Need money saving tips

[17shelbey]

Need some good information to save money on a Disney World trip for 3 adults and 2 children. Any advice is great.

 

[RedsDrew]

It's harder to do nowadays with online banking and online bank statements, but when you balance your checkbook, write in every purchase for more than the actual amount. Either round up to the nearest dollar, round up to the nearest $5.00 increment (turn $21.99 into $25.00 for example), or add $1.00 or $5.00 to the actual amount of your purchase. Then, at the and of the month, re-reconcile your bank account (this time accurately) and the difference between what you actually spent and what you said you spent is used to make a payment to Disney or is placed into a savings account.

Another thing you can do is everytime someone in your family mentions Disney, references a Disney trip, speaks of a Disney character or movie, put money in a jar (kind of like a potty mouth jar - except it's a Disney mouth jar)...

Hope these help!

 

[princessesintraining]

We started a Disney jar for our girls after our last trip. Whenever we have loose change we put it in there. We also put money in there from items we no longer use, but were able to sell through local facebook garage sale pages, craigslist, or ebay. If I have a rebate for an item I bought, I put that money in the jar as well. I'm amazed how much they have saved since last march, as I had to setup a seperate savings account for that money, so we wouldn't use it for things unless seriously needed.

 

[sayhello]

Hi, 17shelbey, welcome to the DISBoards!

You've posted this thread on the Adventures by Disney Forum, where we discuss ABD trips.

While folks here will be happy to answer your questions, I think you'll get a lot more answers on the Budget Board, whose description is

Learn the 'in and outs' of smart earning, saving, and spending your money. Our motto: 'Any dollar saved or earned is another dollar for Disney!'

So I'm going to move your post there!

Sayhello

 

[midwestdee]

Brown bagging lunch is pretty painless. First figure out what you spend on a typical week - generally you can save at least half by taking your lunch. Check out what discounts (car rental, hotels) you may get through an employer or union. Look at your weekly grocery budget and find one or two places you can trim (I'm a cola addict so if I need to save $ in a hurry - I substitute pitchers of ice tea). Do you send your husband's shirts out to be pressed? Right there is $25 - 35 a month you can save by one of you (Ha!) ironing them at home. I always have a mini cooler of drinks in the mini van (and snacks for road trips). If you only buy food at a fast food place - you save quite a bit - figure out the savings and tuck it in jar. Look for coupons you might have ignored before - take that $3 off your pizza and tuck that in the Disney jar too. Get the kids on board by printing out your own Disney dollars - make the saving and potential spending real for them. Make sure your Disney money (like from taking your change in to the bank) get put in "the jar" quickly. Make a no spend on frills policy - you really don't need that 15th sweater or 8th pair of heels (painful but true).

 

[crisi]

Are you looking for how to save money towards your trip (change jar, couponing), or how to save money ON your trip (stay offsite, eat offsite).

 

[pigletto]

Another thing you can do is everytime someone in your family mentions Disney, references a Disney trip, speaks of a Disney character or movie, put money in a jar (kind of like a potty mouth jar - except it's a Disney mouth jar)...

Wonderful idea. However, we'd have to sell our house with the amount I talk about Disney

 

[Shannon30]

We save all of ou spare change. I also belong to quickewards where you can earn gift cards for Disney

 

[vbmom40]

If i use a coupon at the store I keep track and put that much money into my vacation fund jar.

 

[clintswifeymomof4]

What I recently did was set up an automatic withdrawal to go into my ING account (Capital One 360 it's called now) on every payday. We only get paid once a month (both of us work in the school system) but times 12 months is $900! I usually blow that much on stupid stuff like coffee or an extra product or snack food at the store (it adds up!). At least now it's going towards a purpose. Think "Christmas Club" for Disney!

 

[skw444]

What I recently did was set up an automatic withdrawal to go into my ING account (Capital One 360 it's called now) on every payday. We only get paid once a month (both of us work in the school system) but times 12 months is $900! I usually blow that much on stupid stuff like coffee or an extra product or snack food at the store (it adds up!). At least now it's going towards a purpose. Think "Christmas Club" for Disney!

I do this too. Every payday, $100 is automatically transferred out. I have also been doing the 52 week savings plan. The first week you put in $1, the second week $2 all the way to week 52 when you put in $52. By the end of the year, you've saved $1378.

 

[clintswifeymomof4]

I do this too. Every payday, $100 is automatically transferred out. I have also been doing the 52 week savings plan. The first week you put in $1, the second week $2 all the way to week 52 when you put in $52. By the end of the year, you've saved $1378.

