Looking for saving tips for fall '17 trip.

[DWFamilyof6]

My family went on our first Disney trip a month ago. We stayed offsite in father inlaws timeshare. My kids and I got the "disney bug" to go back as soon as possible but hubby not so much. I've made a deal with him that if I could save for it without impacting our regular budget we could go back in Fall '17. I really want to stay onsite this time. I've priced Arts of Animation and I believe to do a 7 day trip with dining package we would be around $7000. I'm hoping there will be some sort of 'deal' next year to save off of that price. I'd love some advice or tips as to how you funded a trip with only saving money beforehand. **I'm a stay at home mom.*
Thanks so much!
And, Happy 4th!

 

[Marionnette]

My family went on our first Disney trip a month ago. We stayed offsite in father inlaws timeshare. My kids and I got the "disney bug" to go back as soon as possible but hubby not so much. I've made a deal with him that if I could save for it without impacting our regular budget we could go back in Fall '17. I really want to stay onsite this time. I've priced Arts of Animation and I believe to do a 7 day trip with dining package we would be around $7000. I'm hoping there will be some sort of 'deal' next year to save off of that price. I'd love some advice or tips as to how you funded a trip with only saving money beforehand. **I'm a stay at home mom.*
Thanks so much!
And, Happy 4th!

We never travel unless the trip is paid for ahead of time. But we have a budget line for travel, so the money is there before the planning starts. I don't know that I would be able to do it if my husband was not on board with the spending.

But to answer your question, I have to point out that to have $7K by next August (which is when you would need to pay off a September package), you need to set aside $538/month between now and then. That's a pretty high mountain to climb for anyone but it is especially tough for someone who has no job and doesn't want to impact their household budget.

There are a lot of little things that people will suggest - saving your change, asking family to give you and the kids Disney GCs for birthdays and holidays, CC churning for rewards points that can be used for travel, selling items you no longer use at a garage sale or Craigslist, buying Disney GCs at a discount, doing rewards programs and so on.

However, I think that without some kind of employment, you're going to be hard-pressed to scrape $7K together in just a little over a year. IMO, you should set your sights lower (no dining plan, shorter stay, offsite if necessary) and perhaps delay the trip as well.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

Thanks for the advice. I actually do have a very very partime job that I'll be putting about $250 - $300 a mo into the pot. And, we can afford to go on my husbands income, he just doesn't see the need to go every year. So I'm really just looking for a little ways everyone puts a little money aside every month without making a big impact to their budget. If we get really close to the goal I believe I can persuade him. I've seen the swagbucks, ebates, target red card, mentioned as I was reading through the Budget thread. Just wondering what everyone has had success with.

 

[loves to dive]

To start with I'd look into the moderate resorts instead of AoA, unless you need a suite it is way overpriced for a value resort. Second, I'd also think about not doing Dining plan. Unless you eat a lot of food it really isn't a huge savings and a lot of people find they pay less by paying out of pocket. If you decide to go that way, you can buy Disney gift cards in advance like others has done by going through Target with the red card and getting that discount or even Sam's Club if you belong to them. Personally, I use my cc to buy everything and pay it off every month, I get cash back and I use that to get pre-paid visa cards, you can use those a places other than Disney just in case you don't use the entire amount at Disney. I also rarely if ever book my rooms through Disney. I've found when Disney is offering a discount, usually third party places like Orbitz or travelocity will also be offering that discount as well as a discount of their own. I've booked with Orbitz with the Disney 20% discount and Orbitz 15% discount on top to get 35% off the room. I've even been lucky and gotten the Disney 25% discount and Orbitz was offering a 20% discount and got 45% off. You just have to watch the sites. The only disadvantage to that is you have pay up front and lately most of the resorts are charge a $25 cancellation fee for those. In the long run, even if I end up paying the $25 cancellation because I switch my days or find a better deal at another resort, I still end up saying money and I get Orbitz bucks, which I can then apply to my next trip. You can also get your tickets through discount sites like Undercover Tourist or Parksavers, often they offer something like a 7 day park hopper for the price of a 4 day. I usually go through Ebates for most of my on-line shopping, including Orbitz and Amazon and get cash back from them as well. I work so I have a certain amount of money automatically deducted from my check every month and direct deposited into a savings account. I can't miss what I don't have.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for the advice. I actually do have a very very partime job that I'll be putting about $250 - $300 a mo into the pot. And, we can afford to go on my husbands income, he just doesn't see the need to go every year. So I'm really just looking for a little ways everyone puts a little money aside every month without making a big impact to their budget. If we get really close to the goal I believe I can persuade him. I've seen the swagbucks, ebates, target red card, mentioned as I was reading through the Budget thread. Just wondering what everyone has had success with.

