I am sooo cheap it scares me!

[kandj2]

I have been browsing around this site for a couple of years but I have never posted. Something is really bothering me... I think I am cheaper than all of you! Last year I read the posts and got together a really great disney vacation for pretty cheap but this year I started early and ...well ... if you THINK you're cheap you better sit down:

My DH's DFamily wants to go with us this year so we will have 10 people in our room. I got a 3 bedroom villa at Westgate Lakes with a mother in law suite (there will be more than enough room that way - lol) for $400 for the whole 7 days. That equals out to $40pp - no tax.
OUR FAMILYS PART = $200

We are going to consider buying a timeshare in the spring so we will be touring 3 places (westgate is not one) and that means we will be getting 6 Free Disney Passes to do those presentations so that takes care of Myself, DH and DS's passes - all we have to pay for is my 2 other DS's for 2 days.

We are touring the timeshares 2 days before our vacation starts. We decided to go up early and get that out of the way so it doesnt cut into FUN time. Also we needed 2 nights for drive recovery. We got the hotel room for 2 nights before everyone else is coming up. The room we are staying in is free (another promotion).

Because my children vary so much in age (12, 4 and 3) eating out can be very tedious. They are all boys and the oldest tortures the little ones and they scream and torture me. Short of beating them all in public - there is no way to stop this ugly process. I prefer to cook - believe it or not it is NOT a vacation to take these little monkeys out. So we save tons of money by making breakfast and dinner in our villa. We also take water bottles and fanny packs full of fruit snacks, goldfish crackers (although they are usually goldfish crumbs by the time we get around to eating them), chewy granola bars and juice boxes. It is really not as painful as it sounds and actually its very convenient since last January when I went the longest line I stood in was to get a Coke for me and ice cream for my DS's. We do eat lunch out usually so thats our biggest eating out expense.

This year for Christmas DH and I asked for Gasoline Gift Certificates - we got almost enough to cover the trip.

To sum it all up this year our 9 day Disney vacation which includes 2 days at Disney, 2 days at US, a dinner show, Disney Quest and 1 day of golf for DH will cost this family of 5 under $2,000!! Its a lot of effort to put it together but I LOVE doing it! My baby's are still young enough to really believe that Mouse is REAL and no terrorist is going to take that away from them - we will be broke but we will not quit living! Can you tell DH and I are self employed - lol!



1/2001 Off site
1/2000 OKW

 

[tink2dw]

Wow,you did a great job of keeping the costs down!! Luckily,you live close enough to Drive. [we don't]

9 day Disney vacation which includes 2 days at Disney

How can you Only do 2 days at Disney?? I can never get enough WDW!![but I live so far away that if I get to go to WDW, I want to do it all,with 4 parks I need more time!!

We Did a Sheridan Vistana timeshare. It gave us 2 of the 3, Universal 3 day silver tickets we needed, I ask if we could Buy a 3 day ticket for our child,and they said Yes!! And it was about $20. cheaper than gate prices!! So,you might ask If you can buy tickets for the Ds's!!

Have a great Fun trip!!

 

[Tigger1]

Your first post and what a good one. I have been on these boards for years and have read and wrote many post. (there were many more than the 500, on the old boards). Post like yours are so refreshing. I love to save money.

I also am a penny pincher. I purchased a timeshare, Disney Old Key West. It may cost more than alot of the others but is more flexable than any other that I have seen offered. We love it.

We have only used it for Sunday thru Friday stays, we get more days that way. On the weekends we either stay off site in a villa for around $90/night or campout at Fort Willderness for about $50/night. By the way, there is 7 of us. If we camp out at Fort Willderness there is an additional cost of the go cart we rent for one night for $40. The kids have as much fun on it as they would have going to the park.

We buy the 7 day park hopper plus tickets, they also have 4 days of water parks included. These cost about $2100 for all of us but we make them last 2 trips, so thats about $1050/trip.

We eat one counter service meal per day when we are in the parks. Otherwise we cook in our villas.

We also stay at Disneys Vero beach for 5 days during our stay. This is part of our Disney vacation club (timeshare). When at Vero we shop at Sams club and Walmart. We buy too much food and make all our meals at the Villa. Imagine cutting veggies while looking out the window at the ocean. Why eat out.

Traveling and on weekends we eat out more but not at expensive restuarants.

Traveling we stop at Shoneys for a late breakfast early lunch. Eat snacks in van. Have Pizza at campsite. Oh, by the way, we save a bundle on hotel cost when traveling by camping at a state park for a couple of days on the way. We could stay just overnight but who can leave the Gulf coast .

