How to raise money for WDW trips?

[JDarling]

Hi there!
I've got a group of 4 adults going to Disneyworld 11/27-12/2 2005. My DH and I are staying until 12/6 (to celebrate our anniversary, which is technically 12/1, but we wanted some "alone" time). My DH and I just bought a condo this year, and have a 6 month old boxer puppy and 2 cats, all of which manage to be in and out of the vet. And it seems like when there isn't a vet bill, there's a dentist bill for my hubby. Yes, we do manage to save some money, but it's in tiny little bits.
And as for the other couple, one is a security officer at a rest home (making $10 an hour which, in Southern California, isn't much!) and the other is a waitress for the same rest home (no tips and I know she makes less than he does, but she lives at home so she has no rent expenses).
SO... here are some money making strategies I've come up with that all 4 of us could do:
Selling old college text books on amazon.com or half.com
Getting a spot at the swap meet this summer (I know the guy we're going with has some old electronics in working order to get rid of, and I have a bunch of old clothes to get rid of)

Any other ideas?
We have put other money-saving plans into place. My Dh and I have cut down our "going out" to dinner down to 1 breakfast a week (it's cheaper than dinner) and we split at that. We have our grocery bill down to about $60 every 2 weeks. We only have 1 car and drive as little as possible (gas is around $2.22 per gallon). When we do fill up the tank, we shop around and find the cheapest gas in town. We've cut down on the number of pet treats we buy (pop corn is the best treat for our pup and that's cheaper than any of the pet treats on the market - and no, he's not allergic to popcorn). We canceled TV (so if anyone wants to mail me videos of travel channel WDW programs, I'd LOVE them!), though that only saves us $2 a month - but every little bit counts! Our electricity bill runs about $40 a billing cycle - so that's about it!

Oh yeah - and did I mention I applied for a new, better paying job? It should be an increase of at least a hundred a month and DH should be getting his raise soon as well to equal the same.

Any other ideas? Things all 4 of us could do would be great!
Oh yeah - and instead of "going out" with all of us, we trade off buying frozen or bake-your-own pizza and watching disney movies and playing board games, or we trade off cooking dinner for each other.

 

[PURTYPAT1]

SEE IF YOU HAVE ANY CONSUMER PANELS IN YOUR AREA, OR TESTING LABS. WE HAVE MANY IN THE NY AREA, AND THEY ARE CONTANTLY CALLING & I MAKE EXTRA $$ DOING SURVEYS.

2ND I WOULD HAVE YARD SALE.

3RD
ON FRIDAY'S OR SATURDAYS, GO TO YARD SALES BUY PERFUMES AND POCKETBOOKS AND RESELL ON EBAY. YOU WILL MAKE YOUR MONEY FOR THE TRIP.

I KNOW, I AM PUTTING MY DAUGTHER THRU COLLEGE THIS WAY.

PM ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS.

HOPE THIS HELPS

PATRICIA

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Look into Pet insurance for your pets. That young, a pup should be able to get it pretty cheap unless he has some genetic defects. If your 6 month old pup is going in and out of the vets for more than routine shots etc. it may be worthwhile for you.

Also, we use cheerios (un-sugared) for pet treats. They last forever and they have little fat. They make awesome training treats.

Have you thought about Ebay? You can make a lot selling your old stuff on Ebay. I think for my last trip I made several hundred, just selling stuff I had sitting around the house collecting dust.

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

I don't have anything to offer and I'm interested in what others have to offer but I do want to say I appreciate your spunk !! It is really great that you are working so hard to save for an all cash trip ! It'll mean so much more to you when you're there.

Good luck with everything and please keep us posted on your progress .

 

[JDarling]

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Look into Pet insurance for your pets.

We actually looked into that, but it didn't cover the things we'd need it to and covered a bunch of stuff we wouldn't need (kinda like human health insurance...) so we opted against it, for now anyway.

We finally were able to get our annual passes - yeah! So that's one step closer to FL.

I've never used Ebay before. Don't they charge a listing fee?

I do have a portable washer/dryer (brand new) that we're trying to sell.

 

[JDarling]

I don't have anything to offer and I'm interested in what others have to offer but I do want to say I appreciate your spunk !! It is really great that you are working so hard to save for an all cash trip ! It'll mean so much more to you when you're there.

Good luck with everything and please keep us posted on your progress .

Thanks! That definately cheered up my friday! Payday was yesterday and with a new mortgage, it's amazing that it's already gone! I really hope I get this new job. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I heard they were checking my references last night. That's a good sign!

I've nixed myself from using my credit cards unless I can pay off my purchase right away. And hey! At least the car we have is paid for!

 

[HeatherC]

How about Ebay? You won't believe the things that people buy. One mans trash is another mans treasure! If you keep the money in a Paypal account you won't be able to spend it.

Don't forget....save all your change. It's amazing how fast it adds up.