I didn't mean to imply that you cannot afford a trip on your husband's salary. It was you who said that you needed to do this without impacting the normal budget. You never mentioned that you have any kind of income at all.

But even with $250-$300 from your income going into the pot every month, you're still looking at a deficit of $250-$300 per month. You're not going to make that up with SB/ebates/Target REDCard. You might make a dent in it, but many of them are becoming increasingly difficult to earn much and should not be counted on to fund a trip - or even 50% of a trip.

Last year, I made over $4K from SB and Perk (mostly from Perk), but still had to pay taxes on that money. And that was thru doing Perk very aggressively at a time when it was much easier to earn anything from them.

I "churned" Target GCs thru eBay and back again and pretty much increased my rewards money by another $2500. However, the method that I used no longer works. There are still opportunities to churn GCs for a small profit, but they require more time and have more pitfalls.

eBates is a nice way to get cash back for your online purchases but it's just a rebate of money you spent upfront. It's not an earning opportunity.

You can apply for rewards CCs and use the points for travel, but again, it requires you to spend money first in order to get money (or points) back. Not everyone is keen on taking out a lot of CCs or keeping track of the rewards. But if you have an interest in it, I suggest reading blogs like millionmilesecrets and thepointsguy.

 

[Marlyn]

I would ditch the dining plan. Most people find they pay less out of pocket than with the dining plan.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

To start with I'd look into the moderate resorts instead of AoA, unless you need a suite it is way overpriced for a value resort. Second, I'd also think about not doing Dining plan. Unless you eat a lot of food it really isn't a huge savings and a lot of people find they pay less by paying out of pocket. If you decide to go that way, you can buy Disney gift cards in advance like others has done by going through Target with the red card and getting that discount or even Sam's Club if you belong to them. Personally, I use my cc to buy everything and pay it off every month, I get cash back and I use that to get pre-paid visa cards, you can use those a places other than Disney just in case you don't use the entire amount at Disney. I also rarely if ever book my rooms through Disney. I've found when Disney is offering a discount, usually third party places like Orbitz or travelocity will also be offering that discount as well as a discount of their own. I've booked with Orbitz with the Disney 20% discount and Orbitz 15% discount on top to get 35% off the room. I've even been lucky and gotten the Disney 25% discount and Orbitz was offering a 20% discount and got 45% off. You just have to watch the sites. The only disadvantage to that is you have pay up front and lately most of the resorts are charge a $25 cancellation fee for those. In the long run, even if I end up paying the $25 cancellation because I switch my days or find a better deal at another resort, I still end up saying money and I get Orbitz bucks, which I can then apply to my next trip. You can also get your tickets through discount sites like Undercover Tourist or Parksavers, often they offer something like a 7 day park hopper for the price of a 4 day. I usually go through Ebates for most of my on-line shopping, including Orbitz and Amazon and get cash back from them as well. I work so I have a certain amount of money automatically deducted from my check every month and direct deposited into a savings account. I can't miss what I don't have.

We need a suite, there are 6 of us. We spent $2000 on food this past trip but we did way too many Character dining, will not be doing that again. So, I might should rethink the dining plan. I'll check out the third party travel sites, I had no idea you could book disney resorts through them. Thanks for the help.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

I didn't mean to imply that you cannot afford a trip on your husband's salary. It was you who said that you needed to do this without impacting the normal budget. You never mentioned that you have any kind of income at all.

But even with $250-$300 from your income going into the pot every month, you're still looking at a deficit of $250-$300 per month. You're not going to make that up with SB/ebates/Target REDCard. You might make a dent in it, but many of them are becoming increasingly difficult to earn much and should not be counted on to fund a trip - or even 50% of a trip.

Last year, I made over $4K from SB and Perk (mostly from Perk), but still had to pay taxes on that money. And that was thru doing Perk very aggressively at a time when it was much easier to earn anything from them.

I "churned" Target GCs thru eBay and back again and pretty much increased my rewards money by another $2500. However, the method that I used no longer works. There are still opportunities to churn GCs for a small profit, but they require more time and have more pitfalls.

eBates is a nice way to get cash back for your online purchases but it's just a rebate of money you spent upfront. It's not an earning opportunity.

You can apply for rewards CCs and use the points for travel, but again, it requires you to spend money first in order to get money (or points) back. Not everyone is keen on taking out a lot of CCs or keeping track of the rewards. But if you have an interest in it, I suggest reading blogs like millionmilesecrets and thepointsguy.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Malibustyle23]

To start with I'd look into the moderate resorts instead of AoA, unless you need a suite it is way overpriced for a value resort.

I would go even further, if you have a family of four and suggest a real value (compared to the fake value AOA) and stay at an All Star.

Never mind I see a reply updating the need for space for 6. Scratch my idea.

