We originally planned to go on vacation later this year, but my parents decided to go to Hawaii for their 40th anniversary which meant I lost my babysitter for the week. Since I had to take the time off anyway, my youngest DS is about to turn 3 in a couple months, and my oldest is about to start school in August, we decided January was a fine time to go 
However, it had to be a budget trip--we didn't want to spend more then $1,000 for the week. Since we already had our tickets and live close enough to drive, I knew this was doable.
We started doing anything and everything to earn extra money. We ended up with $365 from market research groups, $190 in prepaid Visa/MC from test drives (we converted these to Disney Dollars), $210 in reward dollars from our Disney Visa, $120 in gas gift cards (credit card/Mypoints rewards), $100 in cash back credit card rewards, $25 Outback Steakhouse gift cert and $35 Chili's gift card (test drives). The last bit came from small sales bonuses DH gets some months. They're never a certain thing so I don't build them into our regular budget.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks before the trip we discovered my DH has a ruptured tendon in his foot (he will need surgery) which meant we had to rent him an ECV. Luckily I got called for a $90 market research group that helped cover the extra expense.
Here's what we spent:
$209 one week at a 2-bedroom condo at Orbit One through Skyauction
$525 food*
$465 souvenirs**
$115 wheelchair and ECV rental (one day of trying the wheelchair convinced
me the ECV's are worth every penny!)
$125 gas (all but $5 was paid with our gas gift cards)
-124 we earned from going to a timeshare presentation (that sure wasn't fun,
but we were so firmly against it we got out early)
-----
1315 Total
*Our food budget included a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe, and lunch at Mama Melrose's, Kona Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Biergarten, and Flame Tree Barbeque. We had all our other breakfast's in the room. Most nights we were too full from lunch to want a real dinner, but we did go to Outback one night and Chili's another to use our gift cards. I didn't count the trip to Walmart for supplies when we got there since I spent less then I would have normally spent on groceries at home (and thus don't take it out of my vacation budget). Having the kitchen in the room really paid off for us. Including travel time our food budget for 8 days averaged out to $65/day for 3 people (my youngest shared meals or ate free at buffets, so he really doesn't count).
**There are 2 big splurges in here that really bumped up the total. One was the photopass CD for $99. We were getting so many good pictures of the kids that we decided to go for it on the second day of the trip. After that we approached every Disney photographer we saw! We ended up with 68 pictures, and some of them are truly exceptional. I feel like it's going to be worth every penny, and the great part is we can share them with family and friends. For anyone not familiar with the photopass CD, here's a quick rundown: When a Disney photographer takes a picture of you, they scan a card and your picture is tied to that card for later viewing/buying. You can buy individual photos (which is pricey), or you can get all your photopass photos transferred to a CD and then you can do whatever you want with them for $99. You can only get the CD done at Epcot or a gift shop in the Grand Floridian (we did it at GF--can't remember the name of the shop, but it was on the 2nd floor). One other thing--if you have a Disney Visa, be sure to get your free character photo when you go to Epcot. There was nobody waiting when we went, and it was cool to have the characters all to ourselves. When my 2-year old saw Mickey, his whole face lit up and he just ran over to give him a big hug. It was like a moment from a Disney commercial
The other splurge was a really cute Skagen Mickey watch I saw in the GF gift shop while waiting for my CD to be burned
. I was going to save the money we earned from the timeshare presentation for our next trip, but DH talked me into treating myself (since I had agreed to letting my MIL come with us at the last minute, I decided he was right that I deserved a treat!). The watch was $125. If you take those 2 things out, we spent about $240 for everything else, which I think is decent for a week's stay. We had an awesome outlet trip. My DH had splurged on a $42 shirt for himself last trip, and was hoping to find some other designs. The outlet had 2 other designs for $12.99 apiece. They also had an Incredibles car that we saw on our cruise but passed up as too expensive at $25. The outlet had them for $12.99 apiece. MIL got them, so they were a real bargain! In all we got stuff that would have been $192 in the parks for $81.
We really liked our condo at Orbit One (thanks, Disneysteve). The location was ultra-convenient, the layout was good and it had a huge whirlpool tub that I enjoyed every night. I would stay there again in a heartbeat, especially for the price we paid. If you deduct the $124 we were paid for the timeshare presentation from the $209 we paid, our cost for the week was only $85!!!
We did spend more then the $1000 originally planned, but most of the overage came from the ECV rental and my watch splurge (which was covered by the extra money we earned). I'm fine with what we spent. Aside from the money, we had such a wonderful trip. The weather was perfect (low to high 70's), the crowds were low, and my kids had a magical time. I don't feel like staying offsite detracted from our fun in any way. We left and went back to the parks a couple different nights, it was no big deal. I loved being able to put the kids to bed early and then relaxing the rest of the evening in the living room.
