One Year to Save 2013-2014 Edition

[mommyburns]

My school holidays are October 6 to 10 so unfortunately the dates are only so flexible

 

[Marionnette]

Popping in to make some updates:

• 3,000 Bonus RR miles were added to my account on 12/20/13. This was for spending $5K in 3 months.
• After paying DVC dues with Disney GCs, my current GC balance is $353.20
• $36 Kohl's small appliance rebate arrive today. It's on a Visa GC.
• 5,908 in Ultimate Rewards added since Oct. just from putting my normal purchases on it.
• Savings account presently has $140 in it. (Adding at a rate of $20/week.)
• Haven't cashed in the change jar yet but there are about $140 in just quarters in the jar!

How is everyone else doing?

 

[Marionnette]

Coming back to do some updating.

My Big Fat Check in the amount of $66.49 arrived from Ebates this morning. I got a rebate check from Staples for $3.50 and a $10 Visa GC from P&G last week. I used the $10 to pay for groceries and put $10 from my grocery budget into vacation savings.

My SWA CC anniversary is this month and the annual fee hit my account already. I'm still waiting for the bonus RR points to hit my account. My son's spending on the card added 1600 RR points in Jan. Another 1300+ Ultimate Rewards points were added to my Chase Sapphire account during Jan. and they credited on Feb 1. I've reduced my Disney Visa usage to almost nothing, which means that those points aren't adding up in any appreciable amount. Last month, I added 11¢ in Disney Rewards Dollars.

And now for the twist to my plans! My brother booked a Treehouse Villa at SSR for F&W next fall. He invited my husband and I, as well as our sister and her husband, to join him. I'm really excited to try the Treehouses and I won't have to use my own DVC points to pay for this trip. The drawback is that he reserved the unit for dates that are after our PAPs expire. I'll have to either use the 5-day hoppers that I just purchased on Orbitz yesterday. This adds a considerable OOP cost to my trip and I'll be raiding the Ultimate Rewards Points in order to pay for them (using the points as a statement credit). That's okay with me since my brother will be using his National Emerald Club rewards to rent a car big enough for the 5 of us, so I don't need to rent a car now.

How is everyone else doing? Anyone else have their plans get revised since they started their saving plan?

I'll continue to put $25/week away to pay for DVC dues for 2015. The dues for 2014 were paid last month.

 

[dpswift]

I cashed in my coin jar last week for just under $72, I bought a Disney gift card at Target yesterday as well. I also combined coupons with the $5 free giftcard deals and have $30 in Target cards waiting to be used towards a Disney giftcard.

 

[pigletto]

So we just went to Disney in December and had a wonderful trip. Dh graduated in December as well from a co-op program and has been on the job hunt since. He has a few irons in the fire and we are expecting an offer or two shortly. So, with that being said, I can start planning a trip for next winter. I can't pin down dates until he is working and knows when it would be ok to take vacation but I am hoping for sometime in December or next February.
So right now, I am just going to start saving and we will plan when we have more details.

I am starting by moving $30 into a vacation savings account, and I am going to watch this thread for ideas.

 

[krd315]

I'll join in - we have a Sept trip planned as a surprise! 3 adults and 2 disney adults. We already have enough in our vacation savings to pay for the trip but it would be so nice not to have to use it all

Staying at POR 5 nights, 2 day tickets with park hopper and doing MNSSHP
Free regular dining plan -booked as bounceback Aug 2013
Flying southwest - waiting for dates to be released
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what I have so far:
Landry's gift card $100 - free from my points (use for Yak & Yeti)
Steak & shake gift card $40 free from swagbucks(use for lunch near airport)
Disney gift card $50 - free from rewards program at work - spending fund
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My plan:
*keep earning points with swagbucks and my points to use for extra meals, target gift cards, etc.
*save any overtime throughout the year
*change jar - last year we had $300 in 6 months for our spending money.
*Taking my lunch 3-4 days a week = $25-$35 savings a week (this is the hardest one for me)
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[pigletto]

So building on my earlier post, although we don't know exactly what month we will go, or even where (not sure if I want to do Disney parks, Universal, a Disney cruise or a combination of 2 of those) it feels good now that I've decided to start saving and looking towards escaping winter for a bit next year.
I think to start the easiest place to take some vacation savings from will be the grocery budget. I haven't been shopping sales or paying much attention. I just go in and buy what we normally buy and whatever we are feeling like. I will set budget and then see what I can shave from it with sales etc.
I am really liking the idea of working to make this vacation from found money and extra savings ideas. I know at some point we could just pay for the trip, but if it comes from creative saving I will be much happier about it

So.. so far.. $40 to get us started.

Still need.. don't even know.. our average 10 day trips usually come in right around $5000. I will price out some scenarios this weekend and see what we are looking at. I know at this point I am hoping for a cheaper trip than we usually take.

 

[eyor44]

I always do a spreadsheet for each trip and break it down by day and show what I estimate for each day.
DD and I are going with our dance school in April 2014 to perform at DTD. We will be there for 8 days and are driving. We are also sharing a room with some others so they are pitching in with the room cost.

Budget
Gas - $150
Room - $1570 (my part)
Food - $725
Souviners - $300
Tickets - APs (paid)
Total - $2745

How I am paying for it.
Disney Rewards - $425
Gift card - $25
change jar - $100
Yard Sale - $200 (done)
Refund - $50
Job Award - $400
Feb, Mar & Apr comm - $1985
Total - $3185

Any extra we don't spend will be put towards our November 2014 trip.
I know the food budget doesn't sound like a lot but we carry snacks and water and DD and I share a lot of meals. We will have one Table Service per day and here we also share when we can, plus I have the TIW card.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

Here is my idea its for Disney land Nov 2014 hope this can work here too.