 

[verleniahall]

I really try to use ebates to my advantage. If there is something that I can get site to store that I don't need right away - I will order it though ebates and pick i up later. Or when my parents want to book a hotel, I do it for them through my ebates. All holiday shopping is done through ebates.

But I have to agree with an PP - that it will be really hard to make up that deficit that you are needing to get to.

Maybe its worth a sit down again with your DH and discus why you think that a family trip each year is a good thing - and maybe show him a "tenative" budget with putting some away from each of his check

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Since you said you have a part-time job and plan on putting that money in the pot, then you should also look for ways to save money in your budget. Use coupons, take advantage of apps such as ibotta, Checkout 51, Walmart Savings catcher and the like. Also, use Shopkick, too. Find ways you can save money without making it noticeable. I do recommend not using the dining plan because you can save a ton of money right there without it.

 

[virge]

We need a suite, there are 6 of us. We spent $2000 on food this past trip but we did way too many Character dining, will not be doing that again. So, I might should rethink the dining plan.

My family has only been twice and every family is different, but we had the dining plan on our first trip but dropped it for our second. We were very glad we had it on the 1st trip since we did lots of table service/character meals (we assumed it would be our one & only trip). The 2nd trip we decided we didn't need that same experience and only did 2 table service meals. Our food costs even ended up being several hundred dollars less than what I budgeted on the 2nd trip.

 

[virge]

My family went on our first Disney trip a month ago. We stayed offsite in father inlaws timeshare. My kids and I got the "disney bug" to go back as soon as possible but hubby not so much. I've made a deal with him that if I could save for it without impacting our regular budget we could go back in Fall '17.

Another suggestion I have is to consider setting the return date goal further out, maybe Spring or Fall '18. Then if it looks like you are saving faster than expected, you can move the trip up. Personally, I'd rather have a nice surprise of getting to go sooner than than the stress of a challenging goal.

I don't know if you have a vacation savings account, but I use a variable CD through USAA for my vacation savings. The interest rate isn't spectacular but I opened it with a small amount and continue depositing money in the account until the CD maturity date. I can't take the money out without penalty so I'm not tempted to spend it Before our 2nd trip, we reached our budget goal early so we booked a trip before the CD was up. I used my Disney Visa (0% financing for 6 months on Disney packages) & paid the credit card bill a few months later when the CD was up.

 

[tinker&belle]

You could also plan two rooms at POP. That would be cheaper than AOA. Your biggest savings will be if your dates are flexible and you can do Free Dining.

 

[kymom99]

I would do 2 value rooms. You can get a value room for about $100 this fall, so I would guess next year would be the same or close. Going off what I priced for myself this fall, it would cost about $1600 for 2 rooms for a week. What kind of tickets were you looking at? I would dump the dining plan. How old are your kids? Will you be driving or flying? can you give us the breakdown of what you have budgeted?

As far as saving up, are there ways you can reduce some of your monthly bills without your husband feeling like he is being inconvenienced? Can you shave a little off your cell phone bill? Can you set your thermostat a little lower/higher? How about cutting down on eating out? If you do these things, be sure to put the money saved aside. I have sold some old gold before and got a few hundred dollars. If your kids buy lunch at school, maybe see if they would pack a few times a week. These are all things that can benefit anyone, but in your case, the money can go to a vacation rather than towards paying other bills. If your husband sees you working really hard to accomplish this, I bet he will relent and agree to the trip.

 

[NinaBella]

I started an auto-transfer from my checking to vacation savings account where $100 goes into savings every Monday. I also add other money into the account like employee bonus checks, etc.

I also cut back on eating out, movies, maid service, etc.

My Verizon bill was getting out of hand I added the family control option for $5 a month. We have 20GB and 5 phones so I allotted 4GB per phone. Its the 2 younger kids that go over. They had to get use to using less data or ensuring they were on WIFI whenever possibe. Their school has WIFI but blocks snapchat, instragram and a few other social sites. That saves on my bill because the kids can't go over their data without my permission.

We just got back from Niagara Falls and D.C. and I am under budget. Now saving for Ireland.

 

[wendow]

Another family of 6 here! We go annually and by far, your cheapest onsite option is two value rooms. For this fall, you can get a value room for $100 through Disney and even less through the third-party sites like Orbitz or Cheaptickets.

The dining plan is no savings unless you can get it for free but then you pay rack rate for the room so you really need to weigh those costs in terms of how much your family eats, are you willing to compromise some on meals such as older kids or light eaters ordering from the kid's menu some or sharing meals. We really like to snack our way through WDW so we share or do kid's meals a lot. "Free dining" isn't really free. It isn't necessarily the best discount for everyone.

There are ways to get discounted Disney GC's which can be used to pay for everything you would pay Disney directly for and can also be used if you go through a TA. The discounts are not huge but we all know that DIsney is expensive and every little bit saved helps.

