How to get to Disney faster

[areweindisneyyet]

Its that time of the year when we crunch numbers and try to balance very day life with our need for Disney

Let's share some ANZAC budget stretching tips to help us all get to Disney faster.

Me, menu plan and be more organised at grocery shopping

 

[becpee]

My QFF points are just sitting there, I'll be cashing in for woollies vouchers and using them, we don't fly qantas anyway.

And I'm a stickler for checking power points being turned off, every little bit in my pocket is better than the energy company.

Im terrible for buying lunch, as of now ill be making sandwiches or taking leftovers, it'll save me about $30 a week, and I'll take a water bottle to work instead of drinking coke or diet coke (needs to cure my addiction anyway).

I've also started paying bits off the bills weekly, so when they come in they don't knock me on my butt and I will still be able to put money away weekly instead of having to pay a power or water bill and feeling like I'm not getting anywhere and giving up...

 

[ky71]

Stay away from the shopping centre!!! I go to get groceries only once every 3 weeks and top up bread, milk, fruit & veg at a strip mall so I cannot be tempted to spend extra. I do not shop with my kids.

I purchase meat at the butcher shop when they have a special and I package up meal amounts into Tupperware or ziplock bags. I simply do not buy full price meat ever.

When I make a meal that freezes well, I make a double portion to keep in freezer for one of our "busy" days when I cannot spare the time to cook from scratch.

I never spend any coins. I put any change into a money box and we only spend this money on our holidays. My DH is well trained to do this also!

We try to pay every bill on our card that gives us FF points. (Our last minute trip to HKDL and the USA cost us over 700 000 Qantas points for just my DH and I. So we are running low on points as we speak). Sometimes I feel a little scabby putting a $10 payment on my card but it is still earning us points!

My kids to not have canteen (tuckshop?) at school. Their lunches are made by themselves each morning except the youngest. We do not eat bread in my house unless it is the day I buy it (too fussy) so I then make it into sandwiches at the end of the day and freeze them for my 7 year old's school lunch. No waste here!

Lastly I don't drink or smoke like some on my friends so I don't have the burden of these costs. I also don't have a desire to get my nails done or have massages (like most of my friends. See where I'm heading with this?) I don't get my hair done. I also don't buy new clothes, shoes or expensive toys for myself or my kids...We live well but without a lot of things my friends (who consider me "so lucky to go to disney so often...") thinks are essentials.

I am looking forward to gleaning some more great $$$ saving ideas from here so please keep them coming!

 

[craxyfox]

Collecting coins in a little piggy bank can be a precious little miracle. I have a 'coin cow' which stores all the loose change I never use and in over 3 months it collected over $100 hopefully if I can keep going on with this, my cow will give me enough money for my disney shopping it could also be a great & fun way for little kids to help save up money

 

[KiwiMouseGirl]

I agree with the piggy bank idea! It's how I saved a big chunk of my spending money for my last trip. I give myself a cash allowance for my spending money every week, and anything left over from that week goes in the money box. Also any cash I get as gifts or from baby sitting or house sitting goes in the money box. It really does add up fast! And when the American dollar is high I cash it all in

 

[alicia1506]

we do the following:

-all loose change gets put into a savings tin/piggy bank that gets emptied before we go and exchanged at a time when the $ is high.

- we have the 28degrees mastercard with GE that we use while in the states as there are no transaction fees etc, just the actual aud to usd conversion amt.

- we use a travel money card to prepay all our hotel/tickets/tours/flights etc and have extra cash loaded so that we can withdraw in usd without charges

- we use an online exchange here to order our foreign currency and pick up from our local post office - we get small bills so we can keep track of our spending while on vacation and less fees than the banks and currency exchanges want to charge.

