One Year to Save!!

No, I haven't booked anything yet. I still can't be absolutely positive that we will be going...it depends on what happens with my husband's PhD this summer.

At any rate, I am going to try and rent DVC points for part of the stay...because I may have to book more last minute though...I don't know if that is going to be possible. Stuff will likely fill up quickly.

I just looked into the free dining offer since it covers our proposed dates but it was actually cheaper the way I had it with a part DVC reservation and a couple of nights off site. Plus we'd be at a Deluxe resort as opposed to a value one. The food would be more abundant though.
 
Oops...forgot to post and update yesterday!
Yesterday:
Added $1.01 to my fund since yesterday because I...

earned $1.01 from quickrewards...


So the new totals are:

$1.95 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$52.96 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$66.22 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$7.47 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$86.35 in the change jar
$640.00 in the account
$100.00 Disney gift card
$75.00 visa gift card (ordered from isay, not yet received)
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $1031.26


Monthly Goal: $1200
Need to Earn: $168.74
 
Added $8.16 to my fund since yesterday because I...

earned $0.01 from quickrewards...

earned $7.40 in credit card rewards...

added $0.75 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$1.95 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$52.97 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$73.62 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$7.47 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$87.10 in the change jar
$640.00 in the account
$100.00 Disney gift card
$75.00 visa gift card (ordered from isay, not yet received)
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $1039.42


Monthly Goal: $1200
Need to Earn: $160.58
 
Added $9.24 since Saturday because I...

earned $1.13 from quickrewards...

earned $7.86 in credit card rewards...

added $0.25 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$1.95 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$54.10 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$81.48 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$7.47 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$87.35 in the change jar
$640.00 in the account
$100.00 Disney gift card
$75.00 visa gift card (ordered from isay, not yet received)
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $1048.66


Monthly Goal: $1200
Need to Earn: $151.34
 

Whoops! Insane week last week and I didn't manage to get on here to update at all. Current totals are:


$3.05 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$54.74 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$93.44 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$7.78 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$93.90 in the change jar
$640.00 in the account
$100.00 Disney gift card
$75.00 visa gift card (ordered from isay, not yet received)
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $1069.22


Monthly Goal: $1200
Need to Earn: $130.78

Surveys have been practically non existent lately...I'm not going to make my goal this month without a miracle. :rotfl2:
 
What online survey sites to do you use, other than quickrewards?
 
/
I have good news and bad news. The good news is...we booked our Mediterranean cruise (NCL) on Wednesday afternoon. The bad news is...by the time we added up all the extra bits we needed, we were about $3000 short. :faint: (Who knew the extra bits were so expensive!!) So, I had to rob my Disney fund to help pay for it. :sad:

However...I DID book our Disney trip as well!! :cheer2::cheer2:

We will be in Disney December 20th to the 28th and will be staying at CBR and taking advantage of the free dining offer. I put down my $200 deposit and need to save what I can with found money between now and then. Once we are back from the cruise and every dime is accounted for...I can begin using ALL vacation money towards our Disney trip.

Because my previous totals are now all messed up...I've decided to begin again from this point. I won't be able to set aside any cash...as we still need to pay for our excursions for the cruise and all available funds will be diverted there. There's also a chance that we will need to use my credit card rewards dollars to offset the remaining cruise costs, but I will leave them in the totals for now and subtract them if I need to later.

So, with a fresh start...my new totals are...

$3.60 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$5.50 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$98.79 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$48.60 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$93.90 in the change jar
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $401.70

I'm not going to make a savings goal at this point...just keep trying to boost my totals. ;)
 
I DID have to use my rewards dollars already to help raise the final funds for our cruise. :sad:

However, I have convinced the kids to give up gifts for Christmas this year (except from Santa, of course) so we still should be able to afford the trip. They are eager to spend Christmas in Florida and are willing to sacrifice some goods to make that happen. :woohoo:

So, with a fresh start (AGAIN!!) ...my new totals are...

$5.55 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$5.81 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$21.66 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.63 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.45 in the change jar
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $284.41

Whew! :faint: That's a low number!!
 
Getting behind with the recording, but for June 2nd, I was at...

Totals are...

$5.75 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$8.84 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$51.06 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.83 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.45 in the change jar
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $317.24

I would love to get to $400 by the end of the month but I'm not sure if I can do it with so much money being diverted to the cruise. I'll aim for it though and see where we end up!
 
Added $0.70 since Monday because I...

earned $0.65 from quickrewards...

earned $0.05 from isay...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

added $0 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$5.80 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$9.49 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$51.06 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.83 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.45 in the change jar
$0 in the account
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $317.94


Monthly Goal: $400
Need to Earn: $82.06
 
Added $8.12 since Wednesday because I...

earned $1.60 from isay...

earned $2.41 from quickrewards...

earned $4.11 in credit card rewards...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

added $0 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$7.40 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$11.90 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$55.17 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.83 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.45 in the change jar
$0 in the account
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $326.06


Monthly Goal: $400
Need to Earn: $73.94

Whew! I was waaaaay overdue on survey taking. I powered through several of them on both sites between yesterday and today and managed to make a little bit of money for Disney. I'll try not to get behind again, because that was excruciating.