Cost/person/day, very cheap. But with 7 of us it does add up. Maybe next year.

tigger

 

[kandj2]

That is the one thing I would like to change BUT really in the past we have only done Disney. This year we wanted to branch out into Universal and do some other cheesy tourist things. I may add another day on but really we only do MK and MGM. We did not enjoy AK (go ahead and throw things at me) and my little ones are a bit too young to enjoy EPCOT - maybe we will check that out next year. We live in Columbus, Ohio and we have a wonderful zoo here so really AK just felt like a trip to the zoo. We did enjoy the interactive 3D movie thing with Hopper and the gang but not enough to shell out $250 per day.

The drive is going to be a rough one (about 24 hours) but I saw a very encouraging post on here about driving with kids so we're going to try to make it (valium free - ugh). We have a TV/VCR in the van and you can hook up the trusty N64 to it so that should make the ride a little smoother (yes we have headphones). If not, oh well, its only hair and it will grow back after I pull it all out.

Everyone thinks I'm crazy about cooking on vacation. I would do it even if I were a zillionaire! I'm glad to see some other people don't mind it either. Plus, I get to yell at my husband to keep the kids out of the kitchen while I cook - that equals that much needed ALONE TIME and the best part is ... it looks like a sacrifice!

ONLY 26 days! Woo Hoo!inkbounc

 

[C.Ann]

Good for you!!! "Cheap" is definitely in my vocabulary.. Went with my daughter, her husband, & my 3 yr. old granddaughter in September from the 9th to the 23rd and with my doing all of the "leg" work we were able to save TONS of money! Although one day I would like to experience staying on-site, the huge amounts of money saved by staying off-site will sway my thinking every single time.. Only took 5 minutes to get to the parks - no traffic problems - and got an awesome deal on the rental car.. (Which thank God we had because after the terrorist attacks on the 11th my son-in-law refused to fly home so we drove back instead - 1,325 miles - gas & extra days rental came out to way less than the refund we got on our airline tickets..) We rented a cottage with full kitchen as eating out gets very old very quick and on one of the evenings that we did eat out I managed to get food poisoning!!!!!

Hoping to go back in Jan. of '03 and this time I will drive down and back.. A few cuts here and there really make a huge difference in how often you can go - huh?

 

[BethR]

You guys are an inspiration to the rest of us!

Welcome to the "World of Posting" kandj2!

 

[eller]

Three adults, 3 children going 1/26 - 2/2.

Airfare, Portland to Orlando: Nothing, gave up our seats in October and got $1,500 worth of tickets. Using one free ticket from frequent flyer miles and still have about $500 left for another trip.

Transportation: $90, airport to hotel; $50, one day rental to get over to Busch Gardens. $30 car parking at Holiday Inn in Portland; no hotel cost, points.

Hotel: $1186 ASMo and AKL.

Park passes: $179, Childs, 5 day hopper. (APs for the rest and free tickets to Busch Gardens.)

Food: Dinner Rain Forest Cafe, dinner Rose & Crown, lunch at Tusekerhouse, breakfast at Hollywood and Vine, free for adults, paying for three children, All Star food court twice, lunch at Busch Gardens, dinner at Boma (visit with my parents, they're paying), dinner at Pizza Planet, breakfast at Chef Mickeys (only paying for one adult and three children), lunch at Mara. All other breakfasts/meals from Main Sreet bakery (around $30 last trip) or concierge. Useing American Express breakfast vouchers, have a total of 5.

Total out of pocket (before food): $1,535 for six. If we weren't paying for DMIL we would be at $1087 for 5.

It's fun to put together "cheap" Disney trips!

Lori

6/1997 Off site, 2/2000 Off site, 2/2001 Poly, 10/2001 POFQ, AKL & Magic, 1/2002 ASMo & AKL

 

[tednvon]

Here's a guy try.......Orange Lake 2 bedroom for 5 adults and a 5 and 2 year old...245.00 a week from an auction.........passes are 4 day for 3 adults and one child, Disney Club totals 755.00 (grandma and grandpa have APs)....air fare from Iowa is 1300 for all us...total 2300.......not quite as impressive as the others, but no time share presentations, no one day tickets that allow no hopping, and some fun money left over for eating out....Off site allows us at least one or two extra trips per year.....lots of bargains our there right now....Grandpa Ted............oops car rental 152 a week

 

[LoriZH]

Now how about giving some info to me, like where and how are you doing these timeshare trips that will give you disney passes! Also, where is that hotel you are staying at located via the world and HOW on Earth did you get it for $400 bucks for 7 days???!!!