I am also a SAHM. There is simply no way we could afford Disney without me making the effort to save everywhere I can. I shop sales, use coupons and we eat out very, very little. I cook at home 99% of our meals and many times we do 'budget' meals for a couple of weeks just to add more money to our Disney fund. I was raised by a single mom so I know how to cook inexpensively. We drive old, long ago paid off cars, shop thrift, don't have cable and we have pay-as-you-go Tracfones. You may already have trimmed your budget as much as you can or that may not be something you are interested in but I am just sharing how we afford an annual WDW trip. We also have an automatic bank transfer every month so that helps our WDW money never to get spent elsewhere.

It's difficult, imo, as a single income household to take a big vacation every year. I cannot imagine trying to save that amount of money without my dh on board. Maybe yours will come around.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

I would do 2 value rooms. You can get a value room for about $100 this fall, so I would guess next year would be the same or close. Going off what I priced for myself this fall, it would cost about $1600 for 2 rooms for a week. What kind of tickets were you looking at? I would dump the dining plan. How old are your kids? Will you be driving or flying? can you give us the breakdown of what you have budgeted?

As far as saving up, are there ways you can reduce some of your monthly bills without your husband feeling like he is being inconvenienced? Can you shave a little off your cell phone bill? Can you set your thermostat a little lower/higher? How about cutting down on eating out? If you do these things, be sure to put the money saved aside. I have sold some old gold before and got a few hundred dollars. If your kids buy lunch at school, maybe see if they would pack a few times a week. These are all things that can benefit anyone, but in your case, the money can go to a vacation rather than towards paying other bills. If your husband sees you working really hard to accomplish this, I bet he will relent and agree to the trip.

So many great ideas, Thanks!
Thats a good idea to share rooms but would they connect? I'm not sure I'd like to be in two completely separate rooms. Our kids will be 9, 7, 6 and 6 next fall. We will be driving from TN. I checked the Disney site for prices next fall and believe now I should check other sources.
Suite at AOA for 6 nights is $387 a night $2616
5 days of 1 park tickets brings it to $4712
Mickey's Halloween party is about $560 for this year but not sure next years prices.
Looking at a total of 5212+ taxes
That's with scratching the dining plan which seems to be the consensus from everyone.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

I started an auto-transfer from my checking to vacation savings account where $100 goes into savings every Monday. I also add other money into the account like employee bonus checks, etc.

I also cut back on eating out, movies, maid service, etc.

My Verizon bill was getting out of hand I added the family control option for $5 a month. We have 20GB and 5 phones so I allotted 4GB per phone. Its the 2 younger kids that go over. They had to get use to using less data or ensuring they were on WIFI whenever possibe. Their school has WIFI but blocks snapchat, instragram and a few other social sites. That saves on my bill because the kids can't go over their data without my permission.

We just got back from Niagara Falls and D.C. and I am under budget. Now saving for Ireland.

Thanks! I really need a vacation savings account. I'm loving so many great ideas. Making notes

 

[DWFamilyof6]

Another family of 6 here! We go annually and by far, your cheapest onsite option is two value rooms. For this fall, you can get a value room for $100 through Disney and even less through the third-party sites like Orbitz or Cheaptickets.

The dining plan is no savings unless you can get it for free but then you pay rack rate for the room so you really need to weigh those costs in terms of how much your family eats, are you willing to compromise some on meals such as older kids or light eaters ordering from the kid's menu some or sharing meals. We really like to snack our way through WDW so we share or do kid's meals a lot. "Free dining" isn't really free. It isn't necessarily the best discount for everyone.

There are ways to get discounted Disney GC's which can be used to pay for everything you would pay Disney directly for and can also be used if you go through a TA. The discounts are not huge but we all know that DIsney is expensive and every little bit saved helps.

I am also a SAHM. There is simply no way we could afford Disney without me making the effort to save everywhere I can. I shop sales, use coupons and we eat out very, very little. I cook at home 99% of our meals and many times we do 'budget' meals for a couple of weeks just to add more money to our Disney fund. I was raised by a single mom so I know how to cook inexpensively. We drive old, long ago paid off cars, shop thrift, don't have cable and we have pay-as-you-go Tracfones. You may already have trimmed your budget as much as you can or that may not be something you are interested in but I am just sharing how we afford an annual WDW trip. We also have an automatic bank transfer every month so that helps our WDW money never to get spent elsewhere.

It's difficult, imo, as a single income household to take a big vacation every year. I cannot imagine trying to save that amount of money without my dh on board. Maybe yours will come around.

You are awesome! Great advice. I'm sitting down this afternoon to create ways to save better. I'm very curious about the two value rooms idea. How did you do it? Do you feel like you were vacationing with half your family?