Even with a very small trip to the grocery store today, I earned $1.30 in PC Plus points just for buying the things I needed (bacon and lettuce). I :lovestruc this new program!!
 
Added $4.34 since yesterday because I...

earned $1.45 from isay...

earned $2.45 from quickrewards...

earned $0.44 in credit card rewards...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

added $0 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$8.85 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$14.35 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$55.61 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.83 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.45 in the change jar
$0 in the account
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $330.40


Monthly Goal: $400
Need to Earn: $69.60
 
Added $0.66 since yesterday because I...

earned $0 from isay...

earned $0.06 from quickrewards...

earned $0.30 in credit card rewards...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

added $0.30 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$8.85 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$14.41 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$55.91 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$3.83 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.75 in the change jar
$0 in the account
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $331.06


Monthly Goal: $400
Need to Earn: $68.94
 
Does anyone know if Canadians can earn Disney Gift Cards through these sites? We are going to Disney in December!
 
Does anyone know if Canadians can earn Disney Gift Cards through these sites? We are going to Disney in December!

YEP!! I'm a Canadian and I'm ALSO going in December!! :thumbsup2

Isay pays me in CAD but with quickrewards, I earn USD. So when I cash in for gift cards...they are always Disney gift cards!! :woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

So you can get Disney gift cards through quickrewards for sure. I think there are other sites also, but I only do these two, so I can't comment on that.
 
I just have to say I love this thread!!! We were originally planning to go to Disney this October but a lot has happened in the past few months so we have postponed for another year to make it in October 2015.

This thread inspired me to get back to using Swagbucks and Savingstar because I forgot all about them but still had $30 in my Swagbucks account! So I guess I will be trying to post updates sometimes as well. The inspiration is needed as we currently need to save $12,000 for our trip (2 adults, 6 kids) and right now are no where near where I wanted to be at this point. Please keep inspiring me and others like myself!!!!

Courtney
 
Added $1.57 since yesterday because I...

earned $0 from isay...

earned $0.81 from quickrewards...

earned $0 in credit card rewards...

earned $0.76 in credit card rewards...

added $0 to the Disney jar...

So the new totals are:

$8.85 in rewards dollars for a survey site (which I will use to buy visa cards)
$15.22 in quickrewards (which I will use to buy Disney gift cards)
$55.91 in credit card rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$4.59 in cc rewards (which I will use for groceries, freeing up the cash)
$96.75 in the change jar
$0 in the account
$150.00 Disney gift card
$1.31 American cash

...for a GRAND TOTAL of $332.63


Monthly Goal: $400
Need to Earn: $67.37

Whew!! Crawling along in tiny increments...but after August 1st, I should really be kicking it into high gear! :thumbsup2
 
I just have to say I love this thread!!! We were originally planning to go to Disney this October but a lot has happened in the past few months so we have postponed for another year to make it in October 2015.

This thread inspired me to get back to using Swagbucks and Savingstar because I forgot all about them but still had $30 in my Swagbucks account! So I guess I will be trying to post updates sometimes as well. The inspiration is needed as we currently need to save $12,000 for our trip (2 adults, 6 kids) and right now are no where near where I wanted to be at this point. Please keep inspiring me and others like myself!!!!

Courtney

Welcome to the thread, Courtney!

No fear! I'm not going anywhere!!

I mainly started this thread to keep myself accountable and it's been working really, really well so far. Posting on a daily basis keeps me focused on the big picture. I love going back and seeing just how far I have come this year.

I'm not going to lie...having to rob my Disney fund to pay for the cruise was maddening, as I was so proud of myself for surpassing $1000 with just found money in four months. But...I did it once, and I can do it again!

Good luck with your saving/earning!!
 
I'm really indecisive right now so I thought I'd post.

On May 20th, I booked the free dining deal for 7 nights (Dec 21st-28th) at CBR for $3229.22.

We plan to drive down and do one day at each Disney park, then one day at Universal and one at IOA.

I'm getting close to the 180 window so I was looking at making a dining plan for those TS credits.

Trouble is...spending two days off campus really screws things up!! :headache:

I went back and investigated staying only 5 nights at CBR, checking out on the 26th and staying off site for three nights. That way, there are no dining credits to worry about at Universal/IOA. We also get to extend the vacation by a night...leaving on the 29th, not the 28th.

I've found it's actually cheaper by $200 to split the stay in this way and that sure is hard to argue with. I'm also not crazy about the fact that Disney is a half hour drive from Universal. An hour of driving round trip two days in a row is not a big deal, but not my favourite thing.

My hesitation stems from the fact that to get the good rate at the offsite hotel, I have to book it non-refundable.

I'm fairly certain we are able to go at Christmas...but it's still a wee bit too soon to commit 100%.

So, my options are:

1. Take the gamble, shorten the Disney stay and book the new hotel to lock in the rate and room availability.

2. Leave things as is (either completely or just until we are more sure of the trip).

3. Shorten the Disney portion but wait to book the off site hotel stay until we know for sure we are going.

Do I have to cancel the existing reservation and then rebook or can they just shorten my stay? I don't want the annoyance of having to have the deposit refunded just so it can be paid again.

Anyone got any advice?
 

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