is anyone else like this? what are your thrifty hangups?

[Mrs. Ciz]

This has to be a joke. Really?

A few years ago I read a bunch of threads about people doing this at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe! Not my idea of lunch, but to each his own I guess.

 

[NotUrsula]

This has to be a joke. Really?

Oh, yes, really. It's common for people who obsess about thrift to occasionally slide over the line a bit into petty theft. If you are buying a sandwich anyway and just prefer to put your lettuce and tomato on a plate and eat it separately, then fine, but if you are not buying an item that normally calls for them, using the "fixings" as a side dish is a form of petty theft. One that Disney is aware of and generally turns a blind eye to, yes, but it ends up inflating food prices, so it isn't completely benign.

I'm fine with paying for things that will be eaten; where I have issues is waste. That's why the dining plan was generally a bad idea for us; we ate too much food because we could not bear to throw away food we had paid for. For people who fight an internal battle between denying themselves treats that they want, vs. overspending because they want to never have to think about what food costs, using a prepaid gift card is a nice middle option.

Our big bugbear has always been alcohol. We don't buy it except for home consumption because we can't bring ourselves to pay the restaurant markup on it.

 

[abmitch01]

I was just in Philly last weekend and in this one restaurant the mixed drinks were around $15. I just can't enjoy it when it costs that much, even if I'm not paying for it.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I was just in Philly last weekend and in this one restaurant the mixed drinks were around $15. I just can't enjoy it when it costs that much, even if I'm not paying for it.

I'm not a big drinker anyway, but I do enjoy a drink when I'm out every now and then. Usually I stick to Blue Moon beer or a glass of wine. I don't like paying $8.00+ for my favorite, a dirty vodka martini, when I can make it for a few cents at home.

 

[Corsetopia]

My husband and I have a 'cheap' side to us and it seems to start rearing it's ugly head as soon as we start to plan our WDW trip. We talk and plan about staying at a Deluxe and 'indulging' this time, throwing our cares out the window - blah blah....THEN we start to price things online and are always blown away by the amount of money we could save by staying at a Value vs. Deluxe.

This time we told ourselves that we'll save the Deluxe resorts for the future when the kids can appreciate it a bit more. That sounds about right, maybe?

One thing we both agree on is we love staying on property and will spend the extra in order to do so, but I hate that we can't just be carefree and tra~la~la while planning our vacation. We always come to the conclusion that we're only in the room so long (especially with kids wanting to see the parks bright and early).

 

[Ginny Favers]

I think I used to have a subscription to Netflix that was $8.99/month. Sometimes I would get a DVD in and not be able to watch it for weeks.

And yet, I have major trouble renting movies from my cable company for $5 a pop. I don't know why.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Sorry, I wouldn't stay at a moderate. How is that saving money? There are quiet sections at the values. You can stay far away from the pool areas. Stay away from the lobby/food court area, too.

I agree with this. We "upgraded" to POR one year and really missed POP. We especially missed it when we thought about how much more a night it was than POP. We usually request a room facing Hourglass Lake at POP and have found that location to be IDEAL for a quiet, relaxing vacation.

 

[hsmamato2]

No....i plan for the trip,and get every deal I can beforehand,and when I'm there, i'm done....i buy food when I'm hungry,and i plan ahead,knowing our basic average daily will be a certain amount. We usually eat mostly qs (only the good stuff) butI force my dh to NOT look at every price.... I know what the trip will cost, a few bucks either way for ice cream is minimal. In fact, I don't let dh quote prices at me.....lol we pay with a cc,then come home and pay the (expected) amount. I also feel that way about the plan,i look at it like I'm wasting less while spending about the same on things i actually want.

 

[abmitch01]

I feel ok with my decision to go for POR, it was $40 a night more and the way my friend described it made it sound great. Then I read a million reviews on Trip Advisor and got convinced, lol. But I still have time to change it.

I'd like this to be a trip where I don't worry in the back of my head about buying every little snack. But I'd probably need a personality transplant, lol. IDK how exactly I'm going to do it, but I'm going to follow the $80 a day as a guideline for how much we can spend on food. Either cash in envelopes, like someone suggested or just keeping a tally. However we do it, I know we'll come in under the cost of the dining plan and if I can do that, I should be happy because I was all ready to do the dining plan so the money was spent in my head. If any of that makes sense.

 

[abmitch01]

I think I used to have a subscription to Netflix that was $8.99/month. Sometimes I would get a DVD in and not be able to watch it for weeks.

And yet, I have major trouble renting movies from my cable company for $5 a pop. I don't know why.

I do the same thing. I finally got just the Netflix streaming

 

[ZoeBell]

I consider myself a pretty thrifty and well cheap person most times about certain things. I can talk myself out of most of the $1 items I have in my cart at the Dollar Store. But I love going on vacation. I justify that I save for it. And I love my iPhone and other electronic devices. No iPad yet, because I can't justify the cost.

I'm going to Disney in August in California and I'm pre buying my GC from Target for the 5% discount. Paying for it with my ebay sales money and money I've slowly been tucking aside. I'm also asking for Disney GC for my birthday as I did for Mother's Day. I want to have enough to cover our whole day(sadly we are only going for one day) and want to be able to not worry about spending to much. If I have to dip into cash while there I'll get cranky if it's to much. Hopefully I'll be telling my daughter to go buy another souvenir because I want to use up the GC.