Hotel 411-617 (4-6night stay at desert inn)
Food and souvenirs -600 (some of the rain forest cafe will be paid from the club i joined+ swag bucks for the rest)( ihops from bing rewards)
travel- bus 167 +50 for cab rides
pins 100
Tickets are about 750-885 depending how long we stay and where we buy them
tour 160- will use Paypal to pay for this on my Disney visa debit card to get 20% off

I am hoping that i can use my swag bucks for Paypal and target gc for Disney gc for alot of this. I am hoping where ever I buy tickets i can get some amount of cash back or a good deal on them.
Saving about 20 a month from normal check, saving change and not going out to eat. Big bulk will be paid off from big yearly check and a few smaller checks that i am going to save when i get them.

I do other places for points for gc's too and hope they will pay for more of the before the trip costs.

 

[eyor44]

Here is my idea its for Disney land Nov 2014 hope this can work here too.

Hotel 411-617 (4-6night stay at desert inn)
Food and souvenirs -600 (some of the rain forest cafe will be paid from the club i joined+ swag bucks for the rest)( ihops from bing rewards)
travel- bus 167 +50 for cab rides
pins 100
Tickets are about 750-885 depending how long we stay and where we buy them
tour 160- will use Paypal to pay for this on my Disney visa debit card to get 20% off

I am hoping that i can use my swag bucks for Paypal and target gc for Disney gc for alot of this. I am hoping where ever I buy tickets i can get some amount of cash back or a good deal on them.
Saving about 20 a month from normal check, saving change and not going out to eat. Big bulk will be paid off from big yearly check and a few smaller checks that i am going to save when i get them.

I do other places for points for gc's too and hope they will pay for more of the before the trip costs.

Have you ever used a Target GC to purchase a Disney GC before? I have done this at Walgreens with a Walgreens GC but never tried it anywheres else before.

Are you a member of My Points? If you have time for surveys it's a good place to get points for gift cards.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm back with a monthly update:
Rapid Rewards additions - 4044 RR add for SWA Visa spending in February and anniversary points, 250 RR added through e-rewards redemption and 1007 added from SWA Visa in March.

Disney Visa - 39¢

Chase Sapphire - 3,334 Ultimate Rewards points added to the Chase Sapphire account in February.

Rebates - $145.80 from Ebates, $10 for P&G (in the form of a Visa GC), $39.99 dog food rebate and (2) $3.50 rebates from Staples.

I still have not counted the change in my jar.

My MyPoints points continue to add up but I don't know what I will spend them on yet. I still have $75 in GCs for Y&Y since for some reason my Landry's account had 2 $25 birthday bonuses on it when I used it last week. I don't think I need more Landry's GCs but I may treat the whole family to dinner, which would cost me a lot more than the $75 I have, so...

I recently redeemed the last of the points in my Sony Rewards Visa account. I cashed in for a $25 Macy's GC which I will add to the $77+ exchange certificate I got for returning some Christmas gifts. Maybe I can use the two to purchase some summer clothing.
3/31/2014 - Wow! That was fast! My Macy's GC was in my mailbox this afternoon! Looks like I have to plan a shopping trip!

 

[dpswift]

I have only saved a small amount this month we had DDs 21st birthday and 2 other kid have birthdays in April.

Added a few dollars to my change can. I am still waiting for my dog food rebate. I think that will be about $37. The dog food was on sale when I bought it.

We are booked on the April 6 2015 4 night Dream cruise. On onboard booking discount. It was moved from a date before the blackouts began so we are grandfathered in. I would really like to add a few park days before, however it is Easter weekend so it will be super expensive.

 

[Marionnette]

Updating with my recent earnings:

• Cashed out at Checkout51 for $25.26
• Cashed out at SavingStar for $20 and left $11+ in the account as "seed money"
• Redeemed MyPoints for a $50 Landry's GC
• Received $5.70 EasyRebate check plus $20 ink recycling reward

Credit Card Points Added:

• Disney Visa - 46¢
• Chase Sapphire - 438 Ultimate Rewards Points
• SWA Visa - statement has not been generated yet but looks like it will be about 1,000 pts.
• Citibank MasterCard - Got an offer for 5X ThankYou Points on groceries, gas, drugstores and "commuter expenses" through 6/30/2014. Signed up and began using the card again for only those charges. Already have 450 pts. acrued for April statement with more pending for May. Points can be used for statement credits on the same expenses or I can use 2500 pts. to get a $25 GC from a number of merchants.
• Choice Privileges Visa - Signed up for, and was approved for it. Will get 8K pts. with first use, 24K bonus pts. when we use it next month to pay for our hotel room for son's college graduation, 15 pts/$1 spent on that hotel room and 2 pts./$1 for any other charges placed on the card. 16K pts. can be redeemed for a $50 Target GC (which can then be used to buy a Disney GC), or 6K pts. can be redeemed for 1,800 SWA RR pts. Or I can get a free night at one of their hotels before or after my Disney stay for 8K pts. or less.
• American Express - took advantage of the Lowes $10-off $50 deal and purchased 2 $25 Disney GCs. The credit has already appeared on my statement. Also got a deal for $5-off $25 at PetSmart and used it to get dog food, which I would have purchased anyway.

So, how is everyone else doing? Are you having any luck meeting your goals?