- we preplan all our meals (i am currently doing liteneasy so all meals are provided) and we buy all other essentials (tp, shampoo, cleaning supplies) etc in bulk and at cheaper locations (ie crazy clarks, sams warehouse, aldi). we price compare down to the cent and go with whatever is cheaper eg my vanilla anti-persipirant deodorant was on sale at avon for $2 a bottle. i got 5 bottles, which should last me approx 10 mths... i got stefans shampoo, conditioner, bodywash etc free from the man himself for xmas. that will keep me going for at least 6 mths, and then i'll dip into my supply of shampoo i got on sale at chemist warehouse for 0.99/bottle. a bottle will last carlo and i several months. bodywash and soap i got for 1.99/bottle and 0.99/bar respectively...

- we cost out our trip and set a maximum spend, including all food expenses, saving money etc, break it down into a weekly amount, and then set up a savings transfer from my wages into the savings account for that weekly amount. this ensures that we will have exactly the amount we budgeted.

- every weekend, i review multiple websites (ie hipmunk for flights, tripadvisor, vaustralia, delta and virginamerica websites) for deals etc and/or cheaper prices. i sign up for all FF programs and all newsletters. i also sign up to mousesavers.com etc newsletters so i am best informed on deals etc.

- i get my hair cut in the week before the trip. this is also when i get my eyelashes/eyebrows coloured, and carlo gets a haircut. the rest of the year, we let it grow, and just wash/style it ourselves.

- we don't drink throughout the year unless given a bottle of something for xmas/birthday presents.

- we do not go out to dinner or go to movies or go away for the weekend or have 'special occasion' treats unless they are provided free (ie, we won tickets or were given a bonus at work etc)

- we don't exchange gifts throughout the year, and we don't buy anything over $15 unless it's for the trip (groceries, bills are the exception). no xmas, birthday or other special occasion gifts are exchanged, as the trip is 'our gift to each other' -- plus we budget a decent amount of spending money so that we can buy clothes/jewellery/art/figurines/handbags etc while on the trip

- any money at the end of the payweek that is left in our bank account goes into the savings account towards the trip. we start out each payweek with a $0.00 bank balance. that way, we are less inclined to make purchases while we are out

- we don't do takeout and we don't do morning coffee or prebought lunches. i have my premade liteneasy and carlo takes a lunchbox (similar to a child's lunchbox with sandwiches, muesli bar, piece of fruit) etc in it.

- we cut out all drinks but water & additional lemon/lime juice. we have a water bottle/flask that keeps the drinks cool during the day.

- carlo gets $20 per week to allow for his caffeine addiction which he buys in bulk from the local supermarket.

- we don't have subscriptions, we don't have foxtel or cable tv, our internet includes all voice calls & our phone charges and our internet for $60/mth unlimited, and our mobiles cost us $39/mth and include mega super duper plans so that we never have to pay more than that. our expenses literally include our rent, repayment of our loan/credit cards, transport, groceries, internet & phones & electricity. we cut out all other expenses and we manage to bank/save at least 1/4 of our wage each pay day

- we use public transport and walk everywhere. i was catching cabs for a while due to my illness and the amount it cost -- oy vey!! our weekly transport bill for the 2 of us is approx $80, however if carlo gets a lift home with one of his henchmen, or if i don't work one day (casual, contract), we put that money we would have spent into the savings.

my grandma used to say never mind the pounds, it's the pence you have to keep track of, and she's right... every since cent you save, every $ you put in a savings account or piggy bank instead of spending is another $ closer to your trip

 

[Caroline NZ]

Wow Alicia, you sound like you are an absolute ace at saving, good on you

 

[zanzibar138]

Lastly I don't drink or smoke like some on my friends so I don't have the burden of these costs. I also don't have a desire to get my nails done or have massages (like most of my friends. See where I'm heading with this?) I don't get my hair done. I also don't buy new clothes, shoes or expensive toys for myself or my kids...We live well but without a lot of things my friends (who consider me "so lucky to go to disney so often...") thinks are essentials.

This! My friend just finished telling me how 'lucky' I am to have an overseas holiday every year. She'd just had her hair and nails done for Christmas and was going to get a facial because she was so stressed from it all. Then went and spent hundreds of $$ at Boxing Day sales on clothes, shoes, make-up etc.

We also put everything on our FF credit card (and whatever we can on the AMEX that gets even more points), and make sure we pay it off in full every month. DH gets quite a little stash of points happening (it all goes into his account).

