to earn additional GCs.

And I earn a lot of rewards points from my credit cards to help pay for travel anywhere, not just Disney.

I'll ferret out all of the discounts that I am entitled to prior to my trip but once we're there, we spend on whatever we wish. It's not a vacation if I'm counting my pennies every minute.

We bring in water for us and snacks for my daughter since I think they sell in the parks for kids to snack on is mainly junk. Last time I brought the Starbucks instant coffee which is a lot better than what they serve in the resorts.

 

[mondragon]

Well I have chosen to limit my spending between each pay check so I can put $150 into savings for our upcoming trip. I have told my DD13 that this year for Christmas I am only spending $300 on her (she is an only child and normally it would be about $800) so I can use my entire Christmas bonus to fund our January trip. I cancelled extended family coming for this upcoming Christmas because of the same reason. I will load my second SW suitcase with breakfast food items so we can eat breakfast in the park (to save money and also because it saves time). I am putting off getting a new car until next Spring so I can save said $150 per paycheck.

Do you find these things excessive? If someone is willing to make the sacrifices I really don't see who you are to judge? Even poor people want to go on vacation. I am a sole supporting single mother who has never seen a dime of child support and money is something that is a struggle in our house. Yet this will be my daughters 4th trip to Disney. Because it is important for us to make memories and we like to make those memories with our favorite mouse.

I am not trying to come across as snotty so I hope that I do not. I applaud people who think outside the box to get there.

Good for you that you support her on your own. I have no respect for any guy who does not support their kids after a divorce.

 

[Under the Library]

My husband does seasonal labor on top of his full time job. I do different side jobs. I will sell things on ebay for others and take a portion of the profits. We do limit grocery spending closer to time as to keep down the amount of food in the house while we are gone and it helps us save for souvenirs and the like.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I read a lot of stories on here on how people save money to go to Disney and ways to save money while at Disney. I read that people will not go food shopping for a week and eat whatever they had in the fridge/pantry (no fresh veggies or fruit) and how some will pack frozen spaghetti with sauce into their luggage and use the coffee maker in the room to make hot dogs and ramen (gross). What is the furthest you have gone to save money for Disney. For example, someone at my worked dipped into their retirement to go to Disney for a week which I think is insane.

I think not going shopping for a week might sound outrageous to some, but when you consider the size of our pantries/fridges/freezer in the U.S. it's not really a hardship. My kids might gripe because there is "nothing to eat" but in reality if we were starving I could feed them for weeks on the food in our pantry.

So if a mom told me they were going to eat whatever was in the house instead of shopping, I would thing she's A)tired of grocery shopping, B)wanting to make sure she uses food before it goes bad, C) being resourceful and teaching her kids they need to learn to 'make do' or D)wanting to save some money.

 

[crisi]

A pantry week doesn't mean no fresh food. Apples and oranges will keep that long. So will grapes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, spinach, peppers, potatoes, carrots, beets.......It may mean by the end of the week you haven't gone shopping there aren't fresh leafy greens in the house, but most of the rest of that list is good for another week.

 

[MichelleVW]

People go grocery shopping every week?

 

[secretpantssam]

I was actually going to do the pantry thing for no reason other than I have a ton of food and I just keep buying more every time I go to the store. I think that's always a fun challenge to do every once and a while!

and if it saves a little money for a fun trip....bonus!

 

[JennyKS]

Well since I grocery shop for the next week, I would completely skip that week if I knew I was going out of town. Before we go on any trip I try and make sure we use up everything we have. So if my kids don't get a fresh salad one week I'm sure they will be fine. At least what was in the fridge got ate instead of being thrown in the trash.

We have money from each paycheck go into the savings account. But we also save money other ways. Sometimes I don't want to fix dinner but I know it would cost $30 to go out to eat I suck it up and fix dinner. Then put the $30 in the savings account. Same way with going to the movies, I really want to but I know it would cost $30 - $40 so I'll wait till it comes out on DVD and put that money in the savings account.

We take protein bars and a few water bottles in our suitcase. We also buy fruit and foods from garden grocery (grapes, bananas, apples, yogurt and milk) so we aren't buying other snacks in the parks.

