Let's Talk About Saving for Disney!

[Angie789]

Not only do we not vacation on credit, DH & I decided that we didn't want to take any money out of our primary paychecks, either. A few years ago we really overhauled our budget so that we are putting back lots towards retirement and neither of us felt comfortable changing that. So, we decided to see if we could come up with vacation money entirely from sources other than our jobs.

17 months later.... we have enough saved for TWO trips to Disney!!!
We've sold things through consignment sales and a had a big garage sale, we've both picked up small projects that we were able to do on the side, we sold some old, broken gold jewelry (over $1K for that alone!) and I have started doing secret shopping with a vengance And, like others have said, we use the Target REDCard and the Southwest Visa for flights. We are taking our 1st trip as a family this year and I cannot wait - it's going to be so much more enjoyable knowing it's paid for and not hurting our long-term goals!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I love reading all the ideas on this thread and we also do many of the same things to save for trips.

 

[McDisney]

Out bank has a savings account that rounds up every debit transaction and puts it in the savings account automatically - this acts as my "coin jar". The interest rate on it isn't great but it makes saving automatic and easy.

 

[Stinkerbell1973]

I've seen that savings plan floating around, and a very smart Dis-er recently noted that it might be preferrable to flip the plan. So, you take out the $200 or so in January and are down to $10 in December (when holiday expenses can get a little painful). I thought that was a great idea!

In addition to all the other ideas, many of which we use, I keep my "coin jar" in the laundry room. First, no one in the family knows its there so no one is snagging quarters to pick up a pop after school or whatever. Second, I put any loose change and BILLS I find in the laundry into the jar. I've actually got a couple $20 bills in there that no one seemed to notice disappeared from their pants pocket!! I figure if they are not watching their money better than that, I can take it and put it in the family vacation fund.

ETA: I just counted the bills only from the change jar: $86!! Really. Money that my kids or husband just left in their pockets! Sheesh.

Doing it in reverse - brilliant!

A coin jar would never collect anything in our house. See, we have a "Coin Fairy" who meticulously picks up any random coins that may fall on the floor. Coin fairy even searches the dryer! I don't think Coin Fairy is tall enough to see into the washing machine yet as there's typically coins left there - but I can tell you, no where else in my house will you find a coin just laying around! And mysteriously.....they ALL end up in DD8's piggy bank....now THAT'S a generous coin fairy!!