Sorry this got so long! I'll end with one of my favorite pictures:
However, it had to be a budget trip--we didn't want to spend more then $1,000 for the week. Since we already had our tickets and live close enough to drive, I knew this was doable. We started doing anything and everything to earn extra money. We ended up with $365 from market research groups, $190 in prepaid Visa/MC from test drives (we converted these to Disney Dollars), $210 in reward dollars from our Disney Visa, $120 in gas gift cards (credit card/Mypoints rewards), $100 in cash back credit card rewards, $25 Outback Steakhouse gift cert and $35 Chili's gift card (test drives). The last bit came from small sales bonuses DH gets some months. They're never a certain thing so I don't build them into our regular budget.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks before the trip we discovered my DH has a ruptured tendon in his foot (he will need surgery) which meant we had to rent him an ECV. Luckily I got called for a $90 market research group that helped cover the extra expense.
Here's what we spent:
$209 one week at a 2-bedroom condo at Orbit One through Skyauction
$525 food*
$465 souvenirs**
$115 wheelchair and ECV rental (one day of trying the wheelchair convinced
me the ECV's are worth every penny!)
$125 gas (all but $5 was paid with our gas gift cards)
-124 we earned from going to a timeshare presentation (that sure wasn't fun,
but we were so firmly against it we got out early)
-----
1315 Total
*Our food budget included a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe, and lunch at Mama Melrose's, Kona Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Biergarten, and Flame Tree Barbeque. We had all our other breakfast's in the room. Most nights we were too full from lunch to want a real dinner, but we did go to Outback one night and Chili's another to use our gift cards. I didn't count the trip to Walmart for supplies when we got there since I spent less then I would have normally spent on groceries at home (and thus don't take it out of my vacation budget). Having the kitchen in the room really paid off for us. Including travel time our food budget for 8 days averaged out to $65/day for 3 people (my youngest shared meals or ate free at buffets, so he really doesn't count).
**There are 2 big splurges in here that really bumped up the total. One was the photopass CD for $99. We were getting so many good pictures of the kids that we decided to go for it on the second day of the trip. After that we approached every Disney photographer we saw! We ended up with 68 pictures, and some of them are truly exceptional. I feel like it's going to be worth every penny, and the great part is we can share them with family and friends. For anyone not familiar with the photopass CD, here's a quick rundown: When a Disney photographer takes a picture of you, they scan a card and your picture is tied to that card for later viewing/buying. You can buy individual photos (which is pricey), or you can get all your photopass photos transferred to a CD and then you can do whatever you want with them for $99. You can only get the CD done at Epcot or a gift shop in the Grand Floridian (we did it at GF--can't remember the name of the shop, but it was on the 2nd floor). One other thing--if you have a Disney Visa, be sure to get your free character photo when you go to Epcot. There was nobody waiting when we went, and it was cool to have the characters all to ourselves. When my 2-year old saw Mickey, his whole face lit up and he just ran over to give him a big hug. It was like a moment from a Disney commercial
The other splurge was a really cute Skagen Mickey watch I saw in the GF gift shop while waiting for my CD to be burned
. I was going to save the money we earned from the timeshare presentation for our next trip, but DH talked me into treating myself (since I had agreed to letting my MIL come with us at the last minute, I decided he was right that I deserved a treat!). The watch was $125. If you take those 2 things out, we spent about $240 for everything else, which I think is decent for a week's stay. We had an awesome outlet trip. My DH had splurged on a $42 shirt for himself last trip, and was hoping to find some other designs. The outlet had 2 other designs for $12.99 apiece. They also had an Incredibles car that we saw on our cruise but passed up as too expensive at $25. The outlet had them for $12.99 apiece. MIL got them, so they were a real bargain! In all we got stuff that would have been $192 in the parks for $81. We really liked our condo at Orbit One (thanks, Disneysteve). The location was ultra-convenient, the layout was good and it had a huge whirlpool tub that I enjoyed every night. I would stay there again in a heartbeat, especially for the price we paid. If you deduct the $124 we were paid for the timeshare presentation from the $209 we paid, our cost for the week was only $85!!!
We did spend more then the $1000 originally planned, but most of the overage came from the ECV rental and my watch splurge (which was covered by the extra money we earned). I'm fine with what we spent. Aside from the money, we had such a wonderful trip. The weather was perfect (low to high 70's), the crowds were low, and my kids had a magical time. I don't feel like staying offsite detracted from our fun in any way. We left and went back to the parks a couple different nights, it was no big deal. I loved being able to put the kids to bed early and then relaxing the rest of the evening in the living room.
Sorry this got so long! I'll end with one of my favorite pictures:
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