Happy planning!
HeatherC

 

[HappyLawyer]

i do mystery shopping and use all that money for tickets, air everything,

 

[harleyquinn]

I would love to be a mystery shopper!!!

I can never find a legitimate offer to be one though.

Can you share your secret?

 

[JDarling]

Yes! I'd be interested in doing this too (in my "spare" time... LOL). I could do some work on weekends.

We do have a spare change jar and things are going well there, but since we're trying not to spend, we haven't been adding to it much! Another problem is cashing it in. Banks sometimes won't take it and that "coin star" thing takes a %age and we don't want to give any away! I'm great at not spending what's in my savings (it's where I hide my mortgage money until it's time to pay the bill).

 

[cepmom]

Open an ING account...ING offers a great interest rate (currently 2.8%) and if you open with a referral from an existing ING account holder, you will earn $25. Once your account is opened, you can send out your own referrals and earn $10 for each account opened with your referral. I have already made $230 just for opening accounts for myself, DH and our 3 children plus some referrals. Check out the sticky at the top of the budget board...it is a wealth of information!

 

[cepmom]

forgot to say we also have a Disney VISA card that earns 1% on purchases. You earn Disney reward dollars which can be used at and Disney resort, restaurant, Disney store, Disney cruise etc. I plan on getting my rewards card right before we go to WDW and use it for meals. We opened our account witha $50 bonus award for opening an account and so far we have approximately $235 to use on our trip. I use it to charge almost everything I buy. The key is to pay it off in full every month, otherwise the interest charges will wipe out any rewards you have earned.

 

[gobledygook]

I have just recently started mystery shopping and I work with a site called Second to None. The website is second-to-none.com, and so far they are keeping me busy! I'm using all of this money for my next Disney trip in October

 

[luvindisneyworld]

I have just recently started mystery shopping and I work with a site called Second to None. The website is second-to-none.com, and so far they are keeping me busy! I'm using all of this money for my next Disney trip in October

Has anyone else had any experience with this company?

 

[JDarling]

I have a Disney Visa. We use it all time and have about 110 rewards dollars on it BUT we ran into some unexpected troubles (car needed $1700 worth of work in ONE MONTH - and since we only have 1 car...) so I've only recently gotten it down to an amount we can pay off next month. Yeah!
I'll have to look into ING. Thanks for the idea! Maybe all 4 of us going can get accounts and give each other money that way! LOL

 

[marcyinPA]

I hear ya about the puppy expenses...we have a 5 month old Corgi who needs to go get the big "snip" soon...cha ching! And his food costs more than ours..LOL I can also relate to the dentist thing...I used up my max on insurance already and it's only March. Two crowns, a root canal, a cleaning and multiple x-rays = a few out of pocket bucks from me!

As for earning money for Disney, I love eBay!! We earned about $900 after fees selling old junk from our basement for our last trip. It covered all of our food and souvie money. There are some fees involved with eBay, but if you price your items accordingly, you should be able to re-coup those fees. Plus, not only do you make some cash, but you can clean sweep your house at the same time!

Good luck!

 

[JDarling]

Well, I'm going to try e-bay! I'm starting with a formal dress that looks striking like the red and black on Kate Winslet wore in Titanic. Problem is, it was tailored for me when I was a size 20. Now, I'm a 14/16, so it looks like a lovely sack now. I haven't worn it in years and paid around $400, so I'm thinking I should be able to get at LEAST 1/2 that. We'll see! I have to go borrow a digital camera first and see how it goes! We are definately looking into ING.com too. I'm talking to my DH about it.

We just finally paid off all the vet bills (our pup cost us about $2500 w/in his first 3 months with us) and since he's going to be a show dog, he's not getting the big snip (which I'm sure he's thrilled about). Thankfully, he still squats to pee and doesn't mark (or "jump") anything. We just took him to dog beach this morning and he saw all of that going on, but showed no interest. Yeah for delayed hormones! LOL

Thank you all! Keep the suggestions coming!

 

[WDWlover]

So far....we have been putting all our change and single dollar bills in a jar for WDW. We don't ever spend the one dollar bills we get back in change...it's only $5 and more. In the past month, we have gotten $150 at least for this...of course, it also stops us from eating out as much too because we don't have the extra money sitting there to tempt us

We do have to hide the dollar bills so we don't see them...they're in the middle of all the coins so it's probably more than $150 for us this month LOL

 

[pamouselover]

We have too been doing the all of your change in a disney bank of course!But we also have been putting money away in a savings account.
So far so good.

 

[Cruella DeVille]

Speaking of puppies! And no I'm not relating to the fact that my user/login name is Cruella DeVil, my DH and I breed chihuahua's and make loads. At least 125$ a puppy, and let me stress at the least! Once you get a lot of the little suckers you end up having about 7 puppies per dog. Cha Ching! That's about 875$ a dog, and we usually have about three dogs at a time pregnant meaning 2675$, you can pratically hear the soothing voice of Cinderella!