Help me, come on, I called you cheap!

 

[kandj2]

I am sooo impressed with my fellow cheapskates! Like I said I have been reading these boards for a while now and I keep seeing posts about people staying at the Poly or Cont or YC and I just think, "How do people afford this!". Its nice to know there are fellow cheap disney goers. The fact is you dont have to suffer (much) to do disney cheap. If you can stand giving up a couple hours to high pressure sales pitches in exchange for a couple hundred in tickets, even one day tickets, and stand to stay in a 5 star off site resort (ohhh the pain) and carry a water bottle (we have shoulder straps) you can have a blast for dirt cheap!

Okay - you guys have inspired me further. We have booked a couple more tours. Here is my total so far:

$200 - for a week at westgate
$0 - in transportation using the gas gift certificates we got for Christmas
$0 - Disney passes doing the tour torture circuit
$340 Universal passes for 2 days - got killer discounts on the timeshare circuit
$100 - in breakfasts and dinners for the days we are at Westgate
$400 - eating out lunch and the dinners before westgate (breakfast and lunch are free on the timeshare tours)
$0 - hotel room for 2 days during the timeshare tours - free promo

Total so far $1040

Any ideas to get this down even further? Does anyone know if there is a Sams Club in Orlando?

 

[bobcat]

Glad to meet a fellow cheepskate! Good job!

We drive every year from central OH and the trip is not bad at all. It takes us 18 hours from my front door to Mickey's is almost 1000 miles exactly. I drive solo with the kids and we usually stop at The GA/FL border for the night. It is a quick trip the next day to Orlando. PM me if you want more details. Have a great trip and keep sharing your budget tips!

 

[dutton]

I'm so glad to read these posts. We are a family of 6 and on site hotels aren't cheap and I have been agonizing over staying off site. Now I'm searching the web for the cheapest,closest to WDW suite available. My DH and I are people pleasers and would buckle under a timeshare presentation I think, plus we have 4 kids and what would we do with them? For those of you who cook meals, what do you cook? On our next trip, which we'll always take in off season and hours are shorter, we have decided to stay at parks all day and return to resort after they close which would put us back home about 7 or 8. We figured if we ate in parks it would be at lunch to save money. Anyway, the point is that driving to and from wouldn't be that big of a deal. I feel better to be cheap!

 

[Lucky4me]

Excellent! Congrats fellow cheapies!!!

Our trip last year looked like this:

Airfare for three Delta- $300
full size rental car, 1 week- $120
tickets-left over hoppers, 4 days- 0
3 bedroom vacation home- $200 (1/2 of $400)
food- $300
extras-$300

We had some days left over on hoppers from last trip and some nice relatives gave us their unused days too.
We did breakfast on the fly, lunch in the parks, and dinner on the way home or at home. I won't cook on vacation, but pizza is just as cheap down there as it is at home! Chinese too!
We shop for souvenirs at the outlets, but we already have SO much Disney stuff that we are down to a couple of t-shirts and maybe a snowglobe for every visit.

The VERY cheapest trip was in 1997. My sister gave us a week in her DVC 2 bedroom PLUS free park tickets for four for the whole week! We drove and I think the total for that one was $1000~ It's nice to have generous relatives!!

My only problem is that DH says he doesn't care how cheap I can get us down there, he's tired of Disney and wants to go somewhere else! Sacrilege!!!

I really think my cheapness is becoming ingrained in me. I went out the day after Christmas and did a lot of shopping for next Christmas. At 75% off everything you can't go wrong. The only problem is finding a place to store all my treasures!

 

[chris1gill]

I really like this thread!!!

First off, I'll admit it, I'M CHEAP!!! I also just came back from a Disney vacation where I'd already decided not to be *SO* cheap LOL... I treated my DH to 2 nights at AKL Concierge, with the sunrise safarri & all the treats & perks.... Those two nights cost as much as the other 10 nights of my stay LOL... It nearly killed me, but I wanted to give him something special he would remember forever, and I think I did it!!

Anyways, we DVC owners, so basically we stay at the BWV's in a 1 bedroom villa (or OKW) for CHEAP... we go in the off season, so basically it works out to 100.00/nt... One year we spent 300.00 TOTAL on eating out... Mainly we eat breakfast & dinner in the villa... We also get annual passes, but now we have to buy 4 since the kids got older... I might have to rethink the AP's next time around... Actually, we spend about 100.00 on boating & mini-golf, and 200 on eating out LOL... then we get a rental car for as cheap as humanly possible (need it), same with airfare, cheap as humanly possible LOL... This time around we flew for 75.00 each ROUND TRIP/DIRECT on Southwest from Hartford... How incredible is that? LOL....

