How I did it as a single mom

[scillacc]

Hi everybody,
I am a single mom, with little debt, (if I can't afford it, I don't buy it). This is how I took my 4 kids 4 years ago.
I book the room at least a year in advance, Every month I send a night payment down. I DO NOT let them know I am going to do this, I just book it first, make the first night payment and then keep sending the nightly charge once a month. Then I find the money every other month to buy a pass at the disney store. For birthday, christmas easter and valentines each kid gets about 20 dollars in disney money, with their name written on it, which I then take back from them and keep. I borrowed my moms station wagon and put on top an empty cooler, with a toaster oven and hot pot and sandwich maker in it. I do not go to goodings, way too expensive. I go to publix and buy the food for the week. We eat every breakfast in our room and at least one other meal. We did the Clam bake, the land restaurant and Crystal palace buffet. We brought our mugs from before, I also look for them at yard sales and take them. I know people say you aren't supposed to, this was 4 years ago though when you could. We made grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches, we had ellios pizza in the toaster oven, I bought entenmanns breakfast stuff, I also made a veggie dip and veggies so my kids would have better snack food in the room. We went to Belz outlet mall and did most of the gift shopping there. By the way, my kids were 12, 14, 18 and 20, so they weren't toddlers, I had to pay full price for all of them. The one splurge, in mymind, was I made sure the photographers took pictures of us at each park and I got one at each. Pictures last forever, little doodad things don't.
Just what I did. Worked for us.

 

[ckoncurat]

This is really inspirational! Good for you!!!! You are givibg your kids great memories AND teaching tem about living within your means! You are awsome.

 

[scillacc]

I had a friend who said that her kids would never stand to go like that. Well, my kids wouldnt' be able to go then. My kids have called me cheap from time to time and I respond back... Cheap is me not taking you. I also remind them, and have for years, "the treat is being able to go, not what you can buy or eat".
Another tip for parents with youngsters.... Give them a daily allowance of 5 or 10 dollars. Let them choose what they are going to buy. If they are older they will be okay with saving their money for a few days to buy the big stuffed animal or sweatshirt. The younguns usually need the instant gratification. This way too you can let them make their choices and you aren't the bad guy.
Another thing I also did, every night at dinner we would talk about what we wanted to eat when we were down there and I let each kid choose what we could eat in the room. Then they all had a say and nobody complained.
This was the first trip we had taken without their dad and they were upset I wouldn't let him come. I made sure we did differnt things so they wouldn't be too reminded. I refer to it as " My Victory Trip"
P.S. We stayed at Dixie landings in Alligator Bayou so we could sleep 5.
People, you can do this, it just takes planning.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Great advice! I think a lot of parents just don't even consider the possibilty of making a trip to WDW because "its too expensive". If I was wanting to cut corners further I would stay offsite.