 

[alicia1506]

we got good at saving as i lost my job a while ago and we went from suddenly having a lot of disposable income (and i was one of those hair & nails & pedicures and massages kind of girls and i would buy new clothes pretty frequently) to having just 1 pretty ordinary wage. i was out of work for 12 months. we learnt just exactly what was necessary and what was unnecessary to spend money on

that was 2009-2010 and we went to the usa on our first trip in 2011, so we figured if we could do it once, we can do it again

 

[Aussie Wendy]

This is a gread idea for a thread and you are very impressive Alicia!

We never have much cash in our wallets so aren't tempted to indulge in extras.

I make a shopping list for grocery shopping and generally stick to it without being tempted by "extras"-I have a friend who must average $30/week more than me just on the amount of cheeses and dips she always has on hand let alone all the other "stuff" she's always buying (and yes, they can't afford to go on a holiday most years either).

Like others I bulk buy when there's savings including meat from the butcher and freeze it. Any leftovers are frozen for another night or when we are one short for dinner so only have to feed less.

We all car pool to work as we live in the rural fringes so our petrol costs are high-which can be a pain with juggling starting and finishing times especially when my DD was a student at Uni and had hours free. But she just hung in the library on her laptop and talked to friends and waited rather than take 2 cars in and out and we just all have patience with each other if one has to get in extra early or finish late. We also all take in lunches, coffee supplies, water etc from home.

Everything is paid for on our Westpac Cards (one account so only one annual fee) and the points accumulated mostly cashed in for vouchers for Wooolies groceries and Bunnings etc (and occasional Myer etc if I have to gift to buy) as no longer worthwhile converting to FF points.

Since we were penniless students we have kept a daily record of all our income and expenditure-seems silly now we are in our 50's but we still do that (down to eg the $2.20 for milk). Over the years its probably been the most help to see where $ get frittered and where savings can be made.

We owner-built our first home-meant no huge mortgage in the years when interest rates were 18% and we only borrowed small sums along the way based on the value of the completed work. It gave us a huge head start. When it came time to get a bigger place again we owner-built. Disadvantage I have always lived in an unfinished house but that's a small price to pay-and it means we always have something to do on weekends!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Staying out of the shops I actually detest shopping in Australia now the prices of clothes here drive me nuts.
Buying in bulk and Menu planning is the biggest saver for me

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Lastly I don't drink or smoke like some on my friends so I don't have the burden of these costs. I also don't have a desire to get my nails done or have massages (like most of my friends. See where I'm heading with this?) I don't get my hair done. I also don't buy new clothes, shoes or expensive toys for myself or my kids...We live well but without a lot of things my friends (who consider me "so lucky to go to disney so often...") thinks are essentials.

I third this. I do sometimes get a bit silly with the lego I buy for my son, but as far as buying stuff for myself goes, it doesn't happen.

 

[tapdancer]

we do the following:


- we cost out our trip and set a maximum spend, including all food expenses, saving money etc, break it down into a weekly amount, and then set up a savings transfer from my wages into the savings account for that weekly amount. this ensures that we will have exactly the amount we budgeted.trip

Alicia I'm going to do as you do above for this trip, it's a great idea. Normally I take all bills out each week and save the balance, then use share dividends, work bonuses, family payment etc for holiday savings.

Think I will set up an automatic transfer each week from my pay into the holiday account then use the extra money that comes in to live off for school fees bills etc and see how I go.

I love a challenge and it will also feel like I'm working to go on holiday as most of my pay will be used for holiday savings

 

[marvel]

Some great ideas on this thread, i am impressed. My extra plan for this year is ebay. Plan to sell alot of our unwanted goods and stuff that has become obsolete since our forced renovation. As I count this as bonus money (disney logic) , it goes into my holiday fund.

 

[Marlea98]

Great thread AWIDY and can't wait to get the chance to read it properly . I've got to cut down on wasting money at the supermarket (says she who stopped at McCafe on the way to Woolies to get forgotten items from yesterday...)