I'd be surprised if our trips ever cost more than 2000 or 2500, and that's generally for 13 nights onsite at the BW... Pretty incredible, but it can be done... you just have to try & you have to remember you can't do too many character meals!! Those things are KILLERS on the budget!!!

 

[goofyrn13]

Kandj12 I hope you post some trip reports ,because Ireally enjoy your style of writing.You seem to have my similar sense of humor.

 

[kandj2]

Thank you! That is very sweet! It may take me a while to start posting but once I get going it takes longer to shut me up - lol!

Newsflash!
My mom is going now too and she is making the drive with us AND taking some timeshare tours! She is going to do the same ones we do even though she only needs a couple tours worth of tickets! She's giving us the other tickets! What a great mom!!!!

So now my cost for tickets to parks and dinner theaters for 5 is $0! I should even have $80 disney dollars extra to buy her lunch at the parks - yeah!

I have booked 5 tours in 2 days. I know I am in over my head but what the heck, I will have info on 5 places to choose from when we go to buy in the Spring. Plus, they are feeding us! I have 3 boys for goodness sake - feeding these little monsters is no easy feat!!

Through the budget board I just learned about Connections123.com! How could I have missed that?? 10.50 for a meal at the Yaught Club sounds like a great deal! We will be signing up for sure!

Does anyone know if there are cheap warehouse type grocery stores anywhere around Disney? Sams Club maybe? I need to buy in quantity since we are feeding 9-11 people (for $25 each for the week by the way).

Okay cheapskates - lets keep these suggestions pouring in! Eventually we may convert some Poly diehards - lol!

 

[mooses41]

Heres a suggestion, don't ever buy a timehare from the company selling it. Resale is much cheaper.

 

[chris1gill]

mooses41 is absolutely right.... Don't EVER buy a timeshare from the company selling it!!! Resales can save you SO much money.... at least 50% from what I've seen on a lot of timeshares.... Take a look on EBAY for the particular timeshare you're looking at... there are also Resale companies on the Web.... let me know if you're interested, I'll find my links!!!

Now, if you are purchasing a timeshare in the Orlando area, you may very well want to take a look at the Disney Vacation Club. It works on a point system, so you can go anytime of year in any size unit.... studio, 1 bed, 2 bed, grand villa... It's the best decision DH & I have made in regards to our travel... We own at both OKW & BWV's & are really happy... with DVC, even if you buy resale, it's still going to cost nearly as much as if you purchased through Disney... Disney has the first right of refusal if a resale bid is too low.... that keeps the resale market cost very high.... But definitely check DVC out!!

There is a Price Costco somewhat close to Disney.... it's on the other side of Orlando, I think it took 30 minutes or more to get to... The stores closest to Disney are the SuperWalmart & Publix.... Both have reasonable pricing...

Well, hope this helps... & don't forget, stay strong & make sure you DON'T sign on the dotted line in regards to the timeshares you're viewing... they'll be much cheaper resale!

 

[CorinnaJ]

I'm cheap too! I think I learned a few new tricks! Thanks!

 

[kandj2]

Thank you for the timeshare tips! I definately will go with resale. It will be nice to tour the resorts and see all there is to see too. Plus the FREE tickets are a bonus!

I went on ebay just now and pulled up the completed auctions on some of the timeshare resorts I am touring. I found prices all the way from $655 (yes six hundred and fifty five dollars at westgate) to $20000 (Embassy) . I have printed these off and will take them with me to use as a tool. I am also taking my stopwatch and the children. If those little monkeys don't drive the salesman crazy to the point where he forgets the sale and kicks us out - nothing will! Maybe I will let them bring their little plastic gazoo's with them . I wonder how many rounds of "I've been working on the railroad" or "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" on a gazoo (x's 3) those people can take?

I loved staying at OKW on-site. We will check out the resales on those too. I saw some good deals on this site (I think).

Thanks for the info on the super walmart. That is where we will head after we check in. With the tolls and all I don't know if I would save enough driving the 30 min to costco to make it worth it. I just LOVE Super Walmart! Not as much fun as Disney but MUCH cheaper!

Only a little over 3 weeks left! WOO HOO!!!