Genius!!! What week is it... I wanna do this too! I'm going to play catch up!

 

[Marionnette]

I do this too. Every payday, $100 is automatically transferred out. I have also been doing the 52 week savings plan. The first week you put in $1, the second week $2 all the way to week 52 when you put in $52. By the end of the year, you've saved $1378.

I saw this posted last month and I still think this idea is crazy.

How many people are going to be able to put $49 away on week, followed by $50 the next week, followed by $51 the next week and the cap it off with another $52? That's $252 in that last month of saving! And the month prior to that requires you to put aside $186. Almost 1/3 of your savings is done during the last 8 weeks of the year. If you can manage to save at that rate in the last couple of months, you could do it now and have a lot more money set aside.

 

[MickeyManiac]

I saw this posted last month and I still think this idea is crazy.

How many people are going to be able to put $49 away on week, followed by $50 the next week, followed by $51 the next week and the cap it off with another $52? That's $252 in that last month of saving! And the month prior to that requires you to put aside $186. Almost 1/3 of your savings is done during the last 8 weeks of the year. If you can manage to save at that rate in the last couple of months, you could do it now and have a lot more money set aside.

I'm doing this savings 'game' but I'm going backwards. I started with $52 because I have it now. In December when I'm Christmas broke I'll only have to save $10. This is just a fun challenge to save a little extra over and above my usual savings.

 

[goodmorningbelle]

I saw this posted last month and I still think this idea is crazy.

How many people are going to be able to put $49 away on week, followed by $50 the next week, followed by $51 the next week and the cap it off with another $52? That's $252 in that last month of saving! And the month prior to that requires you to put aside $186. Almost 1/3 of your savings is done during the last 8 weeks of the year. If you can manage to save at that rate in the last couple of months, you could do it now and have a lot more money set aside.

I started to do this, but I wrote the numbers 1-52 on little pieces of paper. Every Friday, I mix up the little papers, draw one, and put that amount into savings. This way I don't have a huge lump sum to put in T the end of the year--the savings are more evenly distributed.

 

[shortbun]

Buy a 3 or 6 month CD at the highest interest rate you can get. Free money! Not a huge increase but hey-it's free!

 

[hsmamato2]

I keep a separate listing in my budget notebook,(balanced weekly when the paycheck comes in) titled 'vacation'.... after I have all my bills accounted for,and savings set aside, I calculate how much is left in my weeks budget,aside from daily items (like groceries,etc) and write in in the column....and keep a running tally. this may not work for everyone, but it works for me. And then,when I am planning/paying a trip,I 'deduct' it from that same line,so any vacations we take are not taken using our 'regular' cash flow....
(reality is we use one cc throughout the month,and P.I.F. by date due,so I keep track on paper weekly,it's kind of 'virtual' in that I keep different columns labeled for different categories)
This enables me to drop in whatever 'surplus' I may have before the week begins,and knowing I can't spend it elsewhere keeps it straight.

 

[RedsDrew]

Also, some basic budgeting tips that I frequently come across in my line of business (I have 12 years experience managing folks in the Loss Mitigation/Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention department at a couple financial institutions) are calling your cable company to renegotiate your pricing which would help lower your monthly bill and as long as you are not accident prone, increasing your deductible on automobile and homeowner's insurance policies which sometimes can dramatically lower your payment. Another budget friendly strategy is to Transfer balances on higher interest rate cards to lower interest rate cards if you carry credit card balances and refinancing a vehicle with equity to include any unsecured debt in the new loan. Doing this secures the debt with your vehicle which drops interest from double digits in most cases to single digits, reducing the amount in payments you are paying out to your creditors each month while reducing the amount of interest you are being charged. Credit Unions - if not some banks - often allow you to go up to 125% of a vehicle's value in a refinance to pay off other debt obligations.

 

[skw444]

Genius!!! What week is it... I wanna do this too! I'm going to play catch up!

We are at week 6. If you want to catch up, you'll need to put $15 in plus this weeks $6.

 

[vinmar4]

We are at week 6. If you want to catch up, you'll need to put $15 in plus this weeks $6.

Im starting too!
I'm sooo bad with saving money, I love to spend so I will join you guys!
maybe this is a stupid question, but where do you keep you keep this money?
I need to find a piggy bank with no opening at the bottom! LOL
THe 6 dollars from this week are due this coming weekend or were due this past weekend?

thanks