 

[tikitorie]

I consider myself a pretty thrifty and well cheap person most times about certain things. I can talk myself out of most of the $1 items I have in my cart at the Dollar Store. But I love going on vacation. I justify that I save for it. And I love my iPhone and other electronic devices. No iPad yet, because I can't justify the cost.

I'm going to Disney in August in California and I'm pre buying my GC from Target for the 5% discount. Paying for it with my ebay sales money and money I've slowly been tucking aside. I'm also asking for Disney GC for my birthday as I did for Mother's Day. I want to have enough to cover our whole day(sadly we are only going for one day) and want to be able to not worry about spending to much. If I have to dip into cash while there I'll get cranky if it's to much. Hopefully I'll be telling my daughter to go buy another souvenir because I want to use up the GC.

I'm with you! We budget and plan all year round, when we go on vacation ( usually every other year) we let go a bit. Already saving for our next Disney vacation in Nov. 2015

 

[mrsbicewdw]

I am always talking myself out of purchases (but can spend money more easily on other people, like my kids). Vacations are the one time I try to not be cheap...within reason. For instance, I don't think I will spring for a non-Value resort any time soon. Most likely not until we are taking trips as a couple again. With kids, we would be out of the room most of the time and in my mind...why would I pay that much for a room I spend about 8 hours a day in? (just to sleep). Now after the kids are grown...another story. I can see us taking trips with only a couple days in the park and mostly just relaxing and doing things outside the parks.

Anyway...for the Dining plan...I love it personally for long trips. It allows me to not stress about "If I order this steak tonight, will I be on a tight budget my last two days? What if I get more snacks than planned?" etc, etc. I like to know that whatever cash I have can be spent on fun items and not something we HAVE to have, like food. If I run out of money for another pair of ears, okay. If I run out of money for hungry kids who want a snack...not great. It makes a difference for us to that we travel on strictly cash - no credit cards. So when we have "x" amount to spend, that really is it.

Anywho...I'm rambling. We are going to try to pay for most of our next trip on gift cards from swagbucks/etc, and it will be our first time at DLR. New experience in planning and budgeting since we will stay off-site, they don't have dining plan, etc.

 

[Gracie09]

This has to be a joke. Really?

My inlaws are like this. I refuse to travel with them. If a place offers breakfast mil will make pb&j to take with her (in addition to eating breakfast) so she doesn't have to buy lunch. She carries ziplock bags with her to fill with "lunch" stuff.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'm like a PP in that I find all of the deals before hand. Hotel, tickets, flights, etc. Once I'm there I'm done.

I do limit some things. My kids don't buy anything and everything they see. They probably get 2-3 souveniors a trip. One is always a light up toy for our first parade of the trip and the other is a balloon. We wait until the final two days for their real choice souvenior. That way they can see "everything" and choose what one big thing they want. I also buy a plush toy or two.

As for food, we don't share meals or drinks as a rule at meal time. I don't do the DDP. I let the kids get whatever snacks they want.

I charge to my room and it goes on the CC but this next trip the plan is to get Disney gift cards and pay it down each day. For me, charging it to the room keeps it out of mind for me. I don't know why but it's not like I'm shelling out the cash for each transaction.

I live on a budget all year round. When I go on vacation it's to set myself free.

 

[abmitch01]

I wish Disney didn't have to be such a bank breaker. I tried to talk DD (15 yo) into a cruise to Bermuda. leave out of Boston so no flight. It was like $600 a person. We've done it before so we don't need to pay for excursions, just cabs to get us places. Food is covered, buy a soda mug, and that's it. But she really wanted Disney and I love it there. Cruising can be a good value if you don't mind an inside cabin on an older ship.

we usually rent a house in the Adirondacks each year with my extended family but we're not this year so I'm putting that money towards Disney.

 

[Promomx2]

This has to be a joke. Really?

Nope, no joke. That day we had a big character breakfast snaks at the park. Dh got a burger and didn't use fixing bar and I really wanted a salad, just lettuce tomatoe and mayo. The next night we got a large pizza and dd and I made salads.

 

[okeydokey]

Nope, no joke. That day we had a big character breakfast snaks at the park. Dh got a burger and didn't use fixing bar and I really wanted a salad, just lettuce tomatoe and mayo. The next night we got a large pizza and dd and I made salads.

Deleted. Don't want to derail the thread.

 

[aclov]

This is a very small petty one - I have a ton of reuseable bags I keep in the car. My grocery store and Target give .05 for each bag so if I forget to take them in, I get so mad at myself!

 

[lauradis]

I was just in Philly last weekend and in this one restaurant the mixed drinks were around $15. I just can't enjoy it when it costs that much, even if I'm not paying for it.

I can top you on this lol. we just go back from vacation and the drinks at this awesome hotel in memphis was 50 bucks for 2 drinks. lol

I was joking with my husband about leaving 20 for the bartender and skipping out on the bill .

oh well you only live once, might as well have fun when you can.