 

[mondragon]

We eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruits (we try to stay away from the frozen food and anything processed). We do spend a lot in food but make up for it by not going out to eat very often. Our pantry is pretty empty except for spices. We are lucky to live really close (walking distance) to a all natural green market with a really good butcher who sells organic meats. Wife goes about every other day to pick up foodto eat

 

[Accident]

We use garden grocery and request a microwave for the room (if it's not standard). Water we use refillable bottles that we already own and some type of water filter (if the bottles don't have one built in). You can bring in outside food to the park and we prefer deli sandwiches with some fruit over a lot of the quick service options. Electolyte tablets, flavor bottles for water. You can save a lot of money doing it smart without going crazy. Make friends with a smoker at the hotel, I'll guarantee you at some point someone is doing a cigarette/beer run and you can split the cost of the rental or ride with them. For home, we don't buy anything we won't use or won't keep while we are away. Schedule a food delivery for the day we return (or morning after) and we've never needed to make due once back.

For accommodations, we know what we are going to roughly do and how to save up for the trip. Vacation clubs, roughly what discounts in our favor are when. We don't need a giant room we can hide in while at WDW. We'll go budget when we need too and better when we can or if we think there is some trip value to it. We only add on a meal plan if we're actually going to save money using it (like when it's free).

Everything at WDW is to make Disney more money. Sure some make out like bandits and the rest don't. when it comes down to it, like a casino when the monthly sales figures are added up they made more money by having all the options then if they didn't. Yuu just need to figure out how to get on the side where you break the house and let everyone else us bust.

 

[edk35]

We have so much food in our freezer and pantry that we could probably afford a Disney trip REALLY FAST by not buying groceries and using that savings for a trip .... because WE SPEND WAY TOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH each week and then we go out to eat some too. LOL That is the one area that WE ARE REALLY TERRIBLE at budgeting. I should really try this thought. Nonetheless....We are DVC members and I will also buy Disney giftcards at Target using my RED CARD discount or get Target cards on RAISE to get Disney cards online at Target.....throughout the year to spend on our trips. We are OVER the expensive TS meals especially at dinner prices. We will hit a few, but mainly lunch prices. IF we drive we might even go out in town for a meal or two. We will bring snacks, water, soda that type of thing. When we stay in a 2br villa we might buy bagels and cream cheese, donuts easy stuff for breakfast on the run. We don't bring sandwiches in the parks or anything like that.

 

[tink9702]

We stayed off-site, brought in most lunches, waters and ate breakfast at the house so we could afford to go last November. This year DH is working a lot of overtime and we've been saving up for a less budget trip in Sept 2016. Though I've still signed up for the Target Red Card recently, started swagbucks & receipthog hoping to get extra money/pay more for christmas presents so that money can go to Disney.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I don't do anything too extreme. I buy a Disney gift card every week at the grocery store and stash them away for our spending money. When general money gets tight because of an unexpected bill or something, I can easily skip the grocery for a week or two because we have a well stocked pantry and freezer.

 

[mondragon]

We have so much food in our freezer and pantry that we could probably afford a Disney trip REALLY FAST by not buying groceries and using that savings for a trip .... because WE SPEND WAY TOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH each week and then we go out to eat some too. LOL That is the one area that WE ARE REALLY TERRIBLE at budgeting. I should really try this thought. Nonetheless....We are DVC members and I will also buy Disney giftcards at Target using my RED CARD discount or get Target cards on RAISE to get Disney cards online at Target.....throughout the year to spend on our trips. We are OVER the expensive TS meals especially at dinner prices. We will hit a few, but mainly lunch prices. IF we drive we might even go out in town for a meal or two. We will bring snacks, water, soda that type of thing. When we stay in a 2br villa we might buy bagels and cream cheese, donuts easy stuff for breakfast on the run. We don't bring sandwiches in the parks or anything like that.

Yea we don't bring food bring food like sandwiches and fruit into the parks. Just more stuff to haul around. Baby bag is big enough to hold a small cooler for babies snacks. Since we drive we will bring fruit for breakfast.

 

[allysetraskos]

Through the year any of my sons clothes that he grows out of or toys he stops playing with I get them into a pile & sell them at a mom2mom sale in my area, any of the money I make from that we put toward his Disney spending.. The most I've made